Sweets
Barappa Manju
Barappa Manju — steamed bun wrapped in catbrier leaf
Freshly milled wheat dough is wrapped around red bean paste and steamed on a leaf of catbrier, called barappa locally — a bun said to be made in Chiba's Hokuso area when people gathered for summer festivals or Obon, each bringing ingredients to share.
- Origin: Chiba
- About 30 km east of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Sweet bean paste is wrapped in a wheat-flour skin and steamed on a bed of catbrier leaves. The leaf's fragrance lightly perfumes the bun, joining the plain sweetness of the paste for a refreshing, summery flavor. The round, smooth leaf suits wrapping the bun well, and it has long been made in local households for festive occasions such as summer festivals and the Bon holiday.
How it's made
Wheat flour is sifted together with baking powder and sugar, and water is added a little at a time and kneaded until the dough is as soft as an earlobe. Portions of dough are flattened by hand, wrapped around a ball of sweet bean paste, shaped, and set on a salt-cured leaf before steaming. Sweet potato or pumpkin is sometimes used for the filling instead, so the filling varies a little from household to household.
Why it took this shape
It is said to trace back to using wheat flour ground from the grain just after the wheat harvest was finished. Lining the steamer with a round, smooth leaf as a substitute plate is said to have taken root as a way to keep the buns from sticking while steaming. Along with the custom of neighbors bringing ingredients together to make them for summer festivals and the Bon holiday, this has been carried on for generations in local households and is still made today.
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
Also from Chiba
- Arirang RamenA soy ramen said to have started at a single restaurant on a mountain pass in Chiba's Nagara. Named, it's said, for the legendary Arirang Pass of Korean folklore, its soy broth carries the sweetness of onion and pork, layered with house-made chili oil and grated garlic for depth and heat.
- Iwashi no Unohana-zukeSalt-and-vinegar-cured sardines are packed into sweet-vinegared tofu lees with carrot and ginger — the pale lees are likened to unohana blossoms in the name, and are also said to keep the fish from breaking apart or oxidizing; eaten at New Year's and as an everyday pantry food.
- Rakkasei MisoPeanuts too small or misshapen to sell are stirred into miso and sugar and toasted into a pantry relish — said to have started as a way for farm households to use up peanuts the market wouldn't take, in leaner years.
- SumitsukareDaikon and carrot, coarsely grated with a rough-toothed oni-oroshi grater, are simmered with leftover setsubun soybeans and sake lees — said to have traveled from Tochigi into Chiba's Higashikatsushika area, offered to the local inari shrine on the year's first Day of the Horse before being eaten. Ibaraki and Saitama carry dishes of the same name.
- Yude RakkaseiFreshly dug peanuts, still in their shells, are boiled whole in salted water — a taste unique to the growing region, since raw peanuts start hardening the moment they're pulled from the ground and need to be boiled almost immediately.
- Chikko ToufuA cow's first milk after calving is warmed and split with a little vinegar into a plain curd — tied to the story of shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune's white cattle raised at the Mineoka pastures, said to be the start of dairy farming in Japan, and long eaten among the region's dairy households.