Sweets
Kinkamochi
Kinkamochi — a half-moon dumpling filled with walnut and miso caramel
A wheat-dough half-moon parcel holds a filling of walnut, brown sugar and miso — said to be named "gold coin cake" for the once-precious brown sugar, offered at Obon and year-end in the Nanbu region.
- Origin: Aomori
- About 560 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
A wheat-dough dumpling folded into a half-moon shape, filled with a paste of brown sugar, walnuts and miso, then boiled. Biting in releases a hot, syrupy filling; the crunch of walnut, the deep sweetness of brown sugar and the salty edge of miso all come through at once, it is said. One story holds it was once called "gold coin mochi" from a time when brown sugar was a luxury.
How it's made
Brown sugar, walnuts and miso are combined into a filling, wrapped in wheat dough shaped into a half-moon, and boiled. The filling can run hot like syrup, so first bites are said to call for caution, and children ending up with dark filling on their hands and clothes is described as a familiar sight. Its half-moon shape, resembling the woven hat worn during farm work, is also said to give it the name "bahori-mochi."
Why it took this shape
The Nanbu region, long troubled by the cold yamase wind damaging its rice crop, is said to have developed a culture built on wheat, buckwheat and other grains instead. Born from that environment, this confection made with unusual ingredients is said to have been prepared in households for over a century as an offering at Obon and at year-end rites, and it is thought to have taken root as a special-occasion food precisely because brown sugar and walnuts were once so costly.
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
Contrast
- KamamochiWheat dough kneaded with hot water is folded around a filling of miso, brown sugar and walnut into a half-moon and boiled — a simple treat made across Iwate under regional names like "hyuzu" or "kamadango."
- KeiranTwo egg-shaped mochi dumplings filled with sweet red-bean paste float in a clear shiitake-kelp broth, said to be named for their resemblance to hen's eggs and served at Shimokita's post-harvest gatherings.
- June MochiRoasted, finely ground perilla seeds are mixed with miso and sugar into a paste for coating slices of boiled rice cake — a Nanbu-region treat once toasted by children around the hearth on winter evenings.
Also from Aomori
- BekomochiColored strips of glutinous and non-glutinous rice-flour dough are bundled and steamed so each slice reveals a pattern — a Boys' Day treat from rice-poor Shimokita, its designs elaborated around Oma town.
- HittsumiHand-torn pieces of kneaded wheat dough are simmered in a chicken-and-soy broth with carrot and burdock — a dish from the old Nanbu domain spanning southeastern Aomori and northern Iwate, once a rice substitute in lean years.
- KakkeThin buckwheat dough is cut into triangles, simmered with daikon and tofu, and dipped in garlic miso — said to have begun when the Nanbu domain banned fine-cut soba, leaving people to eat the offcuts instead.
- Kujira JiruSalted whale blubber is parboiled to render off excess fat, then simmered in a big pot with daikon, carrot and potato — a New Year dish from around Hachinohe's old whaling grounds, said to deepen in flavor over several days.
- Mame ShitogiMashed boiled green soybeans are kneaded with rice flour and sugar into a log and sliced — a Nanbu-region sweet that stretched scarce rice with beans, once offered to the mountain and harvest gods.
- Aomori ShamorockSaid to be developed by Aomori's livestock experiment station over roughly two decades of research from a shamo and Barred Plymouth Rock cross; reportedly reared about 100 days for cockerels and 120 for hens, 50–60 days longer than a standard broiler.