O-Yatsu Jikan: Dorayaki

Two days of laundry...

Sometimes I think Japanese housing is so arranged to keep women permanently chained to the home...

Of course, the weather is also partly to blame--  high humidity that encourages mold and a rainy season followed by a long, humid summer that is the perfect environment for Dani (bedbugs-- those bites itch).  So you don't just, you know, put off-season things in the closet (unless you particularly *want* all your off-season blankets and clothes to mold and be filled with dani).  The rainy season is officially over(梅雨があがった)...meaning we've had more than two sunny days in a row and I could wash and dry outside all the winter blankies (except the feather blankies--those just got well aired and put into plastic).  A two day job...

O-Yatsu Jikan-- Dorayaki!  (Snack Time-- Dorayaki... no translation for that;-)

Whew.  Chotto hot--to, ne.

Nearly three o'clock, so I get to sit down with a snack ("san ji o-yatsu" means, literally, "3 o'clock snack"... and pretty much everybody eats an afternoon snack at that time if they have one:-)

These are erasers;-))

A while back I posted about some cute erasers that came in a set-- the "Set of Japanese Snacks".   One of them (left) I pictured but left unexplained-- I thought I might as well wait 'til I was actually eating one myself before I tried to explain about it.

That is a Dorayaki-- a vaguely pancake-like snack that nearly everyone loves.

Totemo daisuki, Doraemon!

It's the snack that gave the popular anime character "Doraemon" his name-- he *loves* Dorayaki (as you can see in the picture at right, although he's actually blue and white), whence his name. 





A dorayaki is basically two pancake-like rounds (so.mewhat sweeter than a regular pancake) with sweet azuki-beanpaste in between like a sandwich.

Oishii, yo!  They taste particularly good with green tea (hot or iced, but usually hot)-- and somewhat odd, I think, with coffee or black tea.  I think it has to do with the astringency of green tea (it's "shibui", 渋い)  that matches the particular sweetness of azuki beans.

I do! I like them, Sam-I-Am!

Try one if you get the chance!

Itadakima--su!