Sweets
Akumaki
Akumaki — mochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye, wrapped in bamboo sheath, boiled for hours
Mochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- Origin: Kagoshima City, Kagoshima
- About 970 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Glutinous rice soaked in lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and simmered slowly in lye water for this distinctive Kagoshima rice cake. The grains turn a glossy amber color, taking on a firm, substantial texture, and the cake is finished with a dusting of soybean flour, brown sugar, or plain sugar. It is also sometimes called chimaki, the general word for a leaf-wrapped rice dumpling.
How it's made
Glutinous rice soaks overnight in lye, then is wrapped into a bag shape using bamboo sheath. It simmers for three hours or more in diluted lye water until the grains turn amber-colored, then is lifted from the pot. The bamboo sheath is peeled away, and the cake is cut into pieces and dusted with soybean flour, brown sugar, or the like. As an unusual variation, some people top it with a sweet soy sauce instead.
Why it took this shape
One account traces the dish back to the Battle of Sekigahara, when the Satsuma lord Shimazu Yoshihiro is said to have carried it as a long-keeping field ration. The alkaline compounds in the lye soften the rice's fiber while also suppressing bacterial growth, letting the cake keep for a long stretch even in a hot, humid region where food spoils easily. Valued on campaign for both its keeping power and its filling weight, the dish is said to have later settled into its present role as food for the Boys' Festival, eaten with wishes for strong, healthy growth.
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.
- At kissaten, cafes, and kanmi-dokoroThe difference between jun-kissa and chain cafes, the morning-set custom, and kanmi-dokoro staples like anmitsu and zenzai.
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
- Janbo MochiFresh mochi threaded on two bamboo skewers, glazed with a thick soy-and-sugar sauce — a specialty of Kagoshima City's Iso district. Its name, written with characters for 'two poles,' is said to trace to an episode of hospitality shown to a visiting prince at Taniyama Castle in the fourteenth century.
- IiyachiMochi rice mixed with millet and red beans, cooked in a large pot, worked smooth, then wrapped in banana leaf and steamed — a keeping food from Taketomi Island. Made to eat on the go during the harvest-prayer Tanadui festival, when there's no time to cook amid the rites.
- Kaasaa MuuchiiRice-flour mochi wrapped in shell ginger leaf and steamed, offered to household gods on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month to ward off misfortune. The name is said to trace to a folktale of a sister who defeated an ogre, and the leaves are still hung at doorways for protection.
Also from Kagoshima
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta JiruPork simmered with daikon, taro, and other roots in a miso broth, built on Kagoshima's own pork — the prefecture raises more hogs than any other — paired with a barley miso high in koji and correspondingly sweet. A warming bowl for winter, common at home and in school lunches alike.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.
- ChamitonPigs raised on feed mixed with green tea powder and sweet potato, centered in Kagoshima. The antioxidant effect of catechin and vitamin E is said to help the meat stay fresh with less of the usual pork odor.