Sweets
Osaka Sakura Mochi
Osaka sakura mochi — sweet bean paste wrapped in a Domyoji rice-flour mochi
Sweet bean paste is wrapped in a coarse-grained mochi made from domyoji rice flour, then bound with a salted cherry leaf — a springtime confection. Domyoji flour is said to have first been made over a thousand years ago as a preserved food at Domyoji temple in Fujiidera, giving a texture unlike Kanto's crepe-style sakura mochi.
- Origin: Osaka Fujiidera
- About 400 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
This spring confection wraps bean paste in a grainy mochi made from domyoji flour, then wraps the whole thing in a salted cherry leaf. The chewy texture and faint fragrance of cherry blossom combine, and its pink color is said to convey spring at a glance. Sakura mochi is even a seasonal word in haiku, it's said, and it's said to be a refined confection that captures spring in both look and taste; eaten across the country, it's said the use of domyoji flour is what sets the Osaka and wider Kansai version apart.
How it's made
Salted cherry leaves are soaked in water to remove the salt. Domyoji flour is combined with sugar, water, and food coloring, then steamed or simmered into a dough, torn into pieces, flattened into rounds, and wrapped around bean paste. The whole thing is finally wrapped in a cherry leaf, which can be eaten or left aside, it's said. Sold at confectioners from February into early April, it's said to be widely enjoyed as a way to feel the season, its grainy domyoji texture said to be the defining trait of the Kansai style.
Why it took this shape
Unlike the Kanto version of sakura mochi, which wraps bean paste in a thin, crepe-like batter, the Kansai version is said to use domyoji flour instead. Domyoji flour is said to have first been made over a thousand years ago at Domyoji temple in Fujiidera, Osaka, as a preservable food, and using that flour is thought to have become the defining trait of sakura mochi in Osaka and the wider Kansai region. Wrapping the finished sweet in a salted cherry leaf is said to be common to both the Kanto and Kansai styles.
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
Contrast
- Sakura MochiA thin crepe-like wheat dough is wrapped around smooth red bean paste and finished in a salted cherry leaf — said to have been dreamed up by a man living at the gate of Chomeiji temple while sweeping fallen leaves off the Sumida riverbank, a treat that caught on with flower-viewing crowds.
- Kurumi MochiMochi 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.
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.