Sweets
Zunda Mochi
Zunda mochi — mochi coated in sweet edamame paste
Boiled edamame is mashed into a vivid green paste sweetened with sugar and worked into freshly pounded mochi — said to have become a guest-worthy treat in a prefecture where mochi appears at New Year's, weddings, and other occasions.
- Origin: Miyagi
- About 300 km north of Tokyo
Lineage
What it's made of
A vivid green paste made from mashed boiled edamame, generously worked over freshly pounded rice cakes. The beans' grassy aroma and faint sweetness cling to the chewy rice cake, and a gentle sweetness set only with sugar lingers after each bite. Sometimes the paste is eaten salted on its own, sometimes spooned over skewered dumplings, and its bright color is said to make it a favorite for entertaining guests.
How it's made
Edamame is shelled, boiled, and skinned, then ground smooth in a mortar and seasoned with sugar and salt to make the paste. It is then worked generously over freshly pounded rice cakes. Shelling the beans takes real effort, and it is said the whole family once gathered to do it together, turning the process into something like a small seasonal event alongside the rice-pounding itself.
Why it took this shape
In Miyagi, rice cakes are said to be eaten at nearly every seasonal event—New Year, weddings, memorial services—and that habit is thought to have let many varieties of rice-cake dishes flourish. Edamame being a familiar garden crop, together with a green-and-white color pairing well suited to a table set for guests, is said to be why this became a signature dish for entertaining.
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 Miyagi
- Aburafu DonDeep-fried wheat gluten, shaped into a log, is simmered in a sweet-savory broth and set with egg over rice, katsudon-style — a Tome City bowl said to trace to a tofu shop's shelf-stable gluten product, later turned into a bowl dish by a local innkeeper.
- AzaraNapa cabbage pickled long enough to turn sour is simmered slowly with rockfish trimmings and sake lees — a Kesennuma dish said to taste even better cold, or reheated the next day, long loved as everyday food.
- Bakke MisoButterbur sprouts picked in early spring — called 'bakke' locally — are boiled, chopped, and worked into a paste with walnuts and miso, said to be prized for helping clear the body of winter's buildup, spooned over rice or grilled fish.
- Donko JiruDonko, a brown hakeling landed at Ishinomaki and Kesennuma ports, is simmered in miso with daikon and tofu — a fish said to be considered lucky for money, given its wide mouth and narrow tail, and offered at the autumn ebisu-ko festival.
- Fusube MochiLoach, grilled plain then smoked over an irori hearth, is ground to powder and simmered with grated daikon and burdock in a soy-chili sauce, then folded into freshly pounded mochi — said to be a mochi dish born of inland Kurihara's distance from the sea.