Text 22990, 59 rader
Skriven 2007-11-18 14:20:10 av Carol Shenkenberger (1:261/1466.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Jim Weller
Ärende: Street Food 7
=====================
 -=> Quoting Jim Weller to All <=-

 JW> MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

 JW> Title: About Castella Or Kasutera
 JW> Categories: Japanese, Cakes

 JW> Castella or Kasutera is a sponge cake made of sugar, flour, eggs,
 JW> and starch syrup. It is popular at festivals and as a street food in
 JW> Japan. Now a specialty of Nagasaki, the cake is thought to be
 JW> originally from Spain, brought by way of Portuguese merchants in the
 JW> 16th century. The name is derived from Portuguese puo de Castella,

Oh!  I've had those!  So thats what they were called properly?  'O-cat-SUE-tra'
(with the 'tra' being almost silent) is how I recall it being said in Sasebo.

As you say, common street food and as many different ways to flavor it as there
are people.  I've even had ebi and green tea versions (both ebi and the tea in
 the same cake).  The ebi this time was dried and pulverized and sprinkled on
 top with a little powdered sugar.

Charlotte doesnt remember them.  I recall them as having a denser texture than
a true 'sponge cake' but it may have been the types I tried.  They also were 
not as 'sweet' as they sound but nicely balanced sweetness.

Sasebo is quite close to Nagasaki (2 hours by train but only due to how the 
tracks are laid and i believe one of those places faster to drive to than take
 the train?).  In fact, it shares the same train line to Fukuoka, splitting 
about 3 cities from Sasebo, off to the Nagasaki portion of the line.  You have 
to be careful when traveling from Fukuoka to Sasebo, to get on the right cars
or you'll end up in Nagasaki <grin>.  Not that anyone here is apt to need it, 
but it's the back 4-6 cars that peel off and run to Sasebo while the front set
continue to Nagasaki.  I think it's 5 stops from Sasebo on the 'seaside liner'
rails to get to the Dutch village (Huis Ten Bosch).

The 'Seaside' liner trains are not bullet trains like the line to 
FUK-Sasebo-Nagasaki-Kagoshima but they are really cool looking and have vendors
 plying the isles with drinks (even beer if you like) and finger foods such as 
the smaller version of the 'O-cat-SUE-tra' or the longer rolls which they cut
before you and serve a portion for 100yen.  You just hold up however many 
fingers you want (each represents 100yen) and they cut a portion off to match.

First time I ordered it, I watched and figured out the system from seeing the 
others order so when he got to us, held up 3 fingers then pointed to us 3 and 
made a hand sawing motion hoping he'd figure out we wanted it sliced in 3 
parts.  He grinned and picked right up on it.

I think Charlotte doesnt remember mostly because she was pretty young and more
interested in getting to Huis Ten Bosch.  Since she's generally not into sweets
 much, it just didnt make an impression on her I bet.
                xxcarol
   


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