it is interesting.
I will agree with that much, as a site admin for wineberserkers we highly highly discouraged a full scale copy of text. I didn’t see how much text was posted here but when it’s a large wall of text we take it down.
We’ve had take down notices sent to us. Easier to just remove than fight it.
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Bookmarked.
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Continuing to beat the dead horse, from that two-year-old Eater article:
Several of those interviewed say that the apology’s placement underneath a caption for mugwort mochi made it difficult to find and thus felt insincere.
It was just as easy to find as the original, which was a caption for a photo of sakura mochi.
You just missed Beserkerday which is an insane sale on wine, food, stemware and a bunch of other stuff. Look for it on the board and put a reminder in your calendar for next year. I filled up my cabinet with Glasvin this year. Thanks @David_K
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there’s a whole part of the forum that’s only accessible to registered/logged in users. Pretty much Misc chat
I was searching for sakura mochi after having a good experience with Ginza Akebono’s in in Tokyo and talking to some friends who were recently in Japan for sakura season. (Of course the season is past - I had it in late February)
Apart from the whole cultural politics of sakura mochi-gate, I find the sakura mochi from Shibumi’s instagram picture to looks kind of peculiar in its proportions.
- The proportion of mochi to filling, in how it doesn’t really envelop / drape at the end. Unusually large amount of filling near the end, so the rice crepe doesn’t give enough purchase with a little extra fold / enclosure. While I’ve seen various shapes of sakura mochi in Japan, still every one had considerably more crepe at the end, even to the point of pinch / fold.
- The very narrow cut of the pickled sakura leaf. The wide pickled sakura leaf is part of the origin story of sakura mochi and as I understand it, also fairly important to how it’s presented / served / and even how it can be eaten (optional to eat the leaf for sourness as balance / foil to the sweetness). I’m not holding it to 7-8cm standard or whatever is traditional from the founding shop, but having it so narrow looks unusual to me. Shibumi’s looks like it might be quite a bit sweeter, with more filling and less leaf. What I really liked was the pillowy sensation of the long, thin crepe and the contrasting taste of the leaf in proportion.
I’m not an expert at all in sakura mochi or wagashi or sweets in general, but in researching some sakura mochi, I’ve never seen it with such proportions. Shibumi’s might be modeled after one I just haven’t come across yet. I understand that this supposedly chomeiji style in construction (the style in Kanto region, originated in the early 1700s by the Sumida river, Tokyo). It’s clearly not intended to be domyoji-style steamed (as favored in the Kansai region). Even if chef Schlosser once worked at Kitcho or Kikunoi (both in Kansai region yet seem to serve chomeiji style, I think, based on pictures…it’s hard to tell because the leaf is so wide, closer to the original style of Ohshima sakura leaves in proportion, it seems)…the Shibumi sakura mochi looks like a departure from anything traditional or prolific I could find, but it could be that I just haven’t come across that style yet.
Not wanting to rehash the whole appropriation / representation part of sakura-gate, but I’m wondering where in LA can I find good sakura mochi, particularly a more classically styled chomeiji sakura mochi / closer to the kind you’d more traditionally find in Japan (when in season, of course. I realize the season is past)?
Like such
(from the original store that introduced it)
(my pic from Ginza Akebono)
found on Google, but representative of the shape)
Cf. Shibumi’s
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Mori Nozomi had it a few weeks ago but my guess is she no longer has it.
Thanks. From the pictures I’ve seen, Mori Nozomi’s is domyoji style, although it looks good and classically proportioned. Thats Kansai style steamed glutinous rice cooked with a different texture.
I’m more interested in chomeiji style, i.e. Kanto style with the thin wheat or rice flour crepe that is more wrapped around like a pouch. To me, the wrap / envelope edge and wide pickled leaf are integral, and based on Shibumi’s picture, theirs seems to have different proportions.
hi @pomodoro,
gee i haven’t seen that style, in la. which i guess was schlosser’s point in his sakura-gate post.
looking back at old pictures i’ve had this version before at shibumi before sakura-gate. it looks like he’s only using half the sakura leaf though.
you may have better luck requesting that style from local wagashi makers. yah, thanks.
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thanks, @PorkyBelly . gee, your pic looks like the sakura mochi is constructed much more proportionally than the original sakura-gate IG picture. this one looks much, much more like the normal Kanto style. taking a look, from the proportion/wrap to the pickled sakura blossom, this one seems better.
while its presentation is a bit odd/untraditional, this could be for a specific reasons. the original maker of sakura mochi uses a lot of specific leaves (apparently estimated around 80% use the same leaf), but in California, they may be shaped or calibrated differently for pickling. despite the original, many others use a bit less leaf than the founding shop but more than pictured here. I’ve never seen it as thin as this, but perhaps because the anko is “laced with cherry flowers” and the intention of transferring fragrance from the pickled leaf is lost anyway as a “dessert” in an izakaya-like setting. i guess that’s kind of Shibumi’s presentation, though, it seems a bit of wide traditional inspiration with a California twist and modification. it also could be that the sakura leaves here are just smaller or less plentiful.
yah, i think so. thanks.
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