Sweets
Imo Manju
Imo manju — a whole taro wrapped in wheat dough and steamed
A whole peeled taro is wrapped in wheat dough and steamed — a snack from the upper Yabe River villages of Yame, once eaten to bridge the wait for dinner or in place of rice, grilled hot over a net fire in winter.
- Origin: Fukuoka Yame
- About 890 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A whole taro or potato is wrapped in a dough of wheat flour and sugar and steamed, and it's said to have served as a bite to fill the gap before dinner, or even to stand in for rice when there wasn't enough. On cold days it's grilled on a mochi rack and eaten piping hot. It's said to have taken hold in a mountain hamlet where wheat and tubers both grew in abundance, filling and warming enough to support farm work through winter.
How it's made
The taro or potato is peeled and rubbed with salt to remove sliminess. Wheat flour is kneaded with salt and sugar, rolled thin enough to wrap around a whole tuber, and steamed. Day to day, it's often preferred grilled for the extra aroma, sometimes eaten with a dab of soy sauce or a side of pickles. The flavor is mild by design, left for each diner to season as they like, and rolling the dough to an even thickness is said to be the key step.
Why it took this shape
It's said to have arisen in a mountain hamlet where wheat and tubers grew in abundance, as a way to vary the family table. Easy to make in batches and filling, it's described as an essential winter dish that also helped keep the body warm. Along the river running through this hamlet, households are said to have long found ways to dress up the table with whatever ingredients were close at hand, in a mountainous area bordering the neighboring prefecture.
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.
- Takeout and convenience store customsHow to answer "Shall I warm it up?", choosing chopsticks and a paid plastic bag, saying whether you'll eat in or take out, handling trash and eating while walking, and the different tax rate for takeout versus eating in.
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.