Sweets
Sakura Mochi
Sakura Mochi — bean paste wrapped in salted cherry leaf, Kanto style
A 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.
- Origin: Tokyo Sumida
What it's made of
A thin, round wheat-flour crepe is wrapped around sweet red bean paste, then wrapped again in a salt-cured cherry leaf. The leaf's saltiness and faint fragrance are said to set off the gentle sweetness of the paste. The chewy texture of the grilled crepe meets the flavor of the leaf in a sweet named for the cherry trees along the Sumida embankment, still enjoyed today as a taste that announces spring's arrival.
How it's made
Red beans are simmered, strained, and worked into a smooth paste. Wheat flour or shiratamako is mixed with water and tinted a faint cherry-blossom pink with food coloring, then cooked thin and oval-shaped in a frying pan like a crepe, and this skin is wrapped around the paste. It is finished by wrapping it in a salt-cured cherry leaf, and whether to eat the leaf along with it or set it aside is said to be a matter of preference, with the way the leaf is wrapped and how many are used said to vary a little by shop.
Why it took this shape
It is said to trace back to a man who, while sweeping up fallen cherry leaves along the Sumida embankment, hit on the idea of salt-curing the leaves and wrapping them around a rice cake filled with bean paste. Selling it before the temple gate delighted the flower-viewing crowds, and it is said to have taken hold as a local specialty from there, the very identity of a cherry-blossom destination taking shape in a sweet — a flavor said to carry on from the Edo period to today.
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
- Imo YoukanSteamed sweet potato is mashed and worked with sugar into a paste set like yokan — said to have been devised in the Meiji era by an Asakusa potato wholesaler and a confectioner as an affordable stand-in for the pricier bean-paste yokan of the day.
- Osaka Sakura MochiSweet 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.
- Kushi DangoDumplings kneaded from rice flours are boiled and skewered, then dipped in red bean paste, sweet soy glaze, or kinako — the approach to a temple gate stall in Shibamata is a well-known spot for them, and Tokyo's sticks are said to run four dumplings each, one short of the five common in Kansai.
Also from Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."