Egraphsen
Stephanie Cullingford
Theatrical Design
Sakuraco
Box Five - July 2021
Part One
July 19th
Well, it's been a while! July box, July date! I did, of course receive my box in June, but what with a whole host of first world problems (house-sitting, holidays, work, snap-lockdowns, toddler Birthday Parties, kitchen renovations etcetera.) this is the first time I've had to sit down and write about it. It's been classic Perth winter, days of icy rain, followed by Spring-like days of blazing sunshine accompanied by freezing starry nights. Followed by localised flooding.
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My collection of scented candles perfuming the house after the floorboards were varnished.
I do not have too many candles!
I'd love to say I was all dressed up while I opened my box, but frankly, it was too cold to wear anything but layers of wooly jumpers and fluffy dressing gowns. One of the other projects I've been working on was a series of clothes for my Niece's second birthday, with matching dolls clothes, so you can have some pictures of those!
Butterfly Pinafore
Reversible, with real pockets
Gingham Heart Party Dress
Ponies and bunnies and birdies, oh my!
I wanted to make matching bloomers, but ran out of fabric.
Real pockets on the dolly's dress too.
The Toddler patterns are from my Mum's vintage collection of Enid Gilchrist Pattern Books - the dolls from a vintage packet of patterns from my great-Aunt. It's not hoarding if they have a purpose.
While perusing at one of my local op-shops, I found in the 'expensive' scarf box two furoshiki, each for the princely sum of $10 (if I'd got there earlier, before the girl at the counter realised the box had special items, I would have got them for less.)
Needless to say, I bought them both and used them to carry home the books I got that day (Gobbolino, the Witches Cat by Ursula Moray Williams, and Total Eclipse, by John Brunner - which ought to be rated in the top 10 best science-fiction novels of the 20th century). Later, while perusing Liberty: the History "I peruse. It's what I do" I found these lovely illustrations of 'furoshiki' in a infotainment booklet that Liberty put out in 1935, illustrated by Joyce Dennys. I will admit that I did think about getting a Liberty scarf for furoshiki purposes, but being a satin (like the scarf I featured in box four) it will be slithery and, put on any kind of rough surface, pull very easily. Oh. And crazy expensive.
Illustrations of 'furoshiki' from
She Bought a Liberty Scarf (an Improving Tale)
Illustrated by Joyce Dennys
I can, however confirm that furoshiki make fantastic make-up/toiletry bags (having done a fair bit of 'shove it all in' over the past month).
The Box:
The Magazine and Postcard:
Melons. According to the Magazine a pair of Yubari Melons sold for 5 million yen in 2019. FIVE. Million. Yen. For two Honeydew melons. Now, I will be the first to say, I don't see the point of melons. Like mangoes, they're not sweet, they're not tangy, they're not fuity... just, melony. Musky. Rock, Honeydew, Water - utterly indifferent to them all. So, will this box change my mind? One of these millionaire's melons features on the postcard, along with a small bird, who looks like she is about to seriously reduce the auction price of that melon. The cover of the magazine shows the lavender fields of the island of Hokkaido, along with other brightly coloured flowers.
Hangetsu Side Plate
What exactly it is that makes this a side plate and not a tray, I'm not sure. As you can see, it features the same 'Four Seasons' design as last Boxes' Obon/Tray. The major difference is the tray has a faux-woodgrain texture, while the side plate is completely smooth - which makes it extremely difficult to photograph without reflections. Hello Curtains. The shape is ' Hangetsu' or 'Half Moon' (though to western eyes it looks more like 'Moon half sunk into the Ocean'). It has a nice gold rim, and again, is not microwave/ dishwasher/ oven safe. The slice is 10cm long and the diameter 15cm.
So, here we go! Sakuraco Box Five - Hokkaido Summer - Melons!
The Food:
Okina Dorayaki
It's breakfast time again, and I'll be starting with pancakes. What exactly makes an 'Okina' doriyaki different from the ones we've had in earlier boxes, I'm not sure. As you can see it has a really cool design lasered (lasered? I'm going with lasered) on top, which I'm going to assume is the logo, or something similar. It's a little bigger than the previous doriyaki and I think a little darker - it might be made with brown sugar instead of white. The tasting guide says the filling is just azuki paste, but the sweetness has more dimensionality than usual - from the possible brown sugar? There's also a slight nuttiness, possibly from the skins of the beans. It's a softer sweetness all round. I don't think I will ever choose azuki over another flavour (well, maybe banana or orange) but I definitely think it's growing on me, especially when it's a 30/30/30 mix of whole beans, squashed beans and paste.
Melon Soft Sand[wich]
The shape smell and texture of the Sand is the same as the Matcha Senbei from Box Two (ah, summer when it was warm...) but a little more golden - i.e. it lacks the matcha. It also has the oak leaf motif on the senbei, rather than the spirals. As you can see, you get two of these crunchy wafers, and the filling is a pale honeydew green. It's also a strange, slightly bitter, creme, with a musky-melon sour taste with hints of banana. The biscuit is, of course, lovely and crispy.
Hearty Age Mochi
What with respect for the elderly and noodles you must not cut for a long life (Yi Mien or E-fu noodles), you'll forgive me if I quickly assumed (yes, yes ASS-You-Me) that this mochi would allow me to live to a hearty age. Turns out Age means fried, so probably the precursor to a shortened life-span. They do have a slightly oily smell, probably a canola or sunflower, not a strong oil, and are no greasier than other chips. Like the Sakusaku rice crackers from the citrus box, it has a mineral 'iodine-y' scent, which carries over into the taste. They're pleasantly salty (but not as salty as chips). They're puffy-crunchy to eat. They remind me a lot of the Kinako mochi in box three, with that disappear-in-the-mouth way, though savory and much chunkier.
Butter Mochi Senbei
Black-and-White cows are definitely my favourite. In Australia we call them Friesians, but apparently in America they call them Holsteins (there are also brown-and-white Friesians, but we don't talk about them). Needless to say, I think the packaging on these senbei is very cute - I also like the use of negative space to define the cow's white patches, rather than a black outline. Sadly, this design isn't the one featured in the tasting guide. It also describes these senbei as being 'butter' and then 'buttermilk' - and which kind of buttermilk? Buttermilk, strictly speaking is the liquid left behind after churning cream into butter, but now seems to be what I would classify as 'vinegar added to milk' (excellent for Devil's Food Cake). Any hoo, a powdered form of this ambiguous liquid, along with honey have been added to mochi, to make another set of delicious tounge depressors. They are very pale, with only a slight blonding (I tried to take a picture but it just showed up as cream), and a warm, creamy smell. They have a genuinely 'milky' flavour, which I haven't noticed in previous milk-flavoured sweets, such as the strawberry and milk baumkuchen. Crunchy and fluffy, again, like the kinako mochi.
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Kibi Dango
Easily my favourite item in box five. The packaging is just so damn cute!
Brace yourself: Picture spam is coming.
And you get two of them!
I suspect the wrapping might be referencing a fairy/ folk tale - the hammer, I 'know' grants wishes in one of the fairytales I've read. I really like the 'woodblock' style printing (mostly) using different line weights to create gradients of colour.
These remind me a lot of the Matcha mochi in Box two - a lot. The major difference between the two is Kibi Dango is made with millet, rather than rice. They're both packaged with 'corrugated cardboard' (or rather, plastic) and wrapped in 'cellophane' - which the tasting guide very kindly informs me is called oblaat. I like to think that I have made a small contribution in getting that explanation (I believe they read this strange writing experiment)
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My only problem: as you can see is that the kibi dango has been padded out with the packaging. The taste is sweet which develops into a grown-up type caramel as you chew - and it is chewy, but not sticky. I don't notice any 'millet-y' after taste - in fact, I thought it smelled a bit ricey.
Hokkaido Milk Cheese Cake
The Prefecture Spotlight in the Magazine tells us that Hokkaido supplies half of all the milk in Japan, due to the cool climate and the availability of land. I find it interesting that there are no pictures of the cows grazing or any mention of being grass-fed, despite the cows being "happiest here". Hmmmm...
Anyway, let's get on to our cheese cake. This is not a baked American style Cheesecake, or a 'Proper' (i.e. Continental) Cheesecake, but a cake. Made with... cheese.
I know I have definitely walked through the City and seen sandwich boards advertising chocolate milkshakes with cheddar. Even writing this, the thought of having cheese in a sweet food is enough to make me gag. (My sister's new boyfriend, who is CLEARLY not from around here, has grated cheese on nutella). Worst, the picture on the package is clearly showing some kind of Jarlsburg, which has a sweet-nutty scent that makes me want to puke at the best of times, so, needless to say... Yeah. I was not looking forward to this.
Despite my trepidation, it actually was quite pleasant. Now, hear what I am saying, and not what I am not saying: I'm not saying that we should be adding machengo or fetta to all cakes, nor will I be buying a cheddar and coffee shake next opportunity. I'm saying this cake was quite pleasant, mostly, despite the the tasting notes saying that the cheese content was 'generous', it was unnoticeable. The desicated lumps of cheese on top were vaguely unpleasant (mostly because they were very dry and hard) but had no noticable flavour. There was a slight salty/cheesy smell, but nothing like, say, a sweaty piece of cheese left out all day.
It's been a very busy week or more, what with house-sitting, crazy storms and kitchen renovations, that I started writing this over yikes! two weeks ago. My next box is arriving today. Eeep! Hopefully, the next installment will be a bit more timely - I'll see you then!
