Sweets
Gamenoha Manju
Gamenoha manju — sweet bean-paste dumplings steamed inside a wild sarsaparilla leaf
Sweet bean paste is wrapped in rice-flour dough and steamed between leaves of wild sarsaparilla, nicknamed 'turtle-shell leaf' for its shape — said to have taken root as a stand-in for oak leaves, which don't grow wild in Fukuoka, for the Boys' Festival.
- Origin: Fukuoka
- About 840 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A rice-flour dough wraps smooth sweet red bean paste and is steamed sandwiched between the leaves of a greenbrier vine locally called game, whose round leaf is said to resemble a turtle's shell in the area. Chestnuts gathered in autumn sometimes fill it alongside the red beans. The vine carries thorns and fine roots along its stem, said to snag even a passing monkey, and it's also known locally by another name.
How it's made
Rice flour is kneaded with salt and water to an earlobe-soft dough, steamed, then pounded into a mochi-like paste while still hot. Once it cools slightly, it's wrapped around the bean paste, sandwiched between the leaves, and steamed again. Keeping the dough's edge thin when rolling it out is said to keep the seam from bulking up once the filling goes in, and dried, stored chestnuts are sometimes used for the filling, with the leaf's fragrance said to carry into the dough itself.
Why it took this shape
Oak-leaf mochi is the usual Boys' Day treat elsewhere, but since the oak used elsewhere doesn't grow wild in Fukuoka, the greenbrier leaf is said to have taken its place. It has been treasured as a children's snack, and it's also said to be made for the summer Bon festival and a local autumn harvest observance, or during the tea-picking season once the leaves toughen up through the rains and until they fall, tied as well to a wish for a baby's healthy growth.
Before you go
- How to use a convenience storeA quick guide to choosing rice balls and hot snacks, buying coffee, paying by cash, IC card, or tap payment, using the eat-in corner, and sorting your trash — the basics for a first visit.
- 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.
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 Fukuoka
- Abutte KamoSmall damselfish are salted overnight, then grilled whole, scales and innards left on — a bony fish often passed over elsewhere, but said to have caught on in Hakata Bay after a Meiji-era glut led someone to salt and grill the excess.
- Achara ZukeWhite melon, eggplant, and lotus root are pickled in a sweet vinegar spiked with red chili — the name is said to trace to the Portuguese 'achar', carried in through Hakata Bay's old trade, and an odd number of vegetables is used for Obon hospitality.
- Amagi no KawatakeA rare wild freshwater algae, found only in the Kogane River in Asakura, is dressed with sweet or three-flavor vinegar — said to have once been presented to the shogun, and now conservation efforts continue as it's listed as endangered.
- Beta MochiWheat dough is flattened, steamed, and topped with soybean flour or sweet red bean paste — named, it's said, for its resemblance to a flat local sole called 'beta', and tied to the feast marking the end of rice planting.
- Kabocha no Dango JiruA giant local pumpkin from Buzen's Mikkado district is simmered soft, then torn wheat dumplings are dropped in — the pumpkin, said to trace some 450 years back to Portuguese traders, was once a lifeline in leaner years.
- ChanraaA noodle dish said to have started at a diner in Moji, Kitakyushu. Chanpon-style noodles go into a Japanese dried-sardine broth closer to udon than to the original pork-and-seafood soup, devised, it's said, for a student who wanted Nagasaki champon but couldn't afford it.