Sweets
Kurumi Mochi
Kurumi mochi — mochi wrapped in a sweet green soybean paste, a Sakai confection
Mochi is wrapped, or 'kurunde,' in a pale green paste of ground edamame or green soybeans — a confection of Sakai despite the name suggesting walnuts, which it does not contain. Born in Sakai's trading heyday, it is said to have long served as a tea sweet in the hometown of tea master Sen no Rikyu.
- Origin: Osaka Sakai
- About 410 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This confection from Sakai wraps small mochi balls of steamed glutinous rice in a pale green bean paste. Made from ground edamame or green soybeans, the paste has a smooth, refined sweetness, and the name is said to come not from walnuts but from the way the mochi is 'kurumu' — wrapped — in the paste. It's sometimes written with characters meaning 'lasting deliciousness,' it's said, and it's said to be enjoyed as an everyday treat at many confectioners around the city.
How it's made
Steamed glutinous rice is pounded and rolled into small balls. Edamame is boiled until tender, its skins removed, then blended and cooked with sugar and salt to make the paste, which the mochi balls are coated in before serving. Soybeans, green soybeans, or shiratama dumplings sometimes stand in for edamame, it's said, and mountain villages with little rice paddy land are said to have used dried soybeans instead, since edamame wasn't available there.
Why it took this shape
During the Warring States period, Sakai flourished through overseas trade, and confectioners there are said to have first wrapped mochi in bean paste using imported produce. Sakai was the birthplace of the tea master Sen no Rikyu, and as a tea-drinking culture flourished among the era's wealthy merchants, kurumi mochi is said to have become beloved as a tea sweet. Born of a port city's trading heritage, it's said to still be carried on today at many neighborhood confectioners around the city.
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.
- Izakaya customsFrom the small starter dish called otoshi, the classic "for now, a draft beer" first order, ordering a little at a time, choosing tare or shio for yakitori, soy sauce dishes, a closing course, and last orders and smoking rules.
- 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 Osaka
- AkanekoSteamed sticky rice pounded with wheat flour is dusted with sugar and soybean flour — also called hangesho mochi, for the rite marking the end of rice planting. The whole-ground wheat flour once left the mochi brownish, said to resemble a cat's round back and give the dish its name.
- BatteraThin slices of vinegared mackerel and white kelp sheet are pressed together in a wooden mold. A sushi shop in Minami-Senba is said to have devised it in 1891, naming it after the Portuguese word for a small boat because the original version, made with konoshiro, resembled one.
- Beni Shoga TenThin slices of red ginger, pickled in plum vinegar, are battered and deep-fried. The plum vinegar's tang and the ginger's bite are said to suit drinks well, and the fritter appears as a one-sen tempura in Sakunosuke Oda's 1940 novella 'Meoto Zenzai,' evidence of how long it has fed ordinary Osakans.
- Beni-zuiki to Aburaage no TaitanBeni-zuiki, reddish taro leaf-stalks that can grow to 2 meters tall, is soaked in vinegared water to remove its bitterness, then simmered with fried tofu in dashi and soy sauce — a summer obanzai dish. Its spongy cross-section is said to soak up flavor well, and it has been named a Naniwa specialty product.
- Dote YakiParboiled beef tendon simmers for a long time against a bank of miso and mirin piled around the pan's edge like a levee, or dote. Rich and sweet-savory, it pairs well with drinks and is said to be a beloved downtown Osaka food, with many shops concentrated in the Shinsekai district.
- EhomakiA thick sushi roll eaten whole and in silence while facing the year's auspicious direction on Setsubun, the last day of winter. Its origin is not settled, but theories passed down include a game among the geisha quarters and a prayer for prosperity by Osaka's Semba merchant houses.