Yuzugaki
On a day when we had very English weather (sun, rain, and anything in between), I had a great pleasure meeting Katy Huiwen Hung, a Taiwanese food historian. Together we visited Kew Garden herbarium. Among their wonderful collection, I found an odd Japanese sweet called Yuzugaki - dried persimmons with Yuzu peels rolled and wrapped with a straw rope. Who knew Kew has a stash of sweets!? This particular Yuzugaki was dated, we believe, year 2002, and from a little mountainous village in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu Island. This dried delicacy has been produced there since around 1975, but there is an interesting history behind it. Yuzugaki, Kew Gardens collection History of persimmons Persimmons, or kaki , was believed to have been introduced from China. However, multiple archaeological evidence suggest that there were native persimmon trees in various parts of Japan, albeit rare. For example, fossils of Diospyros miokaki leaves