Takayama Street Food: Owara Tamaten
I just fell in love with this happy chappy, the purveyor of owara tamaten, little cubes of grilled honey-flavoured meringuey/marshmallowy goodness. His cheeky chuckle brought a smile to our faces as I held up two fingers and said “owara tamaten o futatsu kudasai” (”I’ll have two please”).
A delightful translation of this unusual little treat was posted above the street stall for the benefit of tourists (such as us). Interesting to note that agar-agar, a vegetable gelatin derived from seaweed, is used as the setting agent.
The dexterity he displayed as he picked up the soft meringue cubes with chopsticks was very impressive. They were submerged into a mixture of egg yolk, honey and mirin (for colour and taste), allowed to drip dry and then deposited on a hot plate to toast.
They taste as amazing as they sound and look - cloudy puffs of eggy sweetness, tinged with a sweet honeyed outer coating. You can purchase them in take-away packs, but to eat them straight off the grill became one of those eye-closing, mouth-savouring moments.
Double-oooohhhh… I’m salivating. It’s true that there is simply too much good food in the world.
11:36 pm - April 27th, 2008Uh huh…I think that every time I walk past the doughtnut van at the Vic Market
6:35 am - April 28th, 2008I want to shove my face into that cube of gooey crispy looking goodness. Is that wrong?
12:45 pm - April 28th, 2008Hey anon - Not wrong at all…cause that is exactly what I did when I saw them
12:22 pm - April 29th, 2008