Sweets
Kujira Mochi
Kujira mochi — a steamed rice-flour cake with walnuts, named for its old bulk
Rice flour, sugar, and walnuts steamed together into a mochi cake that contains no whale at all — its name is said to come from the loaves once being made whale-sized, among other theories. It is said to have originated in Shinjo and is offered at the old-calendar Doll's Festival.
- Origin: Yamagata Shinjo
- About 350 km north of Tokyo
What it's made of
Despite its name, which literally means whale mochi, this steamed rice-flour cake from the Mogami and Murayama areas contains no whale meat at all. It's defined by a chewy texture and the fragrance of walnuts mixed in, with sweetening that varies from white or brown sugar to soy sauce or miso depending on the household. The name's origin is debated, with one account tying it to the cake's long keeping quality.
How it's made
Rice flour is kneaded, poured into a mold, and steamed slowly over a long stretch of time, the basic method. It's eaten sliced while still soft, and once it hardens, thin slices are pan-fried or toasted for a fragrant, toasty flavor. Milling the rice and kneading and steaming the dough is said to take about two days from start to finish.
Why it took this shape
In the snowbound Mogami region, this steamed cake is said to have developed as a festival food offered alongside doll-festival sweets on the old-calendar Peach Festival. A rice-flour cake that kept well was a valuable treat achievable even with the limited ingredients available before the snow melted, and it's said to have become so rooted in each household that neighbors would compare whose came out best.
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
Contrast
- Tama KonnyakuKonnyaku shaped into balls about three centimeters across is simmered in soy sauce alone, no water added, and eaten off the skewer with hot mustard. Konnyaku eating is said to have spread from the temple cooking of Risshaku-ji, known as Yamadera, and it is a familiar snack along the temple's approach.
- SasamakiGlutinous rice is wrapped in bamboo grass leaves, tied with rush, and steamed — said to be made for the Boys' Festival and the post-rice-planting 'sanaburi' holiday, once carried home by married daughters visiting their parents.
Also from Yamagata
- Akayu Karamiso RamenMiso ramen with a knob of chili miso in the center, dissolved gradually to shift the flavor.
- Akebi no Miso ZumeyakiThe bittersweet rind of the akebia fruit is stuffed with minced meat and maitake mushroom simmered in miso and sugar, tied with kitchen string, and grilled. Elsewhere in Japan the white pulp is what gets eaten, but Yamagata is said to hold onto the unusual custom of eating the rind instead.
- DongarajiruWinter cod caught in the coldest weeks goes into a miso soup head to tail, innards included — said to trace back to fishermen's cooking on the Shonai coast. The liver's richness carries the flavor, and the traditional way adds only a scrap of rock nori, no scallion.
- Hatahata no YuageHatahata, scaleless sailfin sandfish that crowd the Shonai coast to spawn, are boiled whole and eaten with nothing more than grated daikon and soy sauce — a simple winter fish dish. With no scales to remove, it is said to have become a fixture of Shonai's autumn and winter table.
- Hyoboshi no NimonoPurslane, called hyo, is picked in summer, boiled, and sun-dried into a keeping food, then rehydrated and simmered with shirataki, carrot, and fried tofu for New Year. The name is said to be played on for luck — a wish that something good might happen, hyotto, this year.
- ImoniTaro, beef, konnyaku, and scallion simmer together in a soy-based autumn hot pot said to trace to boatmen on the Mogami River, who cooked taro and dried cod on the riverbank while waiting out the delays of cargo transport. On the Shonai coast the same dish turns to pork and miso.