Sweets
Tenmondou
Tenmondou — root vegetables candied in sugar syrup
Fibrous vegetables like burdock, lotus root, and ginger are boiled thin, then slow-simmered in sugar and dried into a keeping sweet — its name is said to trace to an old herbal remedy of asparagus root steeped in honey, and it was eaten as a snack to fuel farm work during the busy season.
- Origin: Chiba Togane
- About 60 km east of Tokyo
What it's made of
Fibrous vegetables such as burdock, carrot, ginger, and lotus root are slow-simmered in sugar and then dried into this preserved sweet. Each crumbles softly at the bite, layering the aroma of its own vegetable with the sweetness of sugar. Its name traces back to a Chinese herbal remedy, and it has long been cherished across generations of farming families as a humble sweet eaten between rounds of fieldwork.
How it's made
Fibrous vegetables such as burdock and lotus root are sliced thin and parboiled, with any that carry bitterness blanched first. They are then slow-simmered in water and sugar, finished with a dusting of sugar, and dried. The finished pieces are kept together in a large tin and taken out as needed. Prized for keeping a long time without preservatives, it was especially valued during the busy farming season, as the story is still told today.
Why it took this shape
In a region rich in vegetables, simmering harvested root vegetables in sugar to make them keep is said to have spread as a practical wisdom. As an energizing snack that could be eaten quickly between fieldwork during the busy season, this long-keeping sweet is said to have been prized. A name borrowed from the effects of a Chinese herbal medicine has been carried along with this humble vegetable sweet, still told and valued as a local flavor 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.
- Enjoying a bussanten (regional products fair)A guide to what's sold at a bussanten (regional products fair), how to find one, when it gets crowded, shelf life and taking food home, and how to fit one around a trip.
- How to use an antenna shopA guide to what's sold at an antenna shop, its restaurant or eat-in counters, its tourist-information role, the cluster of shops around Ginza and Yurakucho, and how to use one before a trip or for last-minute souvenirs.
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 Chiba
- Arirang RamenA soy ramen said to have started at a single restaurant on a mountain pass in Chiba's Nagara. Named, it's said, for the legendary Arirang Pass of Korean folklore, its soy broth carries the sweetness of onion and pork, layered with house-made chili oil and grated garlic for depth and heat.
- Barappa ManjuFreshly milled wheat dough is wrapped around red bean paste and steamed on a leaf of catbrier, called barappa locally — a bun said to be made in Chiba's Hokuso area when people gathered for summer festivals or Obon, each bringing ingredients to share.
- Iwashi no Unohana-zukeSalt-and-vinegar-cured sardines are packed into sweet-vinegared tofu lees with carrot and ginger — the pale lees are likened to unohana blossoms in the name, and are also said to keep the fish from breaking apart or oxidizing; eaten at New Year's and as an everyday pantry food.
- Rakkasei MisoPeanuts too small or misshapen to sell are stirred into miso and sugar and toasted into a pantry relish — said to have started as a way for farm households to use up peanuts the market wouldn't take, in leaner years.
- SumitsukareDaikon and carrot, coarsely grated with a rough-toothed oni-oroshi grater, are simmered with leftover setsubun soybeans and sake lees — said to have traveled from Tochigi into Chiba's Higashikatsushika area, offered to the local inari shrine on the year's first Day of the Horse before being eaten. Ibaraki and Saitama carry dishes of the same name.
- Yude RakkaseiFreshly dug peanuts, still in their shells, are boiled whole in salted water — a taste unique to the growing region, since raw peanuts start hardening the moment they're pulled from the ground and need to be boiled almost immediately.