Sweets
Kasha Mochi
Kasha mochi — mugwort mochi wrapped in a broad, fragrant leaf and steamed
Mugwort, sweet potato, and black sugar are kneaded into mochi and wrapped in a broad-leafed ginger-family plant said to have antibacterial properties, then steamed. The leaf's scent seeps into the mochi — a sweet built entirely from what Amami had close at hand.
- Origin: Kagoshima
- About 1260 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
This Amami rice cake blends pureed mugwort and sweet potato with brown sugar and glutinous rice flour, wrapped in the leaf of alpinia (kumatakeran) and steamed. The leaf's faint fragrance seeps into the cake, joining the mugwort's own scent and the sweetness of the brown sugar into a simple, homely flavor. It goes by different names in different areas, including futtsumochi and fuchimochi.
How it's made
Mugwort is parboiled and soaked overnight in water to draw out bitterness, then pureed together with boiled sweet potato. Brown sugar, glutinous rice flour, and water are kneaded in, and the dough is wrapped in a kumatakeran leaf and steamed for about 20 minutes. The leaf is peeled away before eating, and a cake gone firm can be steamed again to soften it back up. Some households pick mugwort in spring and freeze it for use throughout the year.
Why it took this shape
Mugwort grows freely around Amami and is said to have long served as a folk remedy. The kumatakeran leaf used to wrap the cake, locally called kasha, is also credited with antibacterial and insect-repelling properties, and wrapping the cake in it is said to reflect an old habit of putting the benefits of nearby plants to practical use. Because the cake sticks so readily to the leaf, close companions are sometimes described locally as being like mochi and kasha.
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 Kagoshima
- Abura ZomenPork and somen are fried together with a splash of broth, the oil and stock emulsifying into a silky coat on the noodles. Just how somen took root in wheat-free Amami isn't clear, but the dish is a fixture whenever people gather, not least for the August Dance festival.
- AkumakiMochi rice steeped in wood-ash lye is wrapped in bamboo sheath and boiled for hours in more lye water — a Boys' Festival sweet said to have fed Saigo Takamori's troops in the field. The lye's alkalinity holds bacteria back, letting it keep for days in Kagoshima's heat and humidity.
- Amami Kokuto-jochuKokuto-jochu permitted to be made only in the Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture. It's said to carry a sweet aroma distinctive to islands where sugarcane cultivation thrives, and around 30 breweries are said to compete on character while observing the liquor tax law's condition that rice koji be used.
- Buta Hone YasaiBone-in pork cut into big chunks is simmered in a large pot with tsuwabuki, daikon, and koshaman taro — an Amami dish essential to New Year's Eve, also called wanfineyasse. It's regarded as a wisdom born of using every part of the island's own black pigs.
- Buta JiruPork simmered with daikon, taro, and other roots in a miso broth, built on Kagoshima's own pork — the prefecture raises more hogs than any other — paired with a barley miso high in koji and correspondingly sweet. A warming bowl for winter, common at home and in school lunches alike.
- Buta MisoBoiled pork is pounded together with miso and sugar into a keeping paste, with peanuts and bonito flakes added in Amami versions. It's said to have grown out of the need to use every part of the one pig a household slaughtered each year, alongside salting and other preserved forms.