佐賀の英語教室Happy Balloons

Happy St. Valentine's Day! For that special day, MUJI (無印良品, Mujirushi Ryo-hin ) sells handmade sweets kits. I bought a chocolate truffles kit for 790 yen with tax.  The kit included: chocolate, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, white crunch, freeze dried strawberry and small cups and plastic bags for wrapping I prepared: 45 ml of heavy cream, a pot, a bowl, a spatula, a plate, spoons, plastic wrap The recipe only in Japanese is on the back of the box. Here were what I did: 1 Boil water in a pot to about 80℃. Before opening the silver package, crush dried strawberry into powder.    2  Put heavy cream into a bowl.  Put the bowl into the pot to warm the heavy cream, then mix with chocolate to melt until smooth. 3 Put the bowl into water to cool down the chocolate, stirring. 4 Using spoons, make lumps of chocolate and put them on a plate covered with plastic wrap. 5 Put the lumps in the fridge for 10 minutes, then ...

Today is Pocky Day in Japan, marking the 20th anniversary this year since its establishment in 1999. It is actually Pocky and Pretz Day both of which are stick type snacks resembling number one. For this, the day is on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year. Pocky, chocolate-coated biscuit sticks, was first sold in 1966 by Ezaki Grico. Having more than 50 years of history, I guess, almost all Japanese people have eaten Pocky at least once in their lives. Pocky is evolving with so many varieties now. I bought two of them at the supermarket. In the picture, the blue box is a seasonal limitied Pocky with crushed coconut and the red box is a strawberry chocolate-coated Pocky with crushed strawberry. This year is a special Pocky Day with five 1s because of the succession of the new emperor: the first year of Reiwa emperor's period, the 11th day of the 11th month of the year. Whether you eat pocky today or not, Pocky Day is a unique way to promote the product because ...