Austria is officially a Catholic country. That is why Christmas is very important. On the 24th of December almost all shops close around noon. It is quieting down and one can get a serene feeling. Christmas Eve is very important and celebrated. The 25th is Christmas Day and the 26th is “Stefanitag” and both days are public holidays with all shops closed. Therefore one should carefully buy groceries before those days. For these holidays I would like to have a special treat. In one of the bigger supermarkets I looked at the frozen foods section. In Japan there is an “Ice cake” for Christmas Eve, which is a whole cake made of ice cream decorated like a cake. As a child every year I ate this together with my family and I really loved it. In Austria there is no “Ice cake” but I wanted to buy something really good for Christmas and so I found the treat in the picture! It is a regular supermarket but in the frozen foods section there was “Mochi ice cream”! There is even “Daifuku” written on the package. For me this is obviously a copy of “Yukimi Daifuku”, which is ice cream covered with mochi. Mochi is soft and sticky rice dough. The combination with ice cream was a new thing when I was young and it became very popular. I never thought that I could just buy something like this in a regular supermarket in Austria. In order to try it I bought one pack of coconut taste and tasted it. The balls are much smaller than I thought and the package containing 6 pieces costs about 6 Euros which is a little expensive. As the package says, it really is a treat. Yes, it really tastes delicious. I also like the name “Little moons”, because in Japan it is said that in the moon there live rabbits making mochi. Other available flavours are Mango and Strawberry. I suppose Mango is yellow moon and Strawberry is blood moon. My own Christmas treat for this year is already chosen.
オーストリアはカトリックが国の宗教と定められています。ですから、クリスマスはとても大切です。２４日はお昼頃にほとんどのお店が閉まり、街は静けさに沈んでいきます。クリスマスイヴはカトリックにとって、とても重要です。２5日はクリスマス、２6日は聖シュテファヌスの日で、共に祭日で、お店等も休みます。ですから、前もって十分買い物をしておかねばなりません。私は、今年のクリスマスの準備の下見をしに、少し大きめのスーパーに行きました。子供の頃、日本でよく、アイスデコレーショントルテをイヴに家族と共に食べて楽しかった思い出があるので、冷凍コーナーを見てみました。この国にはアイスデコレーショントルテはないのですが、その代わりに特別においしいアイスクリームがあればいいなと思ったのです。そして、この写真のパッケージを発見！MOCHIですって？「大福」とまで書いてある… これは「雪見だいふく」に似せて作られたものですよね？オーストリアの普通のスーパーで、こんなものが売られていようとは！私は感激して、早速ココナッツ味を買って試してみました。思ったより小さくて、大きめの白玉だんごくらい。でも、すごくおいしい！6個入りで約6ユーロ（約700円）は少し高いと思いますが、「ごほうび」とか「特別な日」にうってつけではないでしょうか。それに、”LITTLE MOONS”という命名も素敵。 他にはマンゴー味と木苺味も見ました。マンゴー味は黄色いお月様、木苺味は月蝕の時の赤いお月様を連想します。 我が家のクリスマスの甘いご馳走はこれに決まり！
Picture by Yuka Simeno 2019
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