Last Friday Megumi and I drove down to Naha to meet up with two of her girlfriends. We were on a mission - locate Piednue bakery, purchase delectable sweets for our sweethearts, and have a fun girls' day out.
We had a wonderful lunch at a hotel buffet in Naha. Lots of beautiful foods to choose from (it's still all about presentation here - even on a buffet.) Among other things, I had some lovely breaded salmon and squid, ramen, and was thrilled to find lychee (litchi) again. The girls were very impressed by the sushi. It was colorful and quite pretty, but my aversion to vinegar kept me from consuming any. Sashimi (raw fish) I enjoy, sushi - not so much.
After a delicious meal, we shopped a bit in the large San-A complex. It was neat to see all the Valentine's displays - so many different chocolates to choose from and so little time! :) Naturally, we had to stop at several puricura booths to get sticker pictures. Not sure when the last time these girls had done puricura, but we sure laughed a lot. I was reminded how long it had been since I'd done puricura in Japan on my last trip in 2005 and how technology has progressed...there are a lot more high tech lights, special effects to choose from, and now you can actually choose to download your images to a cell phone while you wait for your sticker pictures to print. Amazing!
From there, we piled in my Dingo and headed over to Piednue, a cute little bakery Megumi loves. Now that I've been there, I too, have fallen in love with it! We chose to sit and enjoy their drink bar (we were too full from lunch to try any of their adorable desserts while there.) Drink bars are quite popular over here. Unlimited teas/coffees/sodas and a relaxing place to sit and enjoy each others company or, if you are out on your own, they have many magazines or books on the shelves for your enjoyment.
I loved the sitting room - lots of wood and oh-so-cute hanging metal and glass sculptures.
There is even a small garden with lots of greenery to enjoy out the windows. I love how every nook and cranny here is used to produce beautiful greenery and flowers.
We had fun comparing notes on cooking - we all seem to enjoy making desserts the most. Did I mention we conversed in Japanese all day? That was especially fun for me! My comprehension skills are much better than my speaking skills at the moment, so Megumi had to translate some of my answers, but it was so exciting to listen to the girls talk in Japanese and understand what they were saying! Good motivation to continue my studying!
One of my favorite parts of Piednue was the fact that they had glass windows to allow you to observe them making sweets. I was a captivated audience, I'll tell you. I'm loving decorating my sugar cookies and Mimi just sent me some new dessert cookbooks I'm anxious to delve into, so I was thrilled to be watching their process. I'm not sure if they don't get very many American customers or if I was just "too cute" with my huge grin of thorough interest and enjoyment, but I definitely got their attention. I even scored us some samples, as one of the ladies brought out two chocolate covered heart-shaped cookies they were making! My girls finally had to drag me away from the windows so we could make our purchases and head out. So much fun!
Here's what I got us:
The cheesecake Megumi raved about. I now know why she likes it so much - it's perfect! Definitely not like American cheesecake, but neither Brandon nor I can describe it very well. Japanese cheesecake is much more cheese than cake. It's rich and sweet, but more sweet cheese than sweet sugar. Ah! See, I can't explain it. I'll have to look for a recipe sometime.
And here's what I got my sweetheart, Brandon, for Valentine's Day: chocolate mousse cake. Yes, that is real gold dust on top! So fancy!
Bottom layer of rich chocolate cake, two layers of melt-in-you-mouth chocolate mousse, completely covered in a thick layer of smooth dark chocolate. Oh my goodness! Chocolate heaven! Every bite divine! (He even shared a bite with me! Lucky girl!)
And we can't forget the wonderful, flowery English translations on the wrapping: "We display colorful cakes like a jewel and finish it. I put true heart and made the sweets which everybody loved. Pleasure...(heart) to lose what you may choose with various kinds." Yup, think something definitely got lost in translation there. But it's really pretty. :)
We had a wonderful girls' day out! So much fun! Good friends, good food, amazing desserts! Can't beat it!
---Arielle
