It's too hot for chocolate candy. Even just sitting in a bag in my kitchen, my Uji-kintoki Milk KitKats have turned smudgy and soft. Biting into one, I taste aggressively sweet, too-soft matcha chocolate and feel disappointed. The only thing that makes any sense is a bowl of real kakigori, shaved ice topped with (in this case) green-tea syrup, azuki beans and condensed milk. That, or putting my KitKats in the freezer. Which -- lacking a reliable kakigori delivery service -- I do.
They emerge exactly right: the cool chocolate shell breaks with a snap and immediately melts into creamy matcha-ness, while the crackly layers of wafer and azuki bean somehow give the illusion of shaved ice, a cold crispness that softens on the tongue. It's the perfect post-shower, pre-bed, hot summer night snack.
I lie on my cool tatami next to the fan and think about how much better summer is than winter. I don't think they could possibly invent a special edition KitKat that would make me feel happy it was winter. Maybe if it came wrapped in an wool sweater. MAYBE.
But what am I doing? It's way too hot to talk about sweaters! Shaved ice. Cold green tea. Frozen Uji-kintoki Milk KitKats.... That's better.
RSS feed
LiveJournal syndication
Comments (6)
Whoa! What the heck is in that bowl on the package!? And green kit kats? It can't be so!? :) My mind is reeling. LOL
Posted by Jessica | August 4, 2006 11:00 PM
I need to get my hands on some of these. KitKats are my favorite candy bar, and green is my favorite color. I think I should have been born in Japan.
Posted by persephone | August 4, 2006 11:44 PM
oh my god... i don't think it's good for me to know about the green tea/azuki kakigori - sounds too good to be true! I would buy those kit kats by the caseload to make sure I had enough for all eternity!
Posted by kelly | August 5, 2006 12:55 AM
ohhh myyy god! this looks absolutely delicious! In sweets I've only tasted gree-tea ice cream (and another one made of beans - can you help me with the name of this? i think is the azuki )
oh my goooddd! :)
Posted by Lsantos | August 13, 2006 3:46 AM
I know these posts are from a heck of a long time ago, but oh well.
"Whoa! What the heck is in that bowl on the package!? And green kit kats? It can't be so!? :) My mind is reeling. LOL"
That bowl on the package is a depiction of a popular Asian treat. There's actually two versions of it- bao bing and chua bing. I think the difference is in how the ice is shaved.
Anyway, the dish is a base of shaved ice (like a snowcone) with various types of toppings on them, like red beans, green beans, condensed milk (for the sweet flavor), taro, various chewy rice balls- some with just coloring or flavored with sweet potato or taro, special jellies derived from plants (called xian chao and ai yu) etc. It's very popular in the summertime as a cool treat and if you're ever in Taiwan or China (and I'm guessing Japan) and you see all those roadside or market booth selling various snack dishes/delicacies, this shaved ice treat is almost always one of them.
Posted by Trish | March 29, 2007 1:50 PM
Eww, thats kinda gross.
I have 2 things to say.
1. I got Japenese candy shiped from California, its weird, but pretty good.
A lil unappetizing.
2. WHAT THE HECK IS SO SPEACIL ABOUT JAPENESE CANDY?
Posted by Anonymous | July 14, 2007 9:01 AM