I decided to start a personal project about making traditional Japanese sweets, what I ended up discovering was medicine for the mind.
I’m now a year and a bit into a experimentation of creating and posting about traditional Japanese wagashi sweets.
What started as a casual posting of my kitchen creations I thought would be interesting to people due to the wheat-free mostly vegan nature of wagashi sweets was an unexpected lesson on how to take a break.
In Japan taking a short breather at work, whether in the form of a quick coffee, tea, or smoke is referred to…
In Japan on the first few days of the year, a ceremonial herb steeped saké called 御屠蘇 otōsō (also referred to as tōsō), a traditional medicinal drink, is served to the family and friends who have gathered on the morning of the new year to kickstart the year off in the right direction.
For an auspicious festive drink,the characters used to write the word “tōsō” are a bit confusing, as the characters “屠る” hofuru/slay and “蘇る” yomigaeru/revive are used in tandem. …
Make this variation of a traditional Japanese drink, rich in vitamins and amino acids to maximize its health benefits.
A quick search on the internet for 甘酒 amazaké, a fermented sweet, creamy rice drink will bring up a myriad of health claims from brighter skin (from the kojic acid) to immune boosting properties (from the ferulic acids).
Unless you have a centrifuge to condense these compounds or topically applying it your face, a single cup of amazaké unfortunately is not a cure-all nor a magical beautifying elixir, but drinking it routinely as part of your regular diet can deliver a…
Sen Sakamoto
Japanese Canadian Nisei researching traditional recipes for the the curious and inquisitive.
