Sweets ── Wagashi (Japanese sweets)
Anmitsu
Anmitsu — cubes of agar jelly with fruit, beans, and bean paste in syrup
Cubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Origin: Tokyo Chuo
- Yokan and agar jellies
Lineage
What it's made of
Cubes of agar jelly, boiled red peas, smooth bean paste, and gyuhi or fruit arranged in a bowl, topped with dark or light syrup. The draw is the layering of the jelly's smooth slip against the dense sweetness of the bean paste. Variants adding gyuhi, rice dumplings, or fruit have spread widely, and the specific combination of toppings arranged in the bowl is said to become each shop's own identity. Because agar comes from seaweed, a faint trace of its aroma sometimes remains, said to become part of the flavor's character.
How it's made
Agar is dissolved by boiling, poured into a mold, chilled until set, and cut into cubes. The jelly, peas, bean paste, and gyuhi or fruit are arranged in a bowl, and dark syrup is poured over just before eating so the flavors settle together. The mix of toppings is said to vary widely by shop. How the red peas are simmered alone changes their skin's firmness and flavor, and some customers are said to visit specifically for the beans. Showa-era variants such as "fruit anmitsu," adding canned fruit to the mix, are also said to have become widely established.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that "mitsumame" — agar jelly and red peas in syrup, nothing more — came first, and that a Ginza sweets shop began adding its own smooth bean paste in 1930, giving rise to "anmitsu." That one addition of bean paste is said to have given the sweet a dual character: a cooling treat and a proper wagashi built around paste, at once. Many sweets shops are said to offer it year-round as a signature item, rotating in seasonal fruit.
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.
- Foods to look for in summerA guide to foods often seen in Japan around summer — eel on the Day of the Ox, hiyashi chuka, somen, shaved ice, edamame with beer, and hamo — with rough pointers for finding them.
Dishes in the same style
- KuzukiriKudzu starch dissolved in water, poured into a mold, heated until set, then cut into thin noodle-like strips. Usually eaten with dark syrup, it shares its raw material with kuzumochi but is worked into a contrasting texture and way of eating.
- KuzumochiKudzu starch dissolved in water and sugar, worked until translucent and set into a soft, jelly-like mochi. Known for a refining method called "Yoshino-zarashi," using icy winter groundwater, it is typically topped with roasted soybean flour or dark syrup.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Also from Tokyo
- Abura SobaNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke NoriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago ZushiConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- Asakusa shichimiA seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Chanko NabeChicken, napa cabbage, tofu, and more simmer together in broth — a hot pot born in sumo stables, said to date to the Meiji era, when four-legged meat like beef and pork was avoided since touching a hand to the ground echoed a loss in the ring. Former wrestlers still run chanko restaurants around Ryogoku, keeping their stable's flavor.