Sweets
Hoshi Mochi
Hoshi mochi — freeze-dried rice cake cured in the winter cold
Rice cakes pounded with extra water are strung on straw, dipped in water and frozen outdoors through the depths of winter, then wind-dried over about two months — a Tsugaru preserve especially associated with Goshogawara.
- Origin: Aomori Goshogawara
- About 570 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A Tsugaru preservation food made by slicing mochi pounded with extra water, braiding the slices into straw ropes, and hanging them outdoors through repeated cycles of freezing in the cold and drying in the wind. Also called "frozen mochi," a well-made batch snaps apart easily by hand and turns crisp and crumbly in the mouth, it is said, with a faint sweetness that has long made it a favorite snack for children.
How it's made
Pounded mochi is sliced, braided into long straw ropes, dipped once in water on a cold day, hung outdoors to freeze, and then wind-dried further. The whole process is said to take about two months, and a batch made in February, the coldest stretch of the year, turns out best. Some households vary it with sesame, roasted soybeans, shiso leaf, walnuts, or added color.
Why it took this shape
It is said to have developed as a way to preserve food by making the most of Tsugaru's cold, dry climate. Valued as a filling snack eaten in the fields during the busy planting and harvest seasons, it was once made by entire communities together, almost as a fixed part of the yearly calendar, it is said. It is thought to reflect the ingenuity of a snow country turning a harsh climate to its own advantage.
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
Contrast
- BekomochiColored strips of glutinous and non-glutinous rice-flour dough are bundled and steamed so each slice reveals a pattern — a Boys' Day treat from rice-poor Shimokita, its designs elaborated around Oma town.
- Akita HoshimochiSliced mochi is strung up, soaked in water, then left to freeze and thaw through the winter cold in a process called 'kanjime' — the result crisp and filling, said to have fueled breaks during rice-planting season.
Also from Aomori
- HittsumiHand-torn pieces of kneaded wheat dough are simmered in a chicken-and-soy broth with carrot and burdock — a dish from the old Nanbu domain spanning southeastern Aomori and northern Iwate, once a rice substitute in lean years.
- KakkeThin buckwheat dough is cut into triangles, simmered with daikon and tofu, and dipped in garlic miso — said to have begun when the Nanbu domain banned fine-cut soba, leaving people to eat the offcuts instead.
- Kujira JiruSalted whale blubber is parboiled to render off excess fat, then simmered in a big pot with daikon, carrot and potato — a New Year dish from around Hachinohe's old whaling grounds, said to deepen in flavor over several days.
- Mame ShitogiMashed boiled green soybeans are kneaded with rice flour and sugar into a log and sliced — a Nanbu-region sweet that stretched scarce rice with beans, once offered to the mountain and harvest gods.
- Aomori ShamorockSaid to be developed by Aomori's livestock experiment station over roughly two decades of research from a shamo and Barred Plymouth Rock cross; reportedly reared about 100 days for cockerels and 120 for hens, 50–60 days longer than a standard broiler.