Food food food

No festival is complete without trying some local sweets.

I tried taiyaki (a stuffed fish-shaped pancake) filled with chestnut, purple potato and sesame cream. I am not sure which was my favorite. (see left photo, my photo did not come out well so i used this one from Tanoshii Dezato – literally fun or interesting dessert. (http://www.tanoshiidezato.com/)

I also bought a number of peanut and sesame crackers – like the picture on the right.

 

Crunchy light and always a nice treat!

 

 

As I wrote earlier we enjoyed sashimi (sliced raw fish) and oden (various ingredients cooked in a soy broth) and different types of pickles with other people taking part in the festival.

Trip to the farmers market! I love to see fresh fruit and vegetables! Sure snacks local items like pick pickles fermented fish etc. are big souvenir items, but I love to buy local fruit and veggies because i love cooking. Just before leaving town we visited a local market and bought a lot of food!

Actually bought way too much. I bought way more than I could carry. But I did it ! I bought apples and made some amazing apple pie and baked apple cobbler. I added some peeled figs  and cream. Yummy!

Sweeeet corn! grilled some, boiled some, put some kernels in salad – just amazing plain, no need for salt butter or soy sauce.

And the largest zucchini I have ever seen in my life! close to  1 m long and 10 cm thick zucchini! This was so big i cut it into 4 large  sections. The two 6 cm tall ends served as large bowls with which i filled mushroom risotto and topped with parmesan.

The middle sections were cooked with a meat filling and different cheeses. I also grilled some sections in rings. and ate this in salads or as a side dish.

Sweet potatoes! Just roasted those for simple healthy lunches.

Butternut squash! I stuffed half of it with rice and cheese and the other half I made it into delicious butternut squash soup.Grilled the rest, making a nice side addition to salads and main dishes.