Sweets
Minazuki
Minazuki — a triangular ういろう cake topped with sweet red beans for the summer purification rite
White uiro rice cake topped with sweet red beans and cut into triangles — a Kyoto confection eaten on June 30th for the Nagoshi no Harae purification rite, wishing off illness for the second half of the year. The triangle is said to recall summer ice, the beans' red to ward off misfortune.
- Origin: Kyoto
- About 370 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This Kyoto confection sets sweet azuki beans atop white uiro rice cake, cut into triangles. The chewy uiro meets the mealy sweetness of large-grained daina-gon azuki, and served chilled it's said to give a cool, refreshing bite. Among the many sweets Kyoto developed, from rakugan to arahei-to candy, this one is said to have long been loved across the entire prefecture.
How it's made
Uiro batter is poured into a steaming tray and steamed, then lined with large azuki beans or sweetened natto beans and steamed again. Most people buy it ready-made, it's said, and chilling it briefly before eating is said to bring out its texture. In recent years, matcha, brown-sugar, and chestnut versions have reportedly joined the plain white kind on store shelves.
Why it took this shape
The triangular shape is said to represent ice, echoing a Heian-period court custom of eating ice stored in an ice house to beat the summer heat. The red of the azuki beans is said to carry a meaning of warding off evil. Eaten on June 30 during the Nagoshi no Harae purification rite that marks the year's midpoint, it's thought to have been passed down as a seasonal food for praying off misfortune and wishing for good health. It's said to still be made entirely by hand, down to hand-carved wooden molds, a mark of the care put into it.
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
Also from Kyoto
- Chirimen SanshoChirimen-jako simmered sweet-salty with fresh sansho peppercorns in sake, soy sauce, and mirin — a Kyoto side dish said to have begun as a cook's gift in the mid-Showa era. The peppercorns leave a sharp, fragrant aftertaste.
- Ebiimo to Bodara no TaitanEbi-imo, a striped Kyoto heirloom taro named for its shrimp-like ridges, simmers together with bodara, cod dried in Hokkaido. Gelatin from the dried cod is said to keep the taro from falling apart, while the taro's bitterness softens the cod — a textbook 'deaimon' pairing.
- Fushimi no SakeSake from Fushimi in Kyoto, a district fed by groundwater from the Momoyama plateau. Its water is said to be softer than Nada's, giving a round mouthfeel and gentle, full sweetness that overlaps with the profile recognized under the GI Kyoto geographical indication.
- GanmodokiTofu mixed with vegetables, rolled into balls, and fried. Known in Kyoto as hirousu or hiryōzu, thought to have taken this form through the vegetarian temple-cooking idea of a filling dish made without meat.
- Hamo no YakimonoPike conger, riddled with fine bones, is scored with the skilled honekiri cut and then grilled — teriyaki-glazed or salted — in Kyoto cuisine. Said to have taken root in landlocked Kyoto because the hardy fish could be carried in alive, it is also a festival food for Gion Matsuri, nicknamed the 'hamo festival.'
- Kamonasu DengakuKamonasu, a round Kyoto heirloom eggplant over 10cm across sometimes called the 'queen of eggplants,' is sliced and pan-fried in plenty of oil, then topped with a sweet miso reduced with sake and mirin. It is said to have long been grown on the alluvial fan of Kamigamo.