Surprise again

Since almost everything in Tokyo seemed to be closed this evening, I ended up back at magic bar Surprise again. A guy showed up with a huge box of doughnuts and shared them with everyone. He also had tiny tai-yaki waffles.

Swedish waffles and Swedish pancakes

On Sunday one of my friends stopped by and wanted to eat Swedish waffles. I also made some Swedish pancakes. My friend had also brought another young Japanese girl along.

I provided jam and whipped cream for a dessert style waffle or pancake, and I also provided cheese, ham, and Swedish mushrooms. Both options were popular. In return, they gave me some Fukagawa omiyage which consists of Japanese sweet stuff, like matcha (green tea) and anko (sweet beans).

Waffle Day

I forgot to take photos before I was down to the last batter that was not enough to make a full waffle...

In Sweden we have "waffle day" every year on March 25. It is apparently a mishearing of "vårfrudagen" ("the day of our lady", which would be the mother of Christ) as "våffeldagen" ("waffle day"). It began as a Christian thing celebrating Maria getting pregnant, but since few people are religious anymore, it has been misunderstood as a day to eat waffles. And that is what it has become.

I have a waffle iron to make Swedish waffles (Japanese waffle irons cannot be used to make Swedish waffles since they are made for batter that will swell and Swedish waffles are not made using that) so I make waffles every waffle day. Sometimes friends show up and eat them with me, but this year I was all alone. It does not help that everyone (including me) always has to work in the evenings here.

Here is a short report but with a nicer photo from last year's Waffle Day in Sapporo. I also have a blog post with the recipe for Swedish waffles, which is one of my most frequently accessed blog posts.

Swedish waffles in Sweden

I make Swedish waffles in Japan, but it is nice to taste the waffles made by pros in Sweden from time to time too. And they have better access to jam.

Blood and violence, the unexpected result of a waffle party

While I was making waffles, my friends were looking through all my stuff. They found the set with the blond wig, blue stickers to put on your eyelids, and the big "foreigner nose" I bought to dress up like a foreigner for a Japanese Halloween party once. They looked pretty interesting in the fake nose.

They also found some pictures that I got for my birthday that when you look at them from one angle look perfectly normal, but from some angles look like monster version of the same people. They thought that was funny too, and took photos of themselves next to these pictures as well as when wearing the fake nose.

What they liked the most was the can of fake blood I had left from when making blood for my zombie adventures. One of them said that it had always been a dream of hers to put lots of blood in her mouth and let it run down her chin... Presumably she fairly weird dreams.

They asked if they could use some of the blood and take more photos, and since it is easy to make and contains only cheap ingredients, I let them have all the blood they wanted. They took lots of weird photos.

The next day I found fake blood in my kitchen, on the floor, in my bathroom, and in the toilet. That stuff is made with syrup so it sticks to anything and everything.

March 25, Swedish waffle day

March 25 is Waffle Day in Sweden (nowadays, it used to be the day to celebrate the virgin Mary becoming pregnant, thus 9 months before Christmas). Two of my friends invited themselves over to have waffles. We ate way too many waffles, but it was a lot of fun.

Swedish waffles, recipe

Swedish waffle with strawberry jam and vanilla ice cream

Here is a recipe for Swedish waffles that I have found to produce waffles that taste similarly to the waffles you get by using "waffle mix" (which gives you the best waffles, better than what you can make yourself from raw ingredients; the people that do the research at those companies know what they are doing). You also need a Swedish style waffle iron, since Swedish waffles are very thin compared to Japanese, American, or Belgian waffles. Trying to make Swedish waffles in a Japanese (which is similar to American) waffle iron will not work since the Swedish waffles will not rise and thus only be baked from below and will not turn into waffles.

A waffle and my waffle iron

Anyway, these are the ingredients:

* butter, 67 gram
* flour, 200 ml
* cream, 50 ml (and for Japanese readers, cream means something that comes from a cow, not that vegetable based stuff that is called cream in Japan, though I imagine that can also be used)
* milk, 50 ml (if the waffles become too dry, reduce milk and add cream)
* 1 egg
* baking powder, 0.5 teaspoon (2.5 ml)
* salt, as much as you think tastes best, but probably no more than the baking powder above (less would be fine, though)
* oil, add oil if the waffles are not crispy enough or if they stick to the waffle iron (you could also add oil into the waffle iron to fix the latter problem)
* water, 100 ml. Add more water if the waffle batter is not fluid enough for your taste (should be less runny than pancake batter, though)

Basically you mix everything in a bowl, and mix the batter thoroughly. Mix all the dry ingredients first. The butter should be melted before mixing with the rest.

Butter can be replaces with oil, but the taste will turn slightly worse I think. You can reduce the amount of milk and increase the amount of cream instead if you think the waffles are too dry. You can increase the amount of water if you don't think the batter is runny enough. You can add oil to make the waffles crispier, and make them less likely to stick to the iron. Most modern waffle irons are Teflon coated, which is great. My waffle iron is iron, so it rusts and stuff stick to it like crazy (on the upside, you can use it with an electric stove, a gas burner, and induction heating stove, a camp fire, or whatever you may have available).

Waffles are usually served as a dessert type of food, so usually they are served with whipped cream and jam. In traditional Swedish places they often give you "cloudberry" jam. The second most common would be raspberry jam (we have enormous amounts of raspberries in the woods in Sweden). Blueberry and strawberry are common too. Using ice cream instead of whipped cream is not uncommon.

Waffles can also be served as food rather than sweets. Ingredients-wise, waffles are kind of bread (my recipe above contains eggs, so maybe closer to cakes than bread, but many waffle recipes are without eggs; the really basic ones are just wheat flour and cream). So anything that goes with bread is fine. Ham and cheese is good, for instance. You can also mix herbs or cheese into the batter.

Swedish waffles

When I had the flu I did not want to go out to eat, since I might spread the flu to innocent people. So I made waffles at home instead, with some of the waffle mix a Swedish friend brought to Sapporo.