Sweets
Kirisensho
Kirisensho — a steamed rice-flour cake with walnut, sesame and soy glaze
Steamed rice flour is kneaded with walnut and sesame, sweetened with soy sauce and sugar, and shaped into ovals or leaf forms — a snack from central Iwate's rice country, offered at the Girls' Festival or eaten during farm-work breaks.
- Origin: Iwate
- About 460 km north of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A humble confection from Iwate's central region, made by steaming rice flour with walnuts and sesame folded in, then seasoning it with sugar and soy sauce. Shapes vary by area, oval "koban" forms, leaf shapes, or flowers and boats pressed with wooden molds; in Tono, walnuts and brown sugar are wrapped inside the dough for a syrup-filled version, it is said. The bite carries the roasted flavor of walnut against the depth of soy sauce.
How it's made
Rice flour is steamed and mixed with walnuts and sesame, then seasoned with sugar and soy sauce. Shapes vary: an oval marked with chopstick patterns, a leaf shape, or flowers and boats pressed from wooden molds, it is said. Without a mold, the dough can be shaped into an oval by hand and patterned with the handle of a spoon.
Why it took this shape
Long eaten across the paddy-rich central region, it is said to have been treasured both as an offering for the Doll's Festival and as a snack, called kobiri, eaten during breaks from farm work. One account traces the name to a time when the dough was once kneaded with a broth steeped with sansho pepper, kirisansho, which is said to have shifted over time into its present name; the dish is thought to have taken hold as a festival treat mothers and daughters made together.
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
- GanzukiWheat flour leavened with baking soda and vinegar is steamed into a rustic sponge studded with walnut and sesame — its round shape and sesame pattern likened to geese flying toward a full moon, a farm-break snack of southern Iwate.
- Ocha MochiRice-flour dumplings are skewered, flattened, steamed and grilled with a walnut glaze — a Morioka-area treat once toasted over the hearth, its name said to come from a resemblance to a war-fan shape.
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.
- 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.
- Dento Mochi RyoriAn umbrella term for some 300 ways of dressing mochi — sweet red bean, edamame paste, walnut, natto, zoni and more. A domain-era custom of pounding mochi twice a month left Ichinoseki with a "mochi calendar" of 60-plus occasions a year and a formal ceremonial mochi course still observed today.
- 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.