In 1981 Zenkoku kashi kogyo kumiai rengokai (全国菓子工業組合連合会), National Confectionery Industry Association decided the 15th of every month as O kashi no hi (お菓子の日), Day of Confectionery.
The first Confectionery Fair (全国菓子大博覧会：zenkoku kashi dai hakurankai)was held around April 15, 1911 in Tokyo therefore they decided the 15th. Every 4 years they have the Confectionery Fair around Japan. The 25th Fair was held in Himeji, Hyogo last year.
In Japan there are so many confectionery, but we can roughly classify them into two groups: Japanese confectionery (和菓子：wa gashi) and Western confectionery(洋菓子：yo gashi). Both of them are classified into three categories according to water quantity: more than 30% are fresh sweets (生菓子：nama gashi), 10% to 30% are semi-fresh sweets (半生菓子：han nama gashi), less than 10% are dry sweets(干菓子： hi hashi).
Japanese fresh sweets are often made from rice and sweet bean paste. Japanese dry sweets are not always sweet. The representive is senbei(煎餅：rice cracker), which is baked with soy source or salt taste.
I hope you have a chance to enjoy Japanese confectionery.
No comments:
Post a Comment