Green tea flavoured desserts- like, try or dislike?

[shootingstar]

Would you choose one if given a choice, to try/because you like them?

Or never? Or it depends how green tea flavour is married with the type dessert?

I was chatting up with a local baker that creates gourmet creme puffs, with choice light creme fillings that change daily: strawberry, Irish bailey's, hazelnut chocolate, mango, lemon, etc.

Green tea flavour is popular in Metro Vancouver, from what he has discovered. I'm not surprised there is a huge % of residents of Asian descent who have a broad /exploratory palate (not all but obviously some, judging by the number of foodies and food bloggers from there).

But not in our city of over 1 million people in prairie Alberta. In fact, this bakery found out in their 2nd outlet out in the suburbs, the most popular flavour was Chantilly Creme or Chocolate. Very few people even tried Lemon or Strawberry Creme Pufffs. Which surprised me. (Are people in our prairie city THAT conservative in the 'burbs?? This is a city of 1 million people. Jeepers. )

[goldfinch]

Ick.

[Eden]

I rather like green tea ice cream. I also like red bean desserts - with some green tea

[Owlie]

Green tea ice cream is tasty. And I made green tea shortbread last weekend...I'm having a hard time saving them for when DBF gets here.
(I've never tried red bean desserts.)

I think a lot of it boils down to demographics--both ethnic and socioeconomic. I've never found green tea-flavored anything in Ohio outside of Japanese restaurants (I miss Pacific East and Tree Country!), or the 6-acre international foods store. It's harder to find that sort of thing, I think, in areas without substantial minority populations, or in non-affluent areas. I cannot find hot salsa here, and my local grocery store thinks that Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Indian food are all the same thing. (And most of that "Asian" section is made up of instant noodles.)

[OakLeaf]

Daifuku with green tea mochi. Even the nasty industrial packaged ones are delicious, but a couple of months ago I had a house made one at a fine Japanese restaurant, wrapped in a bamboo leaf and grilled. O. M. G. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

[pll]

I liked green tea ice cream. Green tea kit kat, on the other hand, was strange (got some in Tokyo). There is a picture here (bottom right):
http://operationsroom.wordpress.com/...nese-kit-kats/

[Owlie]

Daifuku with green tea mochi. Even the nasty industrial packaged ones are delicious, but a couple of months ago I had a house made one at a fine Japanese restaurant, wrapped in a bamboo leaf and grilled. O. M. G. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Oh dear...
Now I want Japanese food. I don't think there is actually a Japanese restaurant in this area.

[shootingstar]

I haven't tried enough mochi, Oak. It's probably best to taste handmade stuff not the preserved ones I see in boxes at a store.

Green tea Kit-Kat? Amazing. It would take alot of experimentation to get it right. Wasabi kit-kat?? I guess that would be like red chili in Mexican chocolates..which I've had....
I've had a chocolate green tea mousse cream gourmet cake slice in Vancouver. It tastes light and the green tea is very subtle. The baker is Chinese-Canadian but trained in France.

Red bean dessert is ok. I just perfer abit less, beaniness. I just have it..whenever it's served to me. I would tend to choose a green tea dessert if given a choice.

I cannot find hot salsa here, and my local grocery store thinks that Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Indian food are all the same thing. (And most of that "Asian" section is made up of instant noodles.)

That is amusing, to squash so many diverse centuries -gastronomies with regional differences, in 1 fell swoop.

But from the Asian side, it probably takes some time to figure the difference amongst a galette, tarte, pie... if not used to the stuff.

The pastry chef that I mentioned in start of thread...is Indonesian. He had a bakery in Indonesia, then went to Vancouver to get more chef training. Now set up shop in.....Calgary.

It's just truly amazing the dreams of some immigrants...and what they do...

So I visit when I can..because they seem to be interested in my opinion. (I'm not sure but maybe because I have been raised in Canada and...they know my partner's family has a string of pastry chefs...)

Right now they are trying to find right branding name for an Indonesian bun.

But back to green tea....I now realize, that Calgary probably offers very few places with green tea desserts of anything, anywhere.

Their idea of haute, chic ethnic cuisine is more....Italian. Asian restaurants just struggle along wanting to break free of mainstream dishes... they're getting there...but no, Vancouver or Toroonto has the bevvy of better quality restaurants in terms of range and regional diversity.

[westtexas]

I love green tea flavored things. Especially ice cream deep fried in tempura batter. Yum.

[Biciclista]

green tea mochi ice cream.. YUM