Sweets
Herahera Dango
Herahera dango — flat dumplings coated in sweet bean paste
A confection from Sajima in Yokosuka City, flattened dumplings of wheat or glutinous rice flour coated in sweet bean paste. Offered at the shrine during a summer boat festival to pray for a good catch and good health, it is still shared among family.
- Origin: Kanagawa Yokosuka
- About 50 km south of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Wheat flour or glutinous rice flour is kneaded with water, shaped into flat rounds, boiled, and then coated in sweet red bean paste. The flattened, almost squashed shape is its signature, and its simple, gentle sweetness has been loved by children and elders alike. Some households mix egg into the dough or coat the dumplings in a sweet soy glaze instead of bean paste, adding their own touch.
How it's made
Flour or glutinous rice flour is kneaded with water, torn into bite-sized pieces, flattened by hand and boiled in hot water. Once cooked, the dumplings are drained well and generously coated in sweet bean paste. Flattening them lets heat pass through evenly and helps the paste cling, which is part of why this simple dumpling has stayed an easy one to make at home for generations.
Why it took this shape
The name is said to come either from the dumpling's squashed, flattened shape or from its resemblance to a hera, a flat tool used in fishing. In fishing villages on the Miura Peninsula, the dumpling became tied to a summer boat festival dating from the Edo period, offered on the household shrine and shared among relatives as a prayer for a good catch and good health, a coastal dish shaped by a life close to the sea and its festivals.
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 Kanagawa
- DoriaButter rice topped with shrimp in cream, covered in white sauce and cheese and baked. Said to have been improvised at a Yokohama hotel for a guest who wasn't feeling well.
- Ebi MayoBattered, fried shrimp are tossed in a sweet mayonnaise-based sauce — said to have begun when a Cantonese chef, unsatisfied with a mayonnaise-dressed shrimp dish he'd eaten in the United States, remade it his own way.
- Gyu NabeA Yokohama-born hot pot of beef, tofu and chrysanthemum greens simmered from the start in a soy or miso-based sauce. Born of the port city's encounter with Western meat-eating culture, it is said to trace to a tavern owner who opened one of the first beef-pot restaurants.
- Harihari-zukeDaikon cut thicker than ordinary kiriboshi strips, dried, then pickled in a soy-based sauce — a Miura Peninsula specialty. Its name is said to echo the crisp "hari-hari" bite, developed in Miura, a daikon-growing region since the Edo period.
- Hiratsuka-kei TanmenA clear, salt-based broth carries a faint edge of acidity, topped with wakame seaweed and chopped onion — a thinner, less thickened bowl than the typical Kanagawa tanmen, said to have taken root among Chinese-style diners in Hiratsuka.
- Iekei RamenPork bone and chicken carcass simmered long and finished with a dark soy tare and chicken fat, paired with thick, short noodles, spinach, and nori — traced to a shop that opened in 1974 in Yokohama's Shinsugita district and is said to have spread among workers in the surrounding industrial zone.