Zenzai

One of my favorite winter treats is zenzai.

It is a really simple sweet soup dessert. It pretty much consists mostly of a liquidy red bean soup. I know I know...red bean yeah yeah gross. Normally I am not the biggest fan either, they are actually just a bit too sweet for me. But for some reason this soup is less sweet than the bread. So as I was saying, it pretty much only consists of this liquid red bean stuff and some mochi. Really simple right? Of course you have to warm up and cook the mochi first before you add it to the soup, but over all, not a big deal.
And the BEST part about it? It is really REALLY easy to make. You can simply buy dried mochi and a can of the red bean stuff. You have to give the mochi its texture back, so you cook it a little in some water giving it its moisture and possibly then microwave or pan fry it for quickness if you prefer. And then you heat up the red bean canned deliciousness, add the mochi and BAM. done. fantasticness....I want some...

There are actually two different forms of zenzai that I have encountered and one is more watery and one is a thicker soup where the beans are more frequent and crushed and the watery one, the beans are left more whole. Both are really delicious.

You can actually eat this in the summer as well. I am pretty sure China first trademarked that (as well as the whole zenzai food tradition). You simply put the red bean paste over ice and add some sweetened condensed milk for some nice summer flavor, and any other suitable flavoring. They eat this pretty much all over Asia from what I can tell. China, Korea, Japan, and I honestly would swear I had something all too similar to the summer variation when I was traveling SE Asia as well.

A Pain of a パン

Pan is taken from the French  Portuguese word for bread, pao. It is commonly thought to be taken from the French word pain(NOT to be pronounced like the English word, 'pain'), which is actually takes influence from the Portuguese word. But you see, Japan learned of this delicious sort of food directly from the Portuguese themselves. The Portuguese are the original influence that opened up Japan for international exporting, and also for western influence. Not to be mistaken for the 'black ships' which brought about the end of the Edo period and opened up Japan, the Portuguese landed in Nagasaki in the 15th and 16th centuries and got a modest, but growing trade scene going. They introduced things like Christianity, medicine, and technology, and of course, bread to Japan, all of which took to different sorts of followings. But of course after some time, Japan became a shut in again and persecuted the Christians and closed its borders. However, in Japan you will find many other things that French and English and Portuguese words that have been Japanified, and this is a popular one. Japan seems to have a small habit of taking the foreign words for things for which they have no word, and adopting them into their own culture; in the process, giving the word a bit of a Japanese embellishment, hence things like ramune versus 'lemonade', or toreina for 'trainers' (meaning sweats).

Bread is possibly THE most important snack food in Japan. Especially in Kyoto. There are boulangeries and patisseries everywhere. But more effectively, bread can be found at the 7-11's and convenience stores, which I might add are way more true to their name and actually convenient, than in America. There is a whole series and selection of bread. Sugary, savory, green tea flavored, creamy, rolls, croissants. Just so much bread.


But the bread that is probably most worth a mention, and is something that can perhaps only be found in Japan. It is called メロンパン or melon bread. This bread is typically round is shape with a criss-crossing of markings across the top and is on the slightly large side as far as dollar breads go in Japan. Sometimes it is covered in sugar, and others it has a greenish dried icing look to it, and other still it is filled with custard or cream. I am not so sure about the melon flavoring...perhaps there is a slight hint to it; but lets be serious you would be eating this bread not for its melonyness, but for the most delicious sugar rush you can get for a dollar at a convenience store while still maintaining your dignity.

Another popular and very traditional styled bread is あんパン or anpan. Anpan is red bean bread. Yeah beans. You might be a little turned off from this bread at the moment, but they are sweet. Yeah, I couldn't really imagine sweet beans either before I came here. I kept imagining throwing brown sugar into some beenie weenies. I bet you might be thinking that too. And that face you are making right now? Probably close to the one I made. But it is actually very sweet, and not all that weird, or bean-ie tasting. This bread is bread and normal looking on the outside, with the red bean sweetness on the inside.

It became such a popular sensation, that they named a cartooned super hero after the bread. In the Japanese anime, Anpanman, the hero has the head of an anpan. Which when damaged, or say, eaten, gets baked anew. The anime became so popular it has been on air for more than 3 decades!