Sweets
Hatsuuma Dango
Hatsuuma dango — rice-flour dumplings shaped like silkworm cocoons
Rice-flour dumplings, steamed and shaped like silkworm cocoons, are offered on the first day of the horse in February — a custom of Gifu's silk-farming regions, carrying a wish for a good, plentiful cocoon harvest, eaten variously with soybean flour, soy sauce, or in soup depending on the area.
- Origin: Gifu
- About 270 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Rice flour kneaded and shaped like a silkworm cocoon, then steamed, so a chewy, mochi-like bite of rice flour carries a faint sweetness underneath. Made from such a plain dough, it's said to take on a wide range of flavors depending on how it's finished.
How it's made
Rice flour is kneaded to an earlobe-soft consistency, shaped into bite-sized cocoon shapes, and steamed. It's said to be eaten coated in roasted soybean flour, grilled with soy sauce, or dropped into a clear soup or sweet red bean soup depending on the district, with some areas said to use millet or buckwheat flour instead of rice.
Why it took this shape
In districts where sericulture once served as a vital source of cash income within an otherwise self-sufficient way of life, the custom is said to have begun with offering cocoon-shaped dumplings to the gods on the first Horse Day of February, wishing for a plentiful, high-quality silk cocoon harvest. In Shirakawa Village, this offering is said to have taken root alongside a festival praying for a good sericulture year.
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 Gifu
- Akadatsu no SubuteThe red-purple leaf stalk of taro, called akadatsu, has its fibers removed and is salt-rubbed before being dressed in a sweetened vinegar — a dish of Yamagata City on land whose lime-poor, thin soil suited taro cultivation, once said to be fed to new mothers to aid recovery.
- Ayu NarezushiAyu heading downriver to spawn in autumn, often carrying roe, are salted and stuffed with freshly cooked rice, then packed in a barrel to ferment for about two months — a narezushi of Gifu City said to have been made from fish caught at the Nagara River's cormorant fishery and once presented to the shogunate.
- Ayu ZosuiAyu, grilled plain until fragrant, is flaked and briefly simmered with dashi and rice into a light porridge — a Gifu river-fish dish said to have begun as a way to use ayu too damaged from fishing to sell whole, often served as the closing course at restaurants specializing in ayu.
- FunamisoCrucian carp, first grilled plain, simmers for hours with rehydrated soybeans, then finishes in soybean miso and coarse sugar — a river-fish dish of the Seino region, where the miso's strong umami is said to soften the fish's characteristic edge, simmered until the flesh falls apart as a winter keeping food.
- Ayu no ShioyakiAyu are salted all over, given a decorative touch of salt on fin and tail, then grilled over charcoal on both sides — a river-fish dish of Gifu, said to draw on fish caught fresh at the 1,300-year-old Nagara River cormorant fishery or at the traditional yana weirs that channel fish into a catch.
- Gohei MochiCrushed rice is skewered and grilled, then glazed with a walnut- or peanut-flecked sauce — a dish of the Tono and Hida areas where soy-based sauce dominates north of the old Nakasendo road and miso-based sauce south of it, traditionally served to celebrate the new rice harvest or to honor a guest.