Sweets
Uiro
Yamaguchi uiro — a bouncy warabi-starch confection unlike Nagoya's rice version
Bracken starch gives Yamaguchi's uiro its springy, almost jelly-like bounce, unlike the rice-flour version associated with Nagoya. Said to have been eaten in the region since the Muromachi period, it is prized locally for a smoothness residents describe with the word "ottori."
- Origin: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi
- About 770 km west of Tokyo
What it's made of
Bracken starch gives Yamaguchi's uiro its springy, almost jelly-like bounce and chewy texture. Where Nagoya's version of the confection is steamed mainly from rice flour and sugar, Yamaguchi's carries a distinctive smoothness that comes from the bracken starch, one locals describe with the word "ottori." Enjoyed as an everyday tea sweet, it is also valued for its refined sweetness and has long been chosen as a gift.
How it's made
Sugar syrup and sweet bean paste are dissolved in water, then half of that mixture is stirred into a blend of wheat flour and bracken starch. Once the batter loses its powdery texture, the remaining bean paste is folded in and the whole mixture is strained. It is poured into molds, sometimes with boiled azuki or chestnuts added, then steamed and left to cool at room temperature; cooling it quickly in a refrigerator is said to make it go hard, so cooling it slowly is the trick.
Why it took this shape
Uiro has also been made in places like Nagoya, Kyoto, and Odawara, but in Yamaguchi it is said to have been eaten continuously since the Muromachi period, and a distinctive method using bracken starch rather than a rice-flour base appears to have taken root there. Specialty and traditional confectionery shops also make versions flavored with matcha, chestnut, or yuzu, carrying the sweet forward as an everyday tea treat through varied combinations of 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.
- 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
- Kashiwa MochiRice-flour dough wraps sweet bean paste and is steamed for this Boys' Day confection, eaten across the country on May 5th. While most regions wrap it in oak leaves, Yamaguchi traditionally uses sarutoriibara (Chinese smilax) leaves instead, and the sweet carries many local names such as "hotendo-mochi."
- Natsumikan GashiNatsumikan citrus peel is boiled repeatedly to soften it, simmered in sugar syrup, and dusted with granulated sugar for this Hagi confection. Cultivation is said to have begun when a former official distributed saplings to impoverished samurai households after the domain's seat moved away, and the sweet grew from a wish to waste nothing, not even the peel.
Also from Yamaguchi
- Chikin Chikin GoboBite-size fried chicken and deep-fried burdock are tossed in a sweet soy glaze in this dish, born in Yamaguchi's school lunches. A nutrition teacher is said to have devised it around 1995 from recipes submitted by families, and its catchy, rhythmic name helped it spread into a statewide favorite.
- Chisha NamasuKakichisha, an heirloom crinkled lettuce grown around Shimonoseki, is torn by hand and tossed with vinegared miso, flaked grilled fish, or whitebait. It is said to have been devised by the Mori domain's people after being impoverished by the Battle of Sekigahara, and is also known as "chishamomi."
- Choshu KurokashiwaSaid to draw on the blood of Kurokashiwa, a natural-monument fowl native to Yamaguchi and Shimane, developed into a jidori by a Yamaguchi research station and finished and named by a poultry farm; reportedly free-ranged for 80–100 days.
- Fugu no KaraagePufferfish, marinated in soy sauce and sake, is coated in potato starch and deep-fried—a homely dish from the Shimonoseki and Hagi areas. While pricier tiger pufferfish goes into sashimi and hot pot, the more affordable shirosabafugu species is the one most often fried this way.
- Fuku SashiPufferfish sashimi is sliced so thin it becomes translucent, then arranged in a chrysanthemum pattern in this Shimonoseki dish. Locals call the fish "fuku," a homophone for good fortune, and eat it with citrus ponzu and scallion; the practice traces to 1888, when eating pufferfish was legalized in Yamaguchi alone.
- GobomakiLizardfish skin, a byproduct of making fish cakes, is wrapped around a skewer of burdock root and grilled with a basting sauce—a dish from Hagi. Because it uses lizardfish, prized for the region's grilled fish cakes, seafood processors often make the two together, and it is a fixture of festival and cherry-blossom bento.