Abekawa Mochi: Shizuoka’s Specialty Wagashi Sweet
In the previous entry, I wrote about Kinako Mochi. But after posting the article, the sweet Mochi dish reminded me of Shizuoka’s specialty Wagashi confection called Abekawa Mochi (安倍川もち).
Abekawa Mochi (安倍川もち)
Abekawa Mochi is a kind of Kinako Mochi said to have originated in the early Edo period, about 400 years ago. The birthplace of the Mochi confection is Shizuoka City in Shizuoka Prefecture, but now, it is widely available around the country.
Origin
One legend holds that when the first shogun in the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康), stopped by a tea house on the shore of the Abekawa River in Shizuoka, the owner served him a Kinako-coated Mochi rice cake.
To resemble gold dust mined in the upper reaches of the Abekawa River, the owner used *the yellow roasted soybean flour Kinako (きな粉) and said to Ieyasu: This is Kinako Mochi (金な粉餅) using Abekawa’s gold dust.
*Using Kanji characters, Kinako (きな粉) can be represented in two ways, 黄な粉 or 金な粉. While the former 黄な粉 can refer to yellow powder or roasted soy flour, the latter 金な粉 can stand for golden powder or gold dust.
Ieyasu was delighted with the Kinako Mochi and is said to have named it Abekawa Mochi.
vs. Kinako Mochi (きな粉もち)
As mentioned in the previous post, for Kinako Mochi, we usually mix Kinako flour with white sugar before coating steamed Mochi rice cake with it. But for Abekawa Mochi, we dust white sugar after coating the Mochi with unsweetened Kinako flour.
Further, unlike Kinako Mochi, Abekawa Mochi typically comes with Ankoro Mochi today.
(Reference Page: Wikipedia 安倍川もち )
