Sweets
Imobera Azuki
Imobera Azuki — dried sweet potato slow-simmered soft and folded with sweet red bean
Sweet potato is boiled whole, dried, sliced into rounds, and dried again into what's called yudebera, then simmered sweet with red bean — a confection from Ino Town. The same dried potato goes by "Higashiyama" elsewhere in Kochi, and it once served as a snack eaten between stretches of farm work.
- Origin: Kochi Ino
- About 630 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A soft, sticky paste made from dried, rehydrated sweet potato is said to mix with sweetly simmered red beans in this homely confection. In Ino Town, whole sweet potatoes are simmered for hours, dried, sliced into rounds, and dried again — a preparation called yudebera or, elsewhere, higashiyama. Simmered together with sugared red beans, it becomes imobera-azuki, a name said to belong to Ino Town alone, prized for its sticky texture and mild, mealy sweetness.
How it's made
The pre-soaked yudebera is heated and simmered slowly until soft, then lightly mashed. Red beans are simmered from cold water, boiled once and drained to remove bitterness, then simmered further over low heat, taking care not to let them fall apart. The mashed yudebera is combined with the beans, simmered briefly, and seasoned with sugar and salt to finish. The amount of sugar is said to vary by household taste.
Why it took this shape
Sweet potato is said to have long served as an everyday supplement to rice and barley, processed into dried slices for long-term storage. Soaking the dried slices in water the night before a day of farm work left them just soft enough by morning, and they are said to have doubled as a snack or lunch during breaks in the fields. In times when sugar was scarce, it is said, brown sugar was used instead, giving the dish a much darker color than it has today.
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
Also from Kochi
- Chate no AemonoChayote, a squash-family vine native to tropical America and known locally as chate, is tossed raw into a light dressing — an autumn home dish in Kochi. A single vine can bear over a hundred fruit, so it's mostly grown for the household or shared with neighbors, and it's especially popular in the mountains where it grows easily.
- Chunichi SobaA local noodle dish from Akaoka, Kochi's Konan City, pairing Chinese noodles with udon stock. Dried baby sardines and shredded kelp are the standard toppings, said to have grown from a shortcut sparing the effort of both udon and ramen kitchens.
- Ginburo ZushiGinburo, a kidney bean grown only for home use in a district of Otoyo Town, is simmered sweet and folded into vinegared rice with root vegetables. Regarded as a bean of long life and good fortune, it's traditionally made for festivals and celebratory banquets.
- GoishichaA post-fermented tea from Otoyo, Kochi Prefecture, made through two stages of fermentation — an aerobic mold fermentation followed by a lactic acid soak. Named for its square-cut, sun-dried pieces said to resemble go stones, it carries a distinctive sweet-and-sour flavor.
- GuruniDaikon, carrot, taro, and other root vegetables are simmered together in a dashi made from dried baby sardines and soy sauce — a winter side dish. The name is said to come from "guru," Tosa dialect for a group of companions, and the dish was long made in bulk and reheated meal after meal.
- Ha Ninniku no NutaGarlic greens are chopped, ground, and mixed with miso, vinegar, sesame, and sugar — a traditional Kochi condiment said to trace back to a Korean import. It's commonly spooned over raw fish like yellowtail in place of soy sauce, and both its name and the fish it accompanies vary by area.