Sweets
Kankoro
Kankoro — dried sweet potato simmered soft and mixed with sweetened red bean
On the rice-poor Sada Misaki peninsula, sweet potato was dried for storage, then this snack simmers it soft and works in sugar and red bean. The name is said to come from the sound of stirring the pot, and the dish recalls life on the peninsula before citrus growing took hold.
- Origin: Ehime Ikata
- About 720 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A sweetened, slow-simmered mash of dried sweet potato studded with red beans, it is said to carry a mild, homely sweetness with every mouthful. In Ikata, on the Sada Misaki peninsula, rice is said to have been hard to grow along the coast, leaving barley and sweet potato as the staples. Since raw sweet potato does not keep for long, it was dried into a preserved food, and this dish is said to have come from simmering that dried potato slowly and sweetening it with sugar. The name is said to come from the sound of a wooden ladle stirring the pot as it cooks.
How it's made
Red beans are simmered until firm. Dried, sliced sweet potato is covered with water and simmered until soft, then sugar is added. It is mashed with a pestle and combined with the beans until the flavors meld, then shaped into small, easy-to-eat rounds. Though it takes time to prepare, the result is said to be a treat with a concentrated sweetness distinct to dried sweet potato.
Why it took this shape
The Sada Misaki peninsula, known for its long, narrow shape, is said to have prospered on its unusual geography, drawing on two fishing grounds, the Seto Inland Sea and the Uwa Sea. Because rice was hard to grow there, barley and sweet potato became the staples out of necessity, and the practice of drying potato for long storage is said to have taken root as a result. From the Meiji era on, mandarin cultivation spread across the sloped land, with stone walls on the terraced fields said to have helped drainage and warmth, and the region's identity is said to have shifted gradually from sweet potato to mandarins.
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 Ehime
- Bote ChaRoasted tea is whisked to a froth with a salted bamboo whisk and poured over black-bean rice with toppings like bamboo shoot — a dish from Matsuyama. Said to have been devised by a domain lord's household during a period of enforced frugality, it's still served at a temple's springtime Buddha festival.
- EbitenSmall shrimp are ground shell and all, worked with white fish and tofu, and fried into a cake — a fish-paste product from eastern Ehime. The salt is kept light to let the tofu's sweetness and the shrimp's aroma come through, with the ground shell left in for a gritty bite.
- Igisu DofuIgisu seaweed and raw soybean flour are simmered into stock and chilled firm like agar, a dish from Imabari. Its cool texture is meant to coax back a summer appetite, and households differ over whether to fold in shrimp or leave it plain.
- SatsumaGrilled fish is flaked and worked into barley miso, thinned with a stock from its own bones, and ladled over hot barley rice — a dish of southern Ehime. Said to have started as a fisherman's trick for making dry barley rice easier to eat, with the fish varying by area and household.
- Tai SomenA whole sea bream is simmered and set on a large platter of boiled somen noodles, the cooking broth doubling as a dipping sauce. The noodles are linked to the Tanabata weaver-star legend and the fish to good fortune, and the dish has long been served to family at weddings and milestone birthdays.
- TaimeshiEastern Ehime cooks a whole sea bream into the rice pot; the south instead lays raw fillets marinated in egg and soy over hot rice. Considered an auspicious fish, it appears at celebrations too, and which style a household follows tends to run by region.