"Tart": One of my favorite Japanese sweetsーa regional confectionery of Matsuyama City, Ehi

When I am in the Netherlands, sometimes I feel like eating Japanese specialties. My husband brought home here in Netherlands my favorite from Matsuyama city in Ehime prefecture. Thanks to the band activities with Mr. Norihiko Hashida, I had the opportunity to travel around Japan and to taste all the cuisines not just in the city but also in the country side. This sweets is one of them. I am glad that my husband remembered my favorite one. Originally, tart was called "TART LETTE" which was introduced by the Netherlands about three hundred years ago. At that time, the Matsuyama feudal lord Sadayuki Matsudaira, who was ordered from the Japanese shogunate for Nagasaki-Tandai, tasted tart through the Dutch people, he was deslighted by its tasted; it was said that he brought the manufacturing method to Matsuyama. The tart looks like a long roll of cake. The sponge cake is fluffy and moist, with plenty of sweet bean paste packed inside. The cross-section of sweet bean paste looks like a " の /no/ " of hiragana. Yuzu, which is a citrus fruit is giving a distinct taste with sweet bean paste, producing a distinctive and refreshing flavor that you can enjoy. The original tart by the Netherlands was a fruit jam in the Castella. It is said that the current tart with sweet bean paste was invented by Sadayuki Matsudaira. According to the maker "Rokujiya" says that no artificial flavoring are used for the tart, that is unusual in Japan. The tart is already cut into 10 perfect slices, but I like it thiner so I cut it futther into half making it 20 slices.