Goodies from Nikko

From our trip to Nikko, we brought back a couple of goodies, Nikko's well known local specialty of yokan (jellied sweet bean paste) and yuba (tofu skin).

Shio Yokan (salted yokan) and Yuba Shiitake pickles ^.^

The Shio Yokan was yummy! As expected, the sweet bean paste was a little too sweet for me, but fortunately the salt balanced things out a bit. If you're into the sweet and salty mix, you'll like these.

As for the yokan jelly part, it wasn't really jiggly chewy jelly but was rather thick. I think I like the sweet bean paste in yokan form more than the pasty form. It's not as starchy and...beany.

The Yuba and Shiitake pickles were delicious!

Again it was the sweet salty type and not the sour type. Throw in a tad of spice and it made quite a yummy side dish with rice. I wanted more!!!

And this wasn't something we brought home with us, but while waiting for one of the longer train rides to Kinugawa Onsen, we spotted an old man with his back hunched over, carrying a box full of bentos to sell. We were starving at the time, and it'd be nice to help lighten the old man's load a bit so me and my sister came over to buy some bento.

The bento was nicely wrapped, and I have eaten a lot of bentos, but I was still pleasantly surprised by the presentation and variety inside.

It was a beautifully prepared and packed bento, and easily one of the best bento hubby and I have had.

There were 3 varieties of rice (top row far left, middle row, bottom row far right), some chicken (top row middle), fish (middle row far right), boiled vegetables (top row far right, middle row far left), tamago yaki (top row far right), yuba (a specialty of Nikko above, bottom row middle), and pickles (middle row far right, bottom row far left).

This is not Nikko's specialty ^.^ It's a gift of salt from Patagonia my sister picked up for me at Tobu World Square as she knows I like exotic salts. Just thought I'd throw this in for fun :P