Sweets
Tojiko Mame
Tojiko mame — roasted soybeans bound in a sweet wheat-flour dough and steamed in bamboo bark
Roasted soybeans are simmered in sugar water, bound with wheat flour, wrapped in bamboo bark, and steamed into a simple sweet — its name said to mean "beans sealed in sweet dough," traditionally made every year-end in Yamaga's Kikuka district.
- Origin: Kumamoto Yamaga
- About 880 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
A plain regional sweet made by folding roasted soybeans into a sweet wheat dough and steaming it wrapped in bamboo sheath. The name is said to come from the way the dough 'seals in' the beans, and today peanuts are often used instead of soybeans for their texture and flavor. In the Kikuka district of Yamaga city, in the prefecture's north, it's said to have long been made without fail at year's end alongside New Year dishes like osechi.
How it's made
Sugar and water are dissolved together in a pan, and roasted soybeans are added. Once the beans soften, flour is mixed in, and the mixture is worked in a frying pan until the flour turns translucent. This is wrapped in bamboo sheath and steamed to finish, and some households add yuzu or ginger to the dough. It's typically sliced into rounds about a centimeter thick, and is said to taste good lightly toasted or warmed as well.
Why it took this shape
In the Kikuka district of Yamaga city, in the prefecture's north, the sweet is said to have long been made without fail at year's end alongside New Year dishes like osechi. Because farming households could grow the raw ingredients themselves — soybeans, wheat, and brown sugar — the sweet is thought to have taken root as both a busy-season snack and a gift. Swapping in different sugars, like light brown sugar or cane sugar, or blending them for extra depth, is said to be a touch passed down differently from household to household.
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 Kumamoto
- Amakusa DaioA large-bodied meat fowl once kept in Amakusa in the Meiji and Taisho eras, said to have died out in the early Showa period before Kumamoto prefecture spent roughly a decade recreating it; reportedly among the biggest jidori breeds, shipped at 120–150 days.
- Gane-ageSweet potato cut into batons is coated in a ginger-sweetened batter and deep-fried. "Gane" is Amakusa dialect for crab, said to describe the shape of the fried strands, and the dish also serves as a vegetarian offering at Buddhist services.
- Tai SomenSomen noodles are simmered in the broth of sea bream head and bones cooked down whole — a celebratory dish said to reflect the influence of nearby Shimabara's somen tradition. In Yamato's Mamihara, a version called "taimen" simmers the whole fish instead.
- Tako MeshiSun-dried octopus is rehydrated, chopped, and either cooked into rice with burdock and carrot or mixed in afterward — a dish that leans on the concentrated flavor of dried octopus, known for the summer sight of octopus hung out to dry in Amakusa's Ariake.
- Baniku SobaFrom the Aso area of Kumamoto: hot soba topped with horse meat simmered sweet and salty. It's said to carry the history of a region where horse meat took root as a restorative food for the injured and ill.
- ButaaeBoiled octopus and eggplant are stir-fried in a sweet, spicy barley miso — an Amakusa home dish said to have begun as a stand-in for pork, once hard to come by, using the local octopus instead while keeping the old name, "pork mix."