Plum Ice Cream Cakes (梅アイスもなか)
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Part 6 of the series: Satoyama Concept in Fukui
The town of Wakasa in Fukui Prefecture is famous for its production of plums. In fact, plums are particularly mentioned by the town in their case study for the Satoyama Initiative. The local variety of plum, known as the Fukui Plum (福井梅 / Fukui-ume), is characterised by its thick flesh and small pit. The most common way to consume the plums is by pickling them to make umeboshi which is then served with rice. To make umeboshi, the plums are salted, then dried in the sun before putting them into brine.
In the gift shop of Hotel Suigekka, I discovered that a clever entrepreneur had developed ice cream using the plums. The mild tasting ice cream is served inside a wafer (もなか / monaka). This is an adaptation of the traditional Japanese treat monaka (最中) which is a wafer filled with sweet adzuki bean, black sesame seed, or chestnut jam.
It is well worth giving this delicious ice cream a try when visiting Fukui. Within Japan, the ice cream can also be ordered via Shokokai(JP), Amazon(JP/EN), or Rakuten(JP/EN). Another unique product they produce is lotus soft ice cream (はすソフトクリーム), as can be seen here.
Manufacturer: こう太郎のアイス屋さん
Address: 〒919-0225 福井県南条郡南越前町東谷6-85
6-86 Higashidani, Minami-Echizen-chō, Nanjō-gun, Fukui-ken
Tel.: 0778-47-2357
