Sweets ── Wagashi (Japanese sweets)
Warabimochi
Warabimochi — a jelly-like sweet made from bracken starch
Starch extracted from bracken root, simmered with water and sugar and chilled until set. Bracken starch has long been a costly ingredient due to the labor of gathering and refining it, and the sweet is typically topped with roasted soybean flour or dark syrup.
- Mochi and dango
What it's made of
Just starch from bracken rhizomes, water, and sugar — about as simple as it gets. The draw is a translucent, quivering texture, most often eaten dusted with roasted soybean flour or drizzled with dark syrup. Genuine bracken starch is scarce and costly to gather, so cheaper versions blended with potato or sweet potato starch are also said to circulate widely. The mixture turning translucent quickly in the pot is said to be the signal it's ready, at which point it's moved swiftly into a mold.
How it's made
Bracken starch is dissolved in water, mixed with sugar, and worked over heat in a pot until it turns translucent, then chilled until set. The mixture is sticky and prone to scorching, so it is said to demand careful heat control and constant stirring. The mixture tends to stick to the bottom of the pot while it's worked, so scraping and stirring continuously with a wooden spatula is said to demand real patience. As a sweet meant to feel cool, many shops are said to serve it in a bowl with ice.
Why it took this shape
One account holds that the technique of extracting starch from bracken roots combined with the idea of chilling it into a set sweet. Because bracken starch was a scarce ingredient requiring laborious gathering, it is said to have been treated as a sweet reserved for rites and for entertaining guests. Refrigeration hardens it and dulls the flavor, so eating it fresh on the day it's made is said to be the proper way to enjoy it.
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.
- 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
- Ohagi / BotamochiLightly pounded rice coated in sweet bean paste, offered at the equinox. The speckled look of chunky bean paste is said to have been likened to bush clover blossoms in autumn — hence "ohagi" — and to peonies in spring, giving "botamochi."
- DaifukuOne of the most basic shapes in wagashi: pounded mochi wrapped around sweet bean paste. A thick, saltier mochi called "harabuto-mochi" is said to have been eaten in the Edo period, later shrinking into the handheld "daifuku-mochi" known today.