Sweets
Kankoro Mochi
Kankoro mochi — sun-dried sweet potato slices pounded together with glutinous rice
Sweet potato is sliced thin, sun-dried into "kankoro," and pounded together with glutinous rice into a mochi — said to have been made at home across the Goto islands as a winter keeping food that stretched costly rice to feed the whole family.
- Origin: Nagasaki
- About 1060 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A stick-shaped mochi made by pounding sweet potato, thinly sliced and sun-dried into what's called 'kankoro,' together with glutinous rice. Its plain sweet potato sweetness is the draw, and modern versions sometimes add sugar for extra sweetness or knead in purple sweet potato or mugwort. The contrast between the toasty, grilled surface and the chewy center inside is also said to be part of the appeal.
How it's made
Sweet potato is thinly sliced and sun-dried to make 'kankoro.' This is pounded together with glutinous rice and shaped into sticks. The basic way to eat it is sliced and grilled, though people also top the grilled slices with butter or deep-fry them, among other variations. More products now knead in mugwort or purple sweet potato, adding variety in both look and flavor.
Why it took this shape
In the Goto islands, the mochi is said to have started as a winter preserved food made in individual households. Mixing in 'kankoro' is said to have let a family stretch a smaller amount of the costlier glutinous rice to feed everyone, and one account also holds that Christians who fled to Goto to escape persecution in the Edo period began making it to secure food. The wisdom of drying sweet potato for storage and reworking it into mochi when needed is thought to survive in the dish's very form.
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 Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.