White Bean Paste Nerikiri Bunny

It's time for Easter and we're letting the bunnies out!  We recently discovered and have been exploring 'white bean paste', a mild sweet bean paste that turns out to be very versatile in the making of all kinds of desserts.  Check out our first dessert made with white bean paste, our Chocolate Raspberry Tang Yuan, so yummy!

We've pushed on exploring white bean paste and discovered the wonderful things that the Japanese have done with it.  Namely they have made white bean paste into an edible "clay" or "dough" that can then be modeled and shaped into all kinds of amazing little sweet treats called "nerikiri" or "nerikiri wagashi."

Our first try at making and shaping a "nerikiri" was to make this simple bunny in time for Easter celebration.  We were all delighted by the results.  Our White Bean Paste Nerikiri Bunny turned out super duper cute, with soft white fur and little pink ears, twinkly black eyes and a round fluffy tail.  Bunny's all ready for some Easter fun!

Chinese New Year Tray of Togetherness 中國新年攢盒

Published: 2014-01-27
It's that time of the year for the most important Chinese Festival of the whole year:  Chinese New Year, or 中國農曆新年!  A festive time filled with wintery skies, red packets (紅包), relatives (and more relatives!), feasts (and more feasts!), the all important color Red and visiting old friends.  Yay!!  

We are already starting to do our preparations including a favorite ritual of mine, the Chinese New Year Tray of Togetherness!   The Tray of Togetherness, or 攢盒, is a lovely (red!) chinese candy box with compartments that you fill up with all different kind of chinese new year candies, all of which have symbolically lucky meanings.  Then when your Chinese New Year visitors come a'calling, you can offer them some lucky nibbles.

Belly Button Biscuits 肚臍餅

Published: 2014-01-22
Dear readers, do you remember these candies?  Does it not bring you right back to playgrounds and playing all day and dirty hands and mommy's tender kisses?  These adorable biscuit candies are officially called Iced Gem Biscuits, or 花佔餅, but my favorite name for them is the local nickname for them: Belly Button Biscuits, or 肚臍餅.  What a cute name!  Only the Cantonese, who are fanatical about giving everything a nickname or two, could think of a name like that!  

These tiny sweet biscuits have been a favorite of children for many generations now in Hong Kong.  Kids and their mommys and daddys are all fans of the Belly Button Biscuits! How cool is that!