Anticipation
This is a sweet for the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Sweets have poetic names, I love that! Sweets for usucha (thin tea) are often named with a nod to the season. Names for the koicha (thick tea) sweets are more zen or abstract. I have learned that poems are a great source for naming both, though there remains still an art to selecting just the right name.
I learned to make this sweet on Saturday. The base is a sweetened white bean paste (which took my sensei all day to make!). We added in a bit of pickled plum paste and a touch of gold flake. I call it Anticipation. The daffodils have begun to push out of the earth, their golden heads I long for.
Very interersting...I had not realized that about the naming of the sweets. Our bulbs are just pushing out, and it can't come too soon!
ReplyDeleteRuth
I like the subtleties here! How do they taste?
ReplyDeleteInteresting....
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you are using edible gold leaf:*)
Teafan - I LOVE Japanese tea sweets, especially ones with white bean paste! The texture is creamy. The taste of this one is sweet, with a bit of tang and salt from the plum. It's very hard to describe. I hope you get the chance to try one!
ReplyDeleteI would definitely call this anticipation too after waiting all day. Looks good. Isn't is wonderful to anticipate Spring with the daffodils pushing out of the ground and a few trees beginning to show new growth. Just wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI like the way the naming is done! Oh, and here the daffodils are getting antsy as well!
ReplyDelete