Pepsi Azuki

I have something today. I don't know if this is an amazing something or a something that is just amusing, but it is a something. This something is azuki (sometimes spelled adzuki) bean Pepsi. Azuki beans are sweet red beans the Japanese use in a lot of desserts and snacks. It is one of the primary Japanese flavors for sweet things. In addition to the plethora of traditional foods containing the bean, the Japanese have azuki flavored ice cream, azuki cakes and now azuki Pepsi.

We also went to a potluck tonight. I made my persimmon rice pudding for it. This was partially inspired by an incident where one of Nat's students stole the camera to look at the pictures and a teacher asked about the pudding and asked to try some. I also realize that my usual potluck fall-back of fried eggplant (with skordalia) doesn't travel well. Luckily, we're still in the height of persimmon season, so this is the perfect food for a Japanese get-together.

I expressed, when I posted the recipe for this, that it may be wise to use more than one persimmon for the recipe. More persimmons is definitely a good idea. Since I had one on hand, I went to the store to pick up more. The only ones that were ripe enough were smaller persimmons, so I ended up using my one normal-sized persimmon and three more smaller ones (this would probably even out to three normal-sized persimmons or five small persimmons). Since I was in a bit of a hurry, I used the blender to mash them into goo.

The food at the potluck was delicious. There were more Americans present than Japanese. I had no idea what to expect, so I was actually a little surprised. It was fun, though.