Sweets
Shusse Imo
Shusse imo — steamed taro or sweet potato wrapped around red bean paste
Steamed taro or sweet potato is shaped into a cylinder, wrapped in sweet red bean paste, and cut into rounds. Said to have been made in Kaiyo Town as a stand-in for ohagi rice cakes in a place where potato once replaced rice, its auspicious name reflects the potato's rise to the status of rice.
- Origin: Tokushima Kaiyo
- About 550 km southwest of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
Shusse-imo shapes steamed taro or sweet potato into a cylinder, wraps it in smooth red bean paste, and slices it into rounds — a dish from Kaiyō town and the surrounding area of southern Tokushima. It looks something like ohagi, but uses potato in place of rice, and the sticky texture of the potato meets the refined sweetness of the bean paste. In times when rice was scarce, potato reportedly stood in for it and was said to have been "promoted" ("shusse"), which is said to be the origin of this auspicious name. Sweet potato is more commonly used today than taro.
How it's made
Azuki beans soaked in water are boiled, blended, and mixed with sugar and salt to make smooth red bean paste. Boiled sweet potato is peeled, shaped, wrapped in a sheet of the bean paste, and chilled in the refrigerator. Sliced into rounds about three centimeters long, each piece reveals a neat spiral cross-section. Many households today use store-bought bean paste for convenience, and some combine taro with sweet potato instead of using either alone.
Why it took this shape
When rice was scarce, households in Kaiyō town and the rest of southern Tokushima often ate potato in its place, and shusse-imo appears to be one of the potato dishes devised in that context. It's said to have been made in place of ohagi, and thanks to its name's association with advancement in life, it came to be served at celebrations such as the birth of a son, the Boys' Festival, and sometimes even weddings. Casting a humble potato standing in for rice as something "promoted" looks like an effort to bring a festive touch to a table with modest ingredients.
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 Tokushima
- Amego no HirarayakiA flat stone is heated over a hearth for hours, then a border of miso is built on it to grill amego trout, stone tofu, and konjac — an outdoor dish from the Iya valley. Its name comes from hirara, a local word for a flat stone, and it is said to have long served as a dish for entertaining guests.
- Awa BanchaA post-fermented tea from Naka and Kamikatsu towns in Tokushima, fermented by lactic acid bacteria. Coarser leaves picked from midsummer on are boiled, packed into wooden barrels, fermented for roughly 10 days to two weeks, then sun-dried — said to give a refreshing sourness.
- Awa BitonRaised in the mountains of Awa City, Tokushima, at about 400 meters, on a feed centered on rice. Handlers are said to adjust the feed mix daily and avoid genetically modified crops where possible.
- Awa GyuPedigreed Japanese Black fattened in Tokushima, which gained recognition after being shown at a Tokyo meat market competition in 1962 — said to have a moist, fine-grained texture and modest fat.
- Awa no ItokoniSweet potato that has been boiled then dried — yude-boshi style — is rehydrated and simmered slowly with red beans for about two hours over low heat. Fitting for a region where drying vegetables is common in winter, it is said to be a warming side dish built on the concentrated flavor of dried sweet potato.
- Awa UiroRed bean paste mixed with rice flour and Awa wasanbon sugar is poured into a mold and steamed into a chewy cake. Said to have first been made to celebrate the completion of Awa wasanbon sugar in the Edo period, with related uiro cakes also found in Nagoya and Yamaguchi.