Sweets
Imomochi
Imomochi (Wakayama) — sweet potato pounded with a small measure of sticky rice
Sweet potatoes grown on red clay bluffs are pounded together with a smaller-than-usual measure of sticky rice into this treat from the Kumano coast. Said to have begun as a way to stretch scarce rice on land ill-suited to growing it, it's toasted once it cools and firms up.
- Origin: Wakayama Kushimoto
- About 440 km southwest of Tokyo
What it's made of
Imomochi is a rice cake made by pounding steamed sweet potato together with mochi rice, a technique said to have been devised to stretch a small amount of precious mochi rice further. The sweet potato's natural sweetness carries through, and in eras when sugar was scarce, that sweetness alone was reportedly enough seasoning. Today some versions add red bean paste for extra sweetness, but at heart it remains a simple, everyday treat.
How it's made
Steamed sweet potato and mochi rice are pounded together into one cake. Freshly made, it stays soft enough to eat as is, but it firms up once it cools, so it is typically grilled before eating. Toasting the surface adds a savory aroma while the inside stays pleasantly chewy. In times when sugar was scarce, the sweet potato's own sweetness was the only seasoning used; today, red bean paste is sometimes folded in for extra sweetness.
Why it took this shape
The coastal communities along the Kumano Sea have only a narrow strip of flat land before the mountains rise, leaving little ground suited to rice farming. Sweet potatoes, which grow well even in the area's red clay soil, were reportedly cultivated alongside barley and eaten daily as a substitute staple. Cultivation is said to have spread after Uematsu Yasuke of Kushimoto brought the crop back from Kyushu in the Edo period, and because it also stored well, it took root across the southern prefecture. Imomochi is said to have grown out of the need to make precious mochi rice go further.
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
- ImomochiSteamed potato is mashed and bound with potato starch, then pan-fried until browned — also called imodango. Said to have begun as a stand-in for mochi rice in years when rice was hard to grow.
- ImobotaA Nara-style sweet rice cake made by cooking taro into non-glutinous rice, mashing it, and wrapping it around sweet red bean paste. When glutinous rice was precious, taro's own stickiness is said to have stood in for it, and in many areas it is offered at the household altar on the Day of the Boar in November, once the harvest is in.
Also from Wakayama
- BouriA whole, unpeeled parent taro is simmered over two days for this New Year's dish from the Ayukawa area of Tanabe City's Ото̄ district. One account holds that villagers gave up pounding mochi for six hundred years to atone for once turning away a fleeing prince, eating this in its place.
- Goma ToufuRaw sesame is skinned, ground, and worked with mountain water and Yoshino arrowroot into a simmered block of shojin cuisine. Said to have supplied protein for monks who abstained from meat and fish, it's now a familiar Koyasan souvenir and a fixture on Japanese menus.
- Gonpachi no Abura ItameGonbachi, formally known as itadori knotweed, is blanched, peeled, and quickly stir-fried in oil for this spring dish. Thick, well-grown stalks that snap with a crisp pop are prized for a crunchy bite and a faint sourness.
- Hatagonbo ZushiA stout, round burdock called hatagonbo, grown on the steep red-clay slopes of Hashimoto City's Nishihata district, is sliced into rounds, hollowed at the center, and packed with vinegared rice. Cultivation had nearly died out until a local cooperative revived it around 2013, roughly seventy years on.
- Igami no NitsukeIgami — what southern Wakayama calls the parrotfish — is simmered whole in a sweet-salty broth. Feeding on seaweed among winter rocks leaves it free of any off-flavor, and around Tanabe it's said to be served head-to-tail in place of sea bream for New Year's.
- Inoko MochiNon-glutinous and sticky rice are cooked with taro, mashed, and shaped into balls coated with lightly salted sweet red bean paste. Offered to the harvest god on the Day of the Boar in the old tenth lunar month, it's also made for autumn festivals in parts of southern Wakayama.