😋FRIDAY REFRESHMENTS🍡
Botamochi (牡丹餅) and Ohagi (御萩) are simple rice cakes covered in bean jam. Served around the equinoctial weeks, they have become powerful symbols of spring & autumn.
Less well known are their summer and winter versions, available around the solstices.
Yesterday was the last chance to try @o_itotatsu's summer ohagi, known as 'yofune' (夜舟 'night boat').
The name is an allusion to the unexpected texture of the sweet...it looks like a plain rice cake, but when you bite into it you discover that the rice is smoothly mashed.
#夜舟
Boats arriving to the wharfs at Hagi by night would not reveal the nature of their goods to the customs officials until the light of day. 'Night boat' has thus come to mean an 'unexpected result'.
'Yofune' look like normal 'ohagi', but their texture and taste are different.
The name of 'yofune' is also connected to sound.
Neighbours could hear mochi being made by the distinctive sound of rice being pounded, thus they could anticipate a gift. The method for making 'yofune' was quiet, so the gift would be unexpected (like a ship arriving at night).
Similar in meaning to yofune (something is not as it seems), winter's ohagi is called 'kita-mado' (北窓 'north window').
Tsukishirazu '搗き知らず' (unknowingly) is a homonym of '月知らず' (moonless). Another phrase for 'unable to see the moon' was 'north side window' (北側の窓).
The name 'kita-mado' (北窓) is also connected to a feeling of winter, of cold and snow, setting the sweet aside from the summer version of ohagi.
Seasonal names for ohagi:
🌸spring = botamochi (牡丹餅)
⛱️summer = yofune (夜舟)
🎑autumn = ohagi (御萩)
🌨️winter = kita-mado (北窓)
For those of you interested in learning more about the history of this simple, but delicious sweet, please check out our previous post🙇♂️
⬇️
#Japan #JapaneseSweets #wagashi #和菓子 #牡丹餅 #夜舟 #御萩 #北窓
Shichijō Kanshundō's (七條甘春堂) coffee-jelly 'hana-yōkan' (コーヒーゼリーの花ようかん) is the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.
🌿Top layer = mint and raspberry yōkan👍
🥛Middle layer = milk and coffee yōkan😏
☕️Bottom layer = coffee jelly😋
➡️@7jyokansyundo
#Kyoto #和菓子 #Japan
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