Sweets
Akita Oyaki
Akita oyaki — glutinous rice cake filled with sweet red bean
Glutinous rice dough wraps sweet red bean paste and is pan-grilled until lightly browned — unrelated to the wheat-and-buckwheat oyaki of Nagano stuffed with nozawana and eggplant, said to be offered to the mountain god and sold as a signature item at Gojome's morning market.
- Origin: Akita
- About 450 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A local sweet from Akita: dough made from glutinous rice or rice flour wrapped around red bean paste and grilled. Unlike the savory version known in Shinshu, this one is filled with sweet bean paste, its gentle, unadulterated sweetness a defining trait, it is said. The surface grills lightly toasty while the inside layers a chewy dough with soft, crumbling bean paste. It is also known as a specialty of the morning market in Gojome town, it is said.
How it's made
Rice flour is kneaded with hot water added gradually until it reaches the softness of an earlobe, then wrapped around bean paste and shaped round. It is grilled on an oiled griddle. Some households color the dough by working in pumpkin or mugwort, and it is said to be made with an emphasis on letting the ingredients' own flavor carry through.
Why it took this shape
Said to have once been offered to the mountain god every December 12, the custom of making this sweet around that time is said to survive in the southern region today. In parts of Daisen city, there is also a custom of entrusting an ailing part of the body to a burnt oyaki and setting it afloat on a river to pray for good health, suggesting this plain sweet has carried a meaning of prayer as well.
Before you go
- How to shop in a depachika (department store food hall)A guide to browsing prepared foods and bento, choosing wagashi as a gift with a good shelf life, sampling etiquette, end-of-day discounts, asking for cold packs and wrapping, and finding your way around a depachika floor.
- Osechi and zoni for the New YearA guide to the meaning behind osechi's tiered boxes, the regional differences in zoni (square vs. round mochi, clear vs. miso broth), and the nanakusa-gayu custom.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
Dishes in the same style
- Abekawa MochiFresh-pounded rice cake is dusted in soybean flour mixed with sugar. Named for the Abe River, it's said to have been famous among Tokaido travelers as a teahouse specialty and to appear in the travel novel Tokaidochu Hizakurige.
- Iga ManjuSweet bean paste is wrapped in rice flour dough, then coated with dyed sticky rice grains. One account ties the name to the grains' resemblance to a chestnut's spiny husk, and in the western Mikawa region it's said to be offered to Hina dolls at the Doll Festival.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- OyakiNagano's oyaki wraps a wheat- or buckwheat-flour dough around fillings like eggplant, mushroom, or pickled greens, then sears it on an iron pan before steaming it through — a mountain-region food said to have grown up where wheat and buckwheat stood in for rice.
- Wakasa no OyakiRed bean paste is wrapped in a dough kneaded from sticky and non-glutinous rice flour, then pressed in a mold stamped with the household crest and pan-fried, a treat from Wakasa Town. Served for the roughly four-century-old Wakasa Shrine festival, it's distinguished from Nagano's wheat-dough version by its rice-flour dough.
Also from Akita
- Akazushi (Akazuke)Cooked glutinous rice cured briefly in red shiso and vinegar — an Akita sushi with no fish in it at all, a plant-based cousin of narezushi also offered at Obon altars.
- AsazukeBroken rice grains are pureed, simmered, and seasoned sweet-and-sour with sugar and vinegar, then mixed with cucumber, turnip, and seasonal fruit — a summer dessert unrelated to the pickle of the same name, said to refresh women after a day planting rice.
- Edokei RamenA soy ramen topped with a knob of bright red chili miso built on garlic and garlic chives. Stirred in gradually as you eat, it turns a mild bowl steadily richer and spicier — a specialty of Akita City.
- Akita HoshimochiSliced mochi is strung up, soaked in water, then left to freeze and thaw through the winter cold in a process called 'kanjime' — the result crisp and filling, said to have fueled breaks during rice-planting season.
- Imonoko JiruBaby taro corms called 'imonoko' simmer with chicken, mushrooms, and wild greens in miso or soy — an autumn soup said to use taro grown in Yokote's Sannai district, prized for its soft bite, and set alongside kiritanpo nabe as the region's autumn counterpart.
- Akita no SakeAkita sake, brewed with soft water in deliberate contrast to Nada's hard water, aiming for a mellow, delicate character. Breweries buried in snow are said to gain a natural insulating effect from it, a tradition of slow, low-temperature fermentation built around that climate.