Saturday, February 28, 2009

ビスケットの日 (bisuketto no hi): Day of Biscuit

They say Feb. 28 is bisketto no hi (ビスケットの日), Day of Biscuit. On Feb. 28, 1855 Shibata Hoan (柴田方庵) who was a Dutch learning doctor from Mito han (水戸藩), the Mito Clan living in Nagasaki sent the recipe of biscuit to the Mito Clan. This is the first document written of biscuit in Japan. Therefore Shadan hojin Zenkoku Bisuketto kyokai (社団法人全国ビスケット協会), Japan Biscuit Association decided Feb. 28 as Day of Biscuit in 1980.
The word "biscuit" is from Latin "bis coctus" which means the thing that was burnt twice. In Japanese nido yakareta mono (二度焼かれたもの), so it is also pun of 2 (ni) and 8 (ya).
Biscuit in England and in the USA are different. In Japan there are many kinds of biscuits. They are hard biscuit, soft biscuit (cookie), cracker, hardtack, pie, pretzel, and processed biscuits.
The total amount of products per year is about 225,000 ton. Amount of money of production was yen 213,400,000,000 and retail amount of money was yen 315,400,000,000 in 2007 in Japan.
What kind of biscuits do you like? I like chocolate cookies with nuts and biscuit with gravy sauce.

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