Head to “Amu Plaza Nagasaki” Directly Connected to Nagasaki Sta. to Get 3 Adorable Sweets with a Mix of Japanese, Chinese and Netherlands Culture!

Speaking of the popular sightseeing area leading Nagasaki Prefecture, it’s Sasebo City and Nagasaki City. You can travel between the two cities in about 2 hours without changing trains on the Sea Side Liner, and you can experience different scenery and culture in 2 days and 1 night. This time, we focused on “Amu Plaza Nagasaki (アミュプラザ長崎)” directly connected to Nagasaki Station, which allows you to get souvenirs easily even if visiting both cities during a few days. There are many items with a mix of Western, Chinese and Japanese cultures because Nagasaki City used to be the only opened port in Japan. Here are 3 adorable ones created by such history.

The box filled with the mini-size version of ‘Yori Yori’ is for 540 yen －”Chiyori” makes you want to collect all kinds of packages using four seasons of Nagasaki as a motif

‘Manjun Confectionery (萬順製菓),’ a long-established Chinese sweets shop founded in 1884. Its famous product is ‘Yori Yori (よりより),’ which has a unique twisted shape. It’s made by twisting a dough using wheat flour and frying it in oil. You can feel a crunchy and hard texture and the original sweetness and aroma of wheat that become stronger as you chew. “Chiyori (ちより)” is a bite-sized product that is easy to eat even for elderly people and small children, while maintaining the taste that is better than that. The package with illustrations of Nagasaki’s famous spots, traditional crafts, such as the trolley, Sailing Boat Festival, Oura Catholic Church, Meganebashi Bridge, and the beautiful scenery of each season is so adorable that you will want to collect all kinds. Its compact size and reasonable price of 540 yen per box make it ideal as a souvenir for a large number of people such as work and friends.

Auspicious sweets that have been popular as gifts for celebrations －”Peach Castella” with a cute appearance that imitates a peach

Castella is said to have been introduced from Portugal to Nagasaki in the middle of the 16th century. Since then, it has evolved uniquely in Nagasaki and is now a famous confectionery that represents the prefecture. Among them, “Peach Castella (Momo Castella, 桃カステラ)” sold at ‘Bunmeido Sohonten (文明堂総本店),’ which was founded in 1900, is known as a lucky confectionery that has been eaten during the peach festival since ancient times. In recent years, it has become popular as a gift for celebrations such as wedding gifts and baby gifts. The base is castella, which uses carefully selected ingredients such as glutinous rice starch syrup and syrup, in addition to eggs developed with a contract farm. Peach nuts are made from sugar honey. You should be fascinated by the elegant taste of the moist castella and the sweetness of the plump sugar honey. By the way, over-the-counter sales of peach castella are usually limited to the period from February to early March, but if you make a reservation in advance, you can get it throughout the year. ‘Hime Momoka (姫桃菓),’ which is a bite-sized peach castella, is also popular, so choose your favorite.

Fascinated with the marriage of the custard cream using plenty of eggs and the fluffy sponge cage －”Ran Petit” telling us the history of Nagasaki full of exoticism

‘Karakusa (唐草)’ was founded in 1968 with the aim of making sweets that is unique to Nagasaki full of historical romance. They are famous for these sweets: ‘Nagasaki Monogatari (長崎物語)’ which tells the story of Nagasaki in the 1800s and ‘Loquat Castella (枇杷カスタ)’ which uses plenty of loquats imported from China to Nagasaki in 1840. Above all, “Ran Petit (らん・プティ)” is the most popular, which is a sponge cake made with luxuriously fresh eggs and steamed with plenty of custard cream. It was born as “a sweet that suits Nagasaki with a Western scent.” The gentle sweetness of the sponge cake, which spreads the scent of eggs softly, and the mellow custard cream melt in your mouth, making it very delicious. You should be able to relax with its cute rounded appearance. By the way, it is recommended to eat it chilled. Enjoy the changes in texture and taste.