- Hi, I'm Rie, I'm a Tasty producer in LA.
Today, I'm going to be showing you
how to make most mesmerizing Japanese dessert.
Japanese people, including me, are obsessed with seasons.
Cherry blossom season is such a short amount of time,
so from the end of March to beginning of April,
a lot of people go for picnics, hiking,
and have a party under the cherry blossoms.
It's my favorite season and I miss Japan so much,
especially around this time of the year,
because LA has no seasons.
I think our ancestors started to preserve
this beautiful flowers so they could enjoy it longer.
Traditionally, raindrop cake,
in Japanese we call mizu shingen mochi,
is made with agar-agar.
Agar-agar is a jelly-like substance made from algae.
So unlike gelatin, it's vegetarian.
Agar itself has no flavor,
so raindrop cakes taste like sugar water Jell-O,
so pour your favorite syrup on top.
Japanese people also value
beautiful looking desserts and food.
No offense to your brownies
or chocolate chip cookies, those are delicious,
but maybe not quite as visually pleasing.
You are also eating with your eyes,
and this raindrop cake is a perfect example.
The cherry blossoms are encased in a drop of water.
It reminds me of cherry blossom on a rainy day.
(tranquil music)
I think mochi is getting popular all over the world.
The powder I used for this video,
called shiratamako, it is made with rice flour.
I used matcha for the ice cream flavor.
Matcha is powdered green tea.
It's packed with antioxidants and boosts your metabolism
so you can eat matcha ice cream without feeling guilty.
Mochi is super easy to make and easy to work with,
but it is very sticky, so make sure you use
a lot of starch on the surface.
Typically, mochi's made with steamed mochi rice
and eaten mainly around New Year's.
However, the mochi we used for mochi ice cream,
we call gyuhi, used all year round.
I like matcha flavor because it's a little bitter,
so it's a good balance to the ice cream.
I made this video for Tasty Japan.
I wanted to make a mochi ice cream video,
but mochi ice cream is cheap, so I was wondering
how I could convince our audience to make mochi ice cream.
And I was like, okay, let's make it giant,
'cause I've never seen giant mochi ice cream before.
If you don't have matcha,
you can use cocoa powder or strawberry jam.
After we published the video,
I saw that some of our audience actually made it
and tagged us on our Instagram account.
It made me very happy.
It's one of the best feeling I get
from being a Tasty video producer.
As I mentioned earlier,
Japanese people obsessed with seasonal ingredients.
Pumpkin and chestnut flavors
are very popular during the fall season.
We used kabocha pumpkins for our video.
Kabocha is the most popular pumpkin in Japan.
They are sweet and a dryer texture than butternut squash,
perfect for baking and cooking and I love using them.
Kabocha is getting popular in America.
I can find them in grocery stores easily.
Japanese people have started celebrating Halloween,
but Halloween in Japan is more popular among adults.
Dressing up in costume is not for trick-or-treating.
Some of the Western traditional holidays
are misinterpreted in Japan.
We celebrate Christmas, but it is more
like a romantic holiday for couples.
So this kabocha pumpkin pudding was made
by Tasty Japan producer Saki,
but she was struggling with unmolding the pudding.
So I learned this cool trick on the internet.
This is how to unmold pudding in a bundt pan.
So hold tight your bundt pan and plate, and you just spin.
'Kay, made me a little bit dizzy but, pudding is unmolded.
So this pumpkin pudding,
it's not your typical Halloween treat,
but I think it's really pretty
because of the color contrast, yellow and shiny brown.
And also, when you pour the chocolate,
I feel like it look like a spider web.
So, I think it's a perfect Halloween dessert.
Some of you watching this video
might have seen this recipe already, but stay with me.
It's one of the most viewed and shared Tasty Japan video.
I didn't know how deeply orange the yolk of the egg
until I moved from Japan to the states.
As you can see Tasty producer Alvin made the video in Japan,
so the egg yolk is very orange.
Alvin and I went to Japan together
a year ago for research purposes.
Alvin was obsessed with this jiggly cheesecake
that he saw on the internet.
We went to the store and watch how they make them.
So this cheesecake you can eat year round,
but I chose it for winter dessert
because you want to enjoy while it's hot,
you wanna eat it right after came out from the oven.
So I think this is a perfect dessert for winter.
I've started cooking more and more since I moved
to the United States, mainly as a homesickness cure.
Even though I'm not physically home,
it feels like home wherever I am
when I cook and eat Japanese food.
I didn't have a lot of friends when I moved to the states,
but whenever you meet new people,
I've found that talking about food is a great icebreaker.
Regardless of their age, gender, or race,
everyone has their own personal stories about food.
I love everything about Japanese dessert and culture,
I'd love to hear your stories.
- [Voiceover] Oh, yes!
(serene music)
(camera shutter clicking)