Crumbs to Crunch

It's no secret that here at Crumbs to Crunch, we love our ice cream . As summer draws to a close, we are very sad to see the beginning of the end of the ice cream season. However, as the Japanese summer lasts that little bit longer, I've been lucky enough to find the time to try a new ice cream flavour. Japanese is well known for it's love of green tea. As it's so hot at the moment, many people are serving cold green tea with ice cubes in it. However, some go the extra mile and turn their tea into ice cream. I was passing a speciality tea shop and noticed that they were serving soft serve ice cream. Although this is fairly standard ice cream fare (I've never met anyone who doesn't love a 99 flake), this ice cream has the edge with its unique flavour. Although undoubtedly sweet, the bitterness of the tea added a pleasing and unsual undertone. And for just 280 yen (about £1.40), who can say no? And if you're not a fan of green tea, why not try the brown...

Japan has many exciting festivals, which are excellent places to try some local delicacies. The most recent festival was Tanabata, or the Star Festival. Tanabata is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. The story behind the festival seems to vary, but the one I was told involved two stars who fell in love, but are only able to meet on the day of Tanabata. To celebrate this festival, paper decorations are hung in the streets and people write their wishes on wishing trees. A lot of these are made and written by children, and half the fun of Tanabata is reading the hopes and dreams of the local kids. For Tanabata I journeyed to Sendai, a city which is famous for its Tanabata decorations. I was overwhelmed by the intricacy of many of the designs. Most of the decorations are covered in hundreds of tiny origami, and it must take their makers hours to perfect their designs. After a couple of hours of strolling through the city and lookin...

I recently came across an unusual and not entirely appetising sounding snack. How would you like to nibble on some athlete's foot? Japan is well known for its unusual food, whether its wacky ice cream flavours (I've heard that squid ice cream is a thing...) or their gung ho attitude towards raw meat, fish and eggs. Therefore it should have come as no surprise to me that my local bakery's speciality is called Mizumushi, or athlete's foot. Fear not! Instead of munching on a diseased body part, I was relieved to find out that Mizumushi is actually a type of bread. Each bread bun is shaped like a foot, with a light dusting of bread crumbs and sugar, representing the diseased aspect! Inside there are a variety of fillings. I went for the peanut cream, and I was not disappointed. Half-way between custard and peanut butter, it was certainly delicious. So just as you would never judge a book by its cover, don't be put off if a sweet snack has a slight...

Food and history are my two favourite things in the world. Put them together they make a killer combination. My recent visit to Henry VIII's palace, Hampton Court, did just that! To celebrate Hampton Court's 500 anniversary, a series of short plays about the well known inhabitants are being staged in the splendid rooms and courtyards. I witnessed Henry VIII composing some music, Elizabeth I interrogating a Scottish envoy about Mary Queen of Scots as well as Shakespeare's company rehearsing 'the Scottish play'. These sketches all took place in the rooms where their real counterparts plotted and schemed which made the whole place come alive.  Elizabeth I As you can tell from Henry VIII's rather large physique, feasts played an important role in court life. The kitchens where these vast banquets were prepared are still on show and even have a man operating a spit to invite tourists to get cooking! There is even a chocolate kitchen, one of the first o...