Let’s Merry!: Cookie Tea

My mother usually makes three kinds of Christmas cookies: gingerbread cut-outs, white-velvet cutouts (sugar cookies with cream cheese in the batter), and press cookies. The press cookies are my favorite. We originally had a Mirro cookie press, which functioned like a cross between a coffee press and an icing bag with a tip. Dough was put into a metal tube and pushed out with a plunger through a disk with a shape so the cookie would have a shape without having to be cut out.*

Mirro cookie press. Image from food.com.

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Documenting Halloween in Japan (3)

Part 3: Halloween Tea is the Best Tea

Back to food!

My favorite chain tea store in Japan is Lupicia Tea. Last September, I went to the Nagoya Les Grande Marche de Thes and bought enough tea (3000 yen’s worth) to qualify for the tea of the month club. My favorite tea from Lupicia is the seasonal Halloween tea, a blend of sweet potato, chestnuts, kabocha, and rooibos tea called いもくりかぼ茶 (imokurikabo-cha).

Lupicia Tea, Kanazawa Forus

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The Expat Chef’s Culinary Tour of Kansai: Tea House SARAH

Part 6: An English Tea House in Takarazuka

The "Cream Tea Set"

The Takarazuka matinee of For Whom the Bell Tolls that I went to see happened to be an early matinee—while most start at 1 or 3 pm, the day I went, the show started at 11 am, which is just early enough to make getting lunch awkward. It turns out, of course, that at the Grand Theater, there are restaurants inside and plenty of bento sellers and snack stands that open in time for people to eat before and after the shows. Not knowing this, I had decided to get brunch outside the theater, and as I was passing from Hankyuu Takarazuka Station (阪急宝塚駅) to Hana no Michi（花の道), I noticed a cute coffee shop with a big bilingual sign advertising scones and morning service (モーニング・サービス).

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