One of the best feelings in the world is getting a gift in the post! Even better when you've ordered something special from a friend who has gone to all the trouble of wrapping it beautifully, putting it inside useful boxes and bags, tucking in little treats and special gifts for you, too!
My wonderful friend, Noriko, has an eBay shop that she uses to offer the delights of Japanese cuisine to those of us in the UK, and in America, too. I promise I'll put her details at the bottom of the blog, so you can order from her as well.
I had seen her advertising Sakura essence on eBay and was cheeky enough to ask if she would mind getting a few other bits for me. Being the lovely lady that she is, of course she immediately offered me both her list of Sakura products and an invitation to see her list of Yuzu products, too! (Yes, I have already sent her another order for her lovely Yuzu juices and peels.)
I had been hunting for Sakura essence after reading blogs by Chika at She Who Eats and Heather Baird's lovely Sprinkle Bakes blog and realising for the first time that I had a Japan shaped hole in my repertoire!
Noriko's lovely package was whisked up to me while I was napping after a few very fraught days full of stress and sleeplessness. I couldn't help but think the package simply seemed to behave like a bag. There was no other way of putting it. There was a flat bottom, smooth sides, and it just seemed to say "stand me up, please! So I did.
Biscuit, my baby British Blue, decided that of course I was going to need help with opening the packaging and doing the photographing, so before I could do anything much at all she came along to help me...
It really did take all my self control to stop from opening the package up there and then!
The first thing I found inside the package was a lovely Cherry Blossom pink and coffee coloured cool bag, just the right size for a lunch or a couple of tiny purchases when I'm out shopping and buy something that needs to be kept cold. What a delightful extra that I hadn't expected! So very thoughtful of Noriko. Then I opened the bag.
Oh wow! What an amazing and useful little box! Perfect for some of my baking bits, re-usable and wonderfully thoughtful. Again! I couldn't believe just how sweet Noriko was to do all this for me. She had already given me wonderful prices on the delights that I had ordered from her, and now all this generosity with the wrappings as well. I was speechless. But there was more...
Inside the lovely little box was a note, thanking me for my order and wrapping a gift in a pretty pink and purple bag for me! A gift on top of all this. I cannot ever get over how amazingly generous and wonderful Japanese people are when you place an order with them; but Noriko had gone above and beyond, she really had. This was like Christmas and birthdays all rolled into one. Everything in the box had been wrapped carefully in bubble wrap and high impact polystyrene sheet to protect it, and there were little Milky sweets popped into the tiny gaps, too. I felt incredibly spoiled.
My order had, of course, survived immaculately and I eagerly unwrapped each piece. Noriko had sent me a pack of pickled Sakura leaves, a block of sweet beans and jelly with Sakura flowers and leaves mixed into it, a precious bottle of Sakura essence, a jar of pickled Sakura blossoms, a sachet of powdered Sakura leaf and the Sakura flavour granules that you mix with rice to make Sakura Mochi. I was in Wagashi heaven!
This, for me, was the highlight of the package. A tiny bottle of pure essence of cherry blossom.
I quickly tore off the plastic cover and opened the bottle. Take everything you imagined cherry blossom could taste or smell like, and throw it away, it's wrong. Although light and floral this smells and tastes nothing like you would expect. I really cannot describe it as I have no reference in Western cuisine to compare it to, you can only try it for yourself. I had read the leaves were where most of the taste was to be found, and that the flowers were very light, but this stuff is amazing!
And a gift, too. Lovely Matcha au laite sticks and four tiny Milky sweets. Yes, I know there's only three there. I did say I was impatient! They were also delicious, even if it was my breakfast.
Now there's only one thing left to do - make something with it! Watch this space for more about my lovely parcels from Japan and the delicious things I'm going to be making with them.
If you'd like to buy from Noriko, you can find her shop on eBay here: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/ednoriko2012/&_trksid=p3984.m1435.l2754
Or you can email her direct at no.edahiro@gmail.com
Feel free to ask about any Japanese product, and she will give you her very best price - but I cannot promise she will be as generous in her packaging to you as she is to me! She is, after all, a very special friend of mine.
To Noriko - thank you! Domo arigato! Your generosity is very much appreciated.
