Sweets
Iriko Mochi
Iriko mochi — a bar of soft mochi made from parched, ground glutinous rice
Glutinous rice is parched and ground into iriko flour, then kneaded with starch syrup, rested, and cut into bars — a Miyazaki sweet said to have arrived from the Satsuma domain as a festival treat, once handed out to neighbors to wish for a child's healthy growth.
- Origin: Miyazaki
- About 880 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Irikomochi is a confection from across Miyazaki made by toasting glutinous rice and grinding it into flour, which is said to give the sweet its name, from "irikoi," meaning toasted flour. It has a nutty aroma, gentle sweetness, and soft texture, and has long been offered at Obon or enjoyed as a snack. It's simple to make from easy-to-find ingredients, yet a delicate sweet whose result depends on the day's temperature and humidity.
How it's made
Glutinous rice and ordinary rice, combined at roughly an eight-to-two or seven-to-three ratio, are toasted and ground into flour with a mill. Sugar, water, and salt are worked in, and adding hot water gradually brings the dough together into a soft, chewy texture. Using white or brown sugar changes the flavor, and once rested, the dough is cut into sticks to finish. If it hardens, it can be warmed again before eating.
Why it took this shape
The sweet is said to date to a festival confection handed down in the old Satsuma domain from the Edo period, given out to neighbors to celebrate a child's growth. From the middle of the Edo period, it's said to have become a widely loved treat among ordinary people. Made from readily available ingredients with a simple method, it's said to have remained an everyday snack rooted in Miyazaki's climate and way of life.
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
Contrast
- Futatabi DangoDumpling flour is kneaded, steamed with freshly picked mugwort folded in, then pounded a second time — a Nobeoka treat named for that unusual second working of the dough, wrapped around sweet bean paste and dusted with soybean flour into a soft, pale-green dumpling.
- Meno Mochi ArareSmall rice-cake offerings — dyed red-and-white, yellow, and green — are skewered onto an elm branch for Little New Year in a display called meno mochi; around January 30th they come down and are fried into crackers. The name is said to trace to a wish for a bountiful silkworm harvest, carrying hopes for good crops and warding off misfortune.
Also from Miyazaki
- Chikin NanbanFried chicken dipped in sweet vinegar and topped with tartar sauce, said to have originated in Nobeoka, Miyazaki. It's said to trace to a sweet-vinegar fried chicken devised as staff food at a Western-food restaurant in the 1950s.
- Hie-zushiWild boar bones are simmered into a broth, then rice, millet, and vegetables are added and cooked down into a porridge — a Shiiba village dish built on millet, a grain said to have been eaten in Japan since before rice farming; whenever a boar was dressed, the porridge it made was shared around the whole village to see out the long winter.
- Hyuga Kurokawa Kabocha no NimonoHyuga kurokawa kabocha, a black-skinned heirloom pumpkin first grown in Miyazaki City, is cut into large chunks and simmered slowly in sugar and light soy sauce — lighter and less sweet than a Western pumpkin, but it holds its shape well and its skin is good to eat too.
- Jidori no Miso KorobakashiJidori chicken is rolled around a dry pan with no added water, coaxed with a miso glaze without letting it catch — a home-cooked dish from around Kobayashi City, its name a western-Miyazaki dialect word for tumbling food in a pot as it cooks, the mix of vegetables and seasoning varying from house to house.
- Kanimaki-jiruA live yamataro crab — a mitten crab known locally by this name — is ground shell and all, mixed with water and miso, strained, then simmered gently — an autumn soup from the Kitago area of Nichinan City, the protein setting into soft curds like silken tofu as it heats, capturing every bit of the crab's flavor.