dried sweet potato snack for you?

Tsukuba is well-known for its dried sweet potato snack. Usually it is sold sliced thinly and ready-to-bake, eat. Baking dried sweet potato makes all the difference...the sugar caramelizes, bringing out hidden sweetness! Yum! Taste? Hard to describe...like healthy caramel candy? Hmm, not even close - anyway, it is a hit with babies!

The kind we bought was whole dried sweet potato. Very interesting. Whole, uncut dried sweet potato retains much of its original moisture, giving it a much softer (as opposed to the usual chewier) texture.

When making house calls to relatives, it is customary to bring some souvenirs from where one lives. That being said, we got a few kilos of whole dried sweet potato for Hiro's aunt and mother. We also bought plenty of other Tsukuba souvenirs: fig jam, tea and cookies from Hanamizuki, a local tea shop. I wonder what Tsukuba-related souvenirs we will bring next year... ohh, running outta ideas!