Sweets
Yubeshi
Kumamoto yubeshi — glutinous rice pounded with miso and yuzu, steamed in bamboo bark
Glutinous rice is pounded with yuzu, miso, and sugar, wrapped in bamboo bark, and steamed into a mochi sweet. In Kikuchi it survives as a confection said to trace to wartime provisions, while Hitoyoshi-Kuma keeps an entirely different version, stuffed inside a hollowed yuzu and air-dried.
- Origin: Kumamoto
- About 870 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A mochi-like sweet made by kneading glutinous and non-glutinous rice with miso and yuzu citrus, then steaming it wrapped in bamboo sheath. A wholly different version survives in the Hitoyoshi-Kuma region, where the flesh of a yuzu is hollowed out to use as a container, filled, steamed, and then sun-dried. The plain sweet is said to release more yuzu aroma and miso flavor with every bite.
How it's made
The Kikuchi-area version kneads glutinous and non-glutinous rice with miso and yuzu, then steams it wrapped in bamboo sheath. The Hitoyoshi-Kuma version hollows out a yuzu to use as a vessel, packs it with miso, peanuts, sesame, ginger, chili and a mix of flour and seasonings, steams it, then sun-dries it in a net for about two weeks to let it mature. The Kikuchi version is best sliced to whatever size you like, or simply bitten straight into.
Why it took this shape
In the Kikuchi area, long known as rice-growing country, the sweet is said to have started as a way to make use of the broken rice left over at harvest. Wrapping it in bamboo sheath for its antibacterial effect is thought to reflect its role as a preserved food, and in the Hitoyoshi-Kuma region, a distinct version is believed to have developed out of a similar wish not to waste the region's abundant yuzu. One account traces its origins further back, to the Kikuchi clan of the Nanboku-cho era, who are said to have valued its keeping qualities enough to carry it as army rations.
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
- YubeshiSteamed sticky rice flour is kneaded with grated yuzu peel and starch syrup into a chewy sweet in Takahashi and Yakage — where the Tohoku version uses walnut, Okayama's leans on the yuzu grown here, a treat said to have pleased traveling lords at old post towns.
- Tojiko MameRoasted soybeans are simmered in sugar water, bound with wheat flour, wrapped in bamboo bark, and steamed into a simple sweet — its name said to mean "beans sealed in sweet dough," traditionally made every year-end in Yamaga's Kikuka district.
Also from Kumamoto
- Amakusa DaioA large-bodied meat fowl once kept in Amakusa in the Meiji and Taisho eras, said to have died out in the early Showa period before Kumamoto prefecture spent roughly a decade recreating it; reportedly among the biggest jidori breeds, shipped at 120–150 days.
- Gane-ageSweet potato cut into batons is coated in a ginger-sweetened batter and deep-fried. "Gane" is Amakusa dialect for crab, said to describe the shape of the fried strands, and the dish also serves as a vegetarian offering at Buddhist services.
- Tai SomenSomen noodles are simmered in the broth of sea bream head and bones cooked down whole — a celebratory dish said to reflect the influence of nearby Shimabara's somen tradition. In Yamato's Mamihara, a version called "taimen" simmers the whole fish instead.
- Tako MeshiSun-dried octopus is rehydrated, chopped, and either cooked into rice with burdock and carrot or mixed in afterward — a dish that leans on the concentrated flavor of dried octopus, known for the summer sight of octopus hung out to dry in Amakusa's Ariake.
- Baniku SobaFrom the Aso area of Kumamoto: hot soba topped with horse meat simmered sweet and salty. It's said to carry the history of a region where horse meat took root as a restorative food for the injured and ill.
- ButaaeBoiled octopus and eggplant are stir-fried in a sweet, spicy barley miso — an Amakusa home dish said to have begun as a stand-in for pork, once hard to come by, using the local octopus instead while keeping the old name, "pork mix."