Something new

This weekend we went to try out a new Indian restaurant. I had read & heard good things about this one so I was excited to try it. I wasn't able to take any good pictures inside bc the lighting was not good. Since I am just learning how to shoot manual on my camera, instead of shooting some on automatic, I just decided to focus my attention on my curry! yum, yum

The restaurant is in a 3 story shopping center with hardly any shops inside (for some reason??) so after dinner Ryan told me I could shop as much as I wanted & he wouldn't say a word. haha But I was interested in something else. Around the mall I had seen several signs for something that looked like ice cream w something (surely) sweet & wonderful poured over the top!

We found it downstairs inside an organic honey store/cafe so we pulled up a table & ordered two! Ryan did the ordering & while my Japanese is not extensive, he really doesn't know any! He came out of the cafe to where we were seated outside & basically said he had pointed at a picture, held up two fingers & handed over some money! Hilarious. Next time, maybe I should do the ordering?

Then the girl started to bring everything out. First she came out w the usual glasses of water & wet napkins. Then she brought two big square platters w four large wooden spoons! This was getting fancy! We couldn't wait to see what was going to come out next! Then she opened the cafe doors & walked out carrying a tray of two beautiful glass dishes w mounds of sparkling shaved ice that was covered in honey! How lovely! We all ooh'd & aah'd as she presented them on our trays!

The honey was delicious. We couldn't have been happier! What a wonderful dessert! Then we noticed the stuff at the bottom of the dish. Hmm, what could that be...

Ryan was the first to discover it. Beans. Adzuki beans. In Japan, they use Adzuki or red beans as a dessert. Usually they are sweetened but honestly still have a lingering taste of a kidney bean. I have had them in taiyaki's or pastries & it's usually in the sweetened paste form but this was different. It literally tasted like kidney beans in water, swimming in the bottom of our lovely shaved ice. Ick. Then we discovered the next surprise.

Huge mochi balls! If you haven't heard me talk about mochi before (then you haven't been reading my blog!) it is a popular Japanese - treat? Maybe that's a good word for it. Mochi is sold all over & I can't quite figure out what's so good about it but basally it is a gelatinous ball that you chew & chew & doesn't have much taste at all. It is really indescribable, unless you have eaten it, you can't imagine.

Luckily for Oliver, he likes mochi so he got to eat all of them!

I don't think I've ever laughed so much over a dessert. You never know what to expect here in Japan, but I love that there is a surprise hiding under every thing!