Sweets
Piinattsu Doufu
Ojika peanut tofu — ground peanuts bound with kudzu starch into a firm, chilled block
Peanuts grown on the island are ground and bound with kudzu starch into a firm block — a specialty of Ojika Island said to make a savory side with yuzu miso or a sweet with black syrup and sugared soybean flour, built on peanuts raised in red soil and sea wind.
- Origin: Nagasaki Ojika
- About 1020 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A tofu-like dish made by grinding down peanuts grown on Ojika island and setting them with kuzu starch, prized for the sweetness and depth of flavor peanuts grown in the island's red soil and sea breeze are said to develop. It's eaten plain, with a yuzu-miso topping for a rice side dish, or dressed with black sugar syrup or sweetened soybean flour as a dessert. Despite borrowing the word 'tofu,' it's distinctive for using no soybeans at all.
How it's made
Peanuts are ground down, then mixed with kuzu starch and water and worked over heat. Once it thickens and comes together, it's poured into a mold and chilled until set. It's sliced and eaten plain, paired with a yuzu-mixed miso for a rice side, or finished with black sugar syrup or sweetened soybean flour when a dessert is wanted. How carefully the heat is managed while working the mixture is said to determine how smooth it turns out.
Why it took this shape
Peanut cultivation on Ojika island is said to go back at least several decades, and the island's distinctive red soil and sea breeze are said to produce peanuts with notable sweetness and depth. Setting them with kuzu starch, in a form resembling tofu, is thought to have taken hold in local households as a way to make full use of the island's specialty, and the dish came to be served at celebratory occasions as well. Keeping the seasoning restrained, to let the peanut's own sweetness lead, is said to be the basic principle.
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
- Goma ToufuRaw sesame is skinned, ground, and worked with mountain water and Yoshino arrowroot into a simmered block of shojin cuisine. Said to have supplied protein for monks who abstained from meat and fish, it's now a familiar Koyasan souvenir and a fixture on Japanese menus.
- Kankoro MochiSweet potato is sliced thin, sun-dried into "kankoro," and pounded together with glutinous rice into a mochi — said to have been made at home across the Goto islands as a winter keeping food that stretched costly rice to feed the whole family.
Also from Nagasaki
- ArumadoA hard-boiled egg dyed pink is wrapped in fish paste and steamed into a kamaboko log that shows a pink-rimmed cross-section when cut — a Hirado specialty, with kin dishes called "arimado" in Sasebo and "ryugan" in Nagasaki.
- Goto UdonA hand-pulled noodle from Shinkamigoto, Nagasaki. Its technique is thought to trace back to envoys returning from Tang China, and the island's camellia oil is worked into the dough for a smooth, elastic bite.
- HanahajikiCucumber, carrot, deep-fried tofu, and shrimp are cut into strips and fanned out on a plate to be dipped in a hot mustard vinegar-miso — a dish from Isahaya said to be named for how the mustard "flicks the nose," traditionally served at Buddhist memorial services.
- HatoshiShrimp and squid paste sandwiched in bread and deep-fried, a Nagasaki specialty said to have arrived from China in the Meiji era, growing from a shippoku banquet course into a food loved across the city.
- HikadoFish or chicken and vegetables like daikon and carrot are diced fine and simmered, thickened at the end with grated sweet potato — said to originate in a meat stew eaten by Portuguese residents of Nagasaki, its name from the Portuguese word for "minced."
- HikitoshiChicken raised at home is butchered for this Iki hot pot, typically enriched with iki-doufu, a rich local tofu, and firm-boiled somen — said to have begun as a dish served to guests in the inner parlor, its name tracing to "hiki-toshi," leading a guest through.