Kakiagoori - Cooking Japanese in Jamaica

 I FIND the weather in Jamaica to be always hot and so, to me, it feels like permanent summer. Growing up in Japan, summer was very hot and winter was very cold. Spring was warm and the sight of cherry blossoms made me sad. Autumn was chilly and we stayed indoors and enjoyed reading books.

Every season has its own nostalgic memory. But let's talk about summer. One of the things that remind me of Japanese summer is fireworks. Osaka, where I am from, has one of the biggest fireworks festivals, with about 23,000 fireworks in one hour. It is nothing but spectacular. Matsuri is summer festival with traditional music and dance, as well as hundreds of vendors selling toys, food and drink. Every year, my sister and I looked forward to those experiences.

Another thing we enjoyed during summer was kakigoori. It is the Japanese version of snowball. The difference is the ice for kakigoori is shaved to a texture that feels like real snow, and they use different types of toppings, including green tea syrup, sweet aduki beans, molasses, among others.

I am going to share a few of many kakigoori flavours, using ingredients available in Jamaica.

Itadakimasu!

Ai Irisawa-Coney managed a Japanese restaurant in Soho, London. She is also a founder of Epiphany Media Solutions. Check www.facebook.com/epiphanymediaja and ACI Consultancy www.aci-consultancy.com.

Cooking Japanese in Jamaica

Fruit kakigoori

4 chunks of kiwi

2 chunks of sugar loaf pineapple

2 slices of banana

4 chunks of watermelon

4 chunks of mango

4tbs condensed milk

Instructions

Create mountain of snowball in a bowl.

Pour condensed milk over it.

Decorate with chunks of fruit.

Coffee and Milk Kakigoori

1/2 cups strong blue mountain coffee

1tbs brown sugar

3tbs condensed milk

InstructionS

Dissolve sugar in strong coffee.

Create mountain of snowball in a bowl.

Pour coffee, then condensed milk over the mountain.

Kuromitsu Kakigoori

2tbs Molasses

2tbs condensed milk

1 scoop vanilla ice cream

Instructions

Create mountain of snowball in a bowl.

Pour molasses, then condensed milk over the mountain.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Ichigo milk kakigoori

3tbs strawberry-flavour syrup

2tbs condensed milk

1 strawberry, cut in half

Instructions

Create mountain of snowball in a bowl.

Pour strawberry syrup, then condensed milk over the mountain.

Decorate with slices of strawberries.

For all flavoured kakigoori: 3 cups of snowball ice

Cooking time: 10 minutes each

Serves 1 person

Kakigoori