Sweets from Grandma

Miyabi Chaya is an old house cafe.   Feels like grandma’s home.   Ohagi is a sweet rice ball.  Very traditional sweets for celebration and sacred events. It’s steamed glutinous rice, the kind of rice you make mochi with.  And the rice is coated by sweet Azuki bean paste. Purple one is a plain Ohagi.  Pale Ohagi is coated with dried soybean powder.   Here’s Masami-san, the cafe owner. She opened this place to provide the kind of Ohagi that her grandma used to make and that she loved so much. When you bite, you can tell that someone really made it for you with love.  Gentleness, humbleness, gratitude, and all the […]

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Spicy Curry Udon

Sans Souci is definitely one of the most successful cafe in Okinawa. It’s 11:30 am, Wednesday. Already crowded and 5 parties were waiting when we got there.   It’s a restaurant in an American style house. Hybrid food and sweets of Kyoto traditions and Okinawa goodies.   Wanna have spicy rich Udon? Light traditional Udon? Wanna have some Donburi (rice bowl) too… Can’t decide.   She decided to go light. Japanese traditional broth Udon with Kujo Negi (Kyoto green onions), plum, and local chicken.  JPY850 Very refreshing. This is the way to taste the high quality Japanese broth here.   I had spicy curry Udon with egg.  JPY900 This is something […]

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Kino Store

In the middle of sugar cane field of Ginoza village is a little cozy sweets shop.  As we live in this rural village, Kino Store is a precious relief for our craving for sweets.   All the ingredients are carefully selected and prepared.  It’s just one of those foods that you feel the tender loving care of someone who makes them. They are mostly baked cakes and cookies.  Nothing fancy.  But they have solid fans.  They usually sell out in the late afternoon.   Today’s target was their famous Lemon Cake.  JPY150.   Restaurant Info   kino store    

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