“Anko Life” is about once a month, where we do various fun things centered around Anko. This time, it’s Golden Week! So, this is a holiday drive project!
Introducing a course where you can enjoy everything from Saga City to Ogi City all day long! How about “anko life” in Saga this Golden Week?
This time we will drive along the route “Saga City → Ogi City → Yamato Town → Return to Saga City”. Then let’s go!
The Anko Seikatsu team will depart from Saga City and head to Ogi. This is the first shop after arriving in Ogi City!
1.Muraoka Sohonpo
It’s the perfect starting point for an anko drive where you can learn about history!
Muraoka Sohonpo Yokan Museum has been open for 40 years. You can feel the long history of the building, which was used as a sugar warehouse during the war. Customers come not only from outside the prefecture but also from overseas!
While enjoying yokan and matcha, you can watch videos of how yokan is made and learn about the history of yokan.
(Products lined up at the store are also shown in the video, so be sure to check it out)
It is rare to find a yokan shop that makes their own red bean paste, and the bitterness of the red bean paste makes it difficult to preserve the flavor. There are two people in the company who hold the title of “Saga Meister”, which is given to highly skilled technicians in the prefecture, and they continue to protect the taste!
You can also enjoy shopping at the store, and recently cashew nut yokan and Siberia are popular!
2.Creative Japanese sweets Hikari
This is the second shop on the way to Yamato after leaving Muraoka Sohonpo!
The owner studied confectionery making at a school in Osaka with the intention of becoming a pastry chef, and after 11 years of training, he made a U-turn in 2019. He decided to open “Hikari” five years ago as a continuation of the old store.
The store owner’s experiences and learnings from childhood to the present are condensed, such as how to use different types of red bean paste and how to use sugar to achieve a refreshing sweetness. The products are lined up with inherited products and new products devised by the shop owner, so you can feel both tradition and new creations!
The yuzuan, which is a mixture of white bean paste and yuzu, was unusual, and the flavor spread in the mouth. The black bean daifuku was also very easy to eat and I could feel the owner’s attention to detail.
3.Cafe Fuchsia
When we arrived at Yamato-cho, we decided to have lunch! So we headed for lunch.
Cafe Fuchsia is a place where you can come and eat with your dog. It’s a wonderful space where you can not only interact with people, but also with dogs. Of course, the dogs seemed to be having fun with each other too!
This time, we had green curry and Japanese-style hamburger steak! The rice, which you can choose from aged brown rice or half-cooked rice, is super healthy.
The Anko Seikatsu team had a peaceful lunch time while being comforted by the dogs. And dessert! The three-colored Shiratama ice cream has crushed red bean paste made with dates!
The balance of fresh cream, ice cream, and mildly sweet red bean paste is just right. Both the lunch and the red bean paste dessert turned out to be a healthy lunch.
From here we will drive around Yamato Town!
4. Hirose Confectionery Store
This is a store that has been in operation for 61 years and is loved by the local community. Products are lined up at the store at 8am, and you can enjoy seasonal products.
This time we will have warabi mochi! This is a Saturday limited item!
Warabi mochi is wrapped in very soft red bean paste, which is quite a difficult task. This is the last step in the Japanese sweets training!
With the recent craze for warabi mochi, we have seen many different types of warabi mochi, but it is rare that they contain red bean paste, and the melty red bean paste is a flavor you won’t find anywhere else.
Anko Seikatsu members also praised the texture, saying, “It’s delicious…! You can drink this! You can have as many as you like!”
5. Yoshinoya
A shop where you can see the carp streamers of Kawakami Gorge. There is a cafe inside the store, and they not only serve shiratama manju, but also zenzai and parfaits using shiratama manju.
I could see the carp streamers from the window of the second floor seat, and the time passed slowly. (You can see it perfectly from the table seat by the window on the second floor.) Hizen Vidro is used for the parfait, and you can feel the attention to detail in the tableware. It was delicious to eat, and we had a peaceful time enjoying the sights.
The Shiratama Manju set comes with sesame seeds and soybean flour, so you can eat it with whatever you like! The flavor has changed and it’s even more delicious! The matcha in the set is also great.
You can also take out the parfait and ice cream, so you can take a walk while watching the carp streamers, making it the perfect place to take a break from your drive.
After your meal, be sure to check out the many carp streamers nearby! Don’t forget.
bonus
In preparation for this drive, Gakki and So-chan had gone out together to negotiate interviews in advance. I want to go there too! I want to go here too! Apparently, the pre-driving took an entire day and was a huge success.lol
summary
Lastly, I decided to try out the products from “Creative Japanese Sweets Hikari” that I had bought back at Michikusa COFFEE.
I had it with coffee from ROASTER&DAREKA COFFEE STAND!
This time, since it was Golden Week, I went for a full-day drive full of red bean paste! I’m putting together a route, so I hope you enjoy it!
・This time’s driving route
In this article, we can only introduce a small portion of the products from each store. Please take a look at not only the products introduced this time, but also many other products that were not introduced. There is no doubt that it will be a very satisfying red bean paste drive!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Anko life (Golden Week)! !
- Muraoka Sohonpo Main Store
- Creative Japanese sweets Hikari
- cafe fuchsia
- Hirose confectionery shop
- Original Yoshinoya
- Michikusa COFFEE ROASTER &DAREKA COFFEE STAND (former store name: cafe Michikusa)
2024.03.11
[Standard Saga souvenir]Shiratama Manju Ganso Yoshinoya | Passed down tradition and special taste
Tags: Anko drive Saga Golden Week full red bean paste April red bean paste party EDITORS SAGA
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