Sweets
Anbin
Anbin — a sweet potato flour dumpling filled with bean paste, slapped flat
Sweet potato and wheat flour are kneaded with hot water, wrapped around bean paste, slapped flat, and steamed — a sweet from the Kyonan region. Its name is said to come from the slapping motion, revived in Ichikawamisato town's Rokugo area after a local school's closure sparked a heritage-food effort.
- Origin: Yamanashi Ichikawamisato
- About 120 km west of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Dough made from sweet potato flour and wheat flour, kneaded with hot water, is wrapped generously around sweet bean paste, slapped flat by hand, and steamed. Even cold, it keeps a substantial chew, and the plain sweetness of the dough against the bean paste is said to deepen with every bite. The name 'anbin' is said to come from the slapping motion used to flatten the paste-filled dough.
How it's made
Diced sweet potato soaked in water is combined with sweet potato flour, wheat flour, and salt, then kneaded with hot water to an earlobe softness. Sweet bean paste is wrapped inside a ball of the dough, which is slapped flat by hand and steamed for about 15 minutes, people say. Made with corn flour it turns yellow; made with sweet potato flour it turns a darker shade, it's said.
Why it took this shape
In land unsuited to rice paddies, a flour-based food culture built around sweet potato, corn, and wheat is said to have taken root. Getting a dense, substantial texture without using a leavening agent like baking soda is thought to reflect old-fashioned know-how prized for keeping people full through hard work. Though the dish nearly faded from use, it's said to have been carried forward by local people determined to keep the traditional taste alive.
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
Also from Yamanashi
- Akebono Daizu no EdamameThe 'akebono' soybean, said to be 1.6 times the size of an ordinary bean, is picked young and salt-boiled — an edamame from the Akebono area of Minobu town. Grown since the Meiji era but resistant to mechanization, aging growers have made it scarce enough to be called a 'phantom bean'.
- Amanatto no OsekihanMade without azuki or cowpea beans, glutinous rice is dyed red with food coloring and mixed with candied sweet beans — a Yamanashi take on celebratory red rice, sweet-salty with a sprinkle of sesame salt. A similarly sweet red rice is said to exist far away in Hokkaido and parts of Tohoku.
- Awabi no NigaiAbalone from Suruga Bay was soy-sauce-marinated and hauled in barrels by horse, the jostling and body heat said to have worked the flavor deep in — a specialty from landlocked Kofu. Sliced thin and paired with its liver, shiso, and cucumber, it endures as a taste of the sea inland.
- Azuki HotoHoto noodles, cut thicker than usual, are simmered in sweet azuki bean soup in place of mochi — a festival food in Yamanashi. The summer festival at Miwa Shrine in Hokuto city's Wakamiko area is nicknamed the 'hoto festival', and azuki's red color is said to ward off misfortune.
- Hirauchi TanmenA salt-based tanmen from Kofu, Yamanashi, built on wide, flat noodles said to feel almost like fettuccine. Bean sprouts, pork, and napa cabbage pile on top for a vegetable-heavy bowl carried on today by several shops around the prefecture.
- HotoThe leading theory traces the dish to 'hakutaku,' a Chinese noodle dish said to have reached Japan in the Nara or Heian period, its name later shifting to 'hoto.' Legend holds that the warlord Takeda Shingen favored it as army-camp food, giving it the nickname 'Takeda soup,' though no single account of its origin or exact era is settled. Raw noodles and seasonal vegetables are simmered together in a miso broth.