Sweets
Kaho Dango
Kaho dango — rice dumplings with a lucky twig hidden inside, made for a December rite
Rice-flour dumplings — a few with a hidden bush-clover twig — are dropped into sweet red-bean porridge; finding the twig is said to bring luck. Offered on December 24th for the Daishi-ko rite in southern Iwate, still made at children's gatherings.
- Origin: Iwate
- About 380 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A southern Iwate festival treat: rice-flour dumplings served in a porridge of red beans and rice. A few of the dumplings are made with a sliver of bush clover wood tucked inside, meant to represent good fortune, and are offered to the household shrine; landing a dumpling with the wood inside is believed to bring luck, it is said. A version served in a soy-seasoned broth with daikon, carrot and other vegetables also exists.
How it's made
Rice-flour dumplings are shaped, with a sliver of bush clover wood hidden in a few of them. They are eaten in a porridge of red beans and rice, or alternatively simmered in a soy-seasoned broth with daikon, carrot, burdock, dried shiitake, chicken and mitsuba, it is said. Some areas use mochi rather than dumplings.
Why it took this shape
The treat is offered on December 24 (the 24th of the eleventh lunar month), the day of a folk observance called Daishi-ko. It is said to trace back to a legend in which the Buddhist priest Kobo Daishi, lodging with a poor farming family, found straw baked into the dumplings served to him but chose kindness over anger, after which the family's harvest improved the following year; the game of finding the lucky sliver is thought to have carried the story down as a playful seasonal custom.
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.
- 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.
- Setsubun: ehomaki and lucky beansA guide to ehomaki, the uncut sushi roll said to be eaten facing a lucky direction on Setsubun, and to mamemaki, the bean-throwing custom with roasted lucky beans.
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 Iwate
- Azuki BattoRested wheat dough cut into wide noodle strips is served in a sugar-sweetened red-bean broth — made along the Sanriku coast for building-raising and harvest celebrations, with a custom of eating it seven times on the seventh day of Obon for good health.
- Hecchoko DangoDumplings of millet and sorghum flour, each dimpled in the center, are simmered in a sweet red-bean soup — also called "ukiuki dango," a harvest-close treat from rice-poor northern Iwate where they float to the surface as they cook.
- Hina ManjuRice-flour dough tinted with food coloring is wrapped around red-bean paste and shaped into flowers, peaches or rabbits using wooden molds — tied to a doll-viewing custom in Hanamaki's Ohasama area, offered alongside kirisensho at the Girls' Festival.
- Hizu NamasuThin slices of cartilage from a salmon's head — "hizu" — are salted, cured in vinegar and tossed with daikon and carrot namasu — a rare delicacy from just one small part of the fish, a New Year dish where salmon run up Miyako Bay.
- Imo no Ko JiruAutumn taro is simmered with chicken, tofu, daikon and carrot in a soy broth — a fall favorite of the taro-growing Kitakami river valley, still enjoyed at riverside "imoni-kai" gatherings around Kitakami's Futako district.