DIY Panda Dango! Suppanda!!

Looks simple enough. Really isn't.

       So, I was at this year's AFA(anime festival asia; which was awesome, by the way) and while I was walking down the Japanese food section, I spotted this familiar looking thing. Yes! Panda Dango! Score!!!

     And I had no idea what had gotten into me. See, I'm not really that crazed up about pandas. Ever since Kai Kai and Jia Jia (Pandas in singapore originally from China) came over I've noticed a lot of panda merchandise sprouting up all over the country. Maybe, just maybe, I was subconsciously affected by the craze, because here I was, buying yet another panda related Japanese candy.

In Ume flavour! My favourite!

  I'll get into that later. For now, Panda dango!

So tearing open the package, this is what you'll get. A mixing bowl/container/whatever it is, a packet of black mochiko, a packet of white mochiko, a spoon and the powder for the sweet sauce.

I guess it's pretty much self explanatory. Well, except for the mixing-the-ingredients-part. Excuse me for my horrible Japanese, I got the spoon and the small little water measuring thingy mixed up. But I managed somehow.

The cute thing. All ready to get its head bitten off.

There came a point in time when I realised The yellow stick portrayed in the picture wasn't there. I was like, oh shucks, no stick, what now? To be honest I felt a little cheated. I mean, who doesn't include sticks with DIY dango kits? That's right, no one. Anyway, I made do with a chopstick and stuck the fella right through. 

     Making it was a pain in the butt though. I didn't really see the point of putting in much effort and making the dango look like a panda, since I'm going to eat it all up in the end no matter what it tastes like, right? The flour thingy? Not as malleable as I thought it would be. It sticks everywhere, and it's almost near impossible to get rid of the ugly crack lines and it was like trying to make stuff out of soaked play dough. Or maybe I added a little too much water. Well, the picture at the end of it all motivated me to make it presentable, so I spent a good half and hour assembling everything together (After much remodeling and sculpting)

     I feel like a Michelangelo. seriously. One of my best works yet, I must admit. 

   It tasted, alright, I guess. Nothing fancy, nothing surprising, in fact, if you've already tried the popin cookin sushi set, the dango has the sort of stickyness of the sushi rice. but tastes more like plain flour. But the sauce was crazy yummy. Just like the one you get in Japanese desert shops served with dango. You know, that syrup you thought was honey but ended up tasting more like someone dumped a hell load of sugar into a tub of soy sauce? Yeah, that's the one.

I'd give it a go, but if you used to be one of those kids who got so fed up trying to make play dough sculptures and squished them all together in one mush instead, Don't even think about it. Because that's all there really is to it, playin' with dough that's edible.

NOW, Suppanda!! I LOVED suppanda!! yes, The exclamation marks are there because it's part of Suppanda!!'s name. I was fortunate enough to find one of the rarer flavours, ume. (I think there was lemon and grape too.) Okay, so I wasn't able to get a picture of it because, 1) It was all melted together in the pack, 2) It was so good I finished it all before I felt like reviewing it. 

     It looks like a cute, pink, round ball of mochi, and from the package, it seems there's not one but TWO layers to it. So for scientific purposes, I tore the whole thing in half (which was really, literally, hard being stuck in the fridge and all) and yeah, it's true. The outside part's the chewy part, and it's kinda like those fruit plus sweets.  The inside part's made up of plum paste, I believe, a sour plum paste. It tastes exactly like the plum ball thingies I got quite a while ago. I thought it'd be as explosively sour as a warhead or sourbombs, judging from the poor panda's look of distress on the package, but it's really more of a hi-chew sour. a nice sour.

   This was truly and honestly one of my fave sweets of all time.

Hungry bunny over and out eating a homemade matcha pudding. OKAY it was a ready made supermarket packet, but I DID boil the water and I DID fill it into cute pudding cups myself. So it's homemade in it's own right.


P.S. I found the yellow stick for the dangos under the computer table. I wonder how it got there. Oh well.

Today's Sweet Haul: Morinaga Caramel and Ramune

Looks like a cigarette box... Smells like Matcha!

     I found a mini japanese sweets haunt today!!! Hidden away underneath the busy streets of Clarke Quay at The Central (a Mall), is the store YAMAKAWA SUPER. yes. that's the name of the store. It is quite as SUPER as they claim it to be. Rows and rows of shelves stocked with Japanese snacks and treats, plus, a section with imported Japanese drinks like the ever-so-popular Calpis, Ramune sodas and gasp! sake (Which i'm not old enough to even touch).

    They have a wide selection of interesting looking sweets, half of which I can't even tell if they are sweets or kid's toys. SO anyway, I was allowed to buy just two. 

   First up, Morinaga Caramel in Matcha flavour. If you're a big fan of sticky, chewy caramels, then this is the sweet for you (If you can find it, it's a particularly shy creature.) They come in all sorts of flavours, from the usual chocolate and milk, to the surprising sweet potato, pudding and Azuki (red bean). Also, they come in a really neat packaging - a slide out match box. Personally,  I like the Matcha flavour best. It's really nice and milky, kinda like green tea ice cream. 

Decorative Totoro figures not included (I made them myself)

Also made by the same company is this bottle of Ramune flavoured tablets. Ramune, for those unfamiliar with the drink, is a japanese soda. It's sort of like a sweeter version of sprite, and it's a flavour that's very popular wherever Japanese sweets are concerned. These sweets taste very much like your average soda tablets, and they dissolve pretty fast too. not surprising in the very least.

     

   If you ever want to try out some other interesting japanese morsels, here's the address to the place:

6 Eu Tong Sen Street #B1-28B

The Central Singapore 059817

Tel: 6534-9518

(Haha I got this from the receipt)

BEWARE the place is like a maze, and it's kinda hard to find your way around the basement. The Mall's fairly easy to locate though. All you have to do is to alight at the clarke quay MRT station. Good luck! 

Hungry Bunny over and out~