Sendai Sweets: Hagi no Tsuki & Zunda Mochi
I have not visited Sendai City, Miyagi, for years. One reason is that, because of the covid-19 pandemic, I couldn’t get the opportunity.
But thanks to the Omiyage (お土産: souvenir) fair held in an Aeon mall, I could obtain these Hagi no Tsuki (萩の月) (Price: 830 yen) and Zunda Mochi (ずんだ餅) (Price: 550 yen) Sendai sweets yesterday.
Sendai Sweets
The Omiyage fair offered various edible souvenirs from around Japan, and what caught my attention first were the very well-known Sendai sweets, Hagi no Tsuki, and Zunda Mochi.
Hagi no Tsuki (萩の月)
Hagi no Tsuki, officially Sendai Meika Hagi no Tsuki (仙台銘菓 萩の月), is a signature product of the confectionery maker Kasho Sanzen (菓匠三全) that’s been on sale since 1979.
Its literal meaning is the moon of the bush clover. Hagi (萩: bush clover) is a flower representative of Sendai City, and this Manju-like confection is just like a full moon.
The dough is fluffy, like castella cake, filled with custard cream. Hagi no Tsuki is as well-recognized as Hokkaido’s Shiroi Koibito langue de chat cookies in Japan and is a must-try sweet of Sendai.
Ingredients/Nutrition Facts
| Milk, Egg, Sugar, Wheat flour, Reduced starch syrup, Dairy product, Butter, Starch, Trehalose, Glycine, Emulsifier, Flavoring, Leavening |
| Calories | 147 kcal |
| Protein | 3.3 g |
| Fat | 4.3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 23.8 g |
| Salt equivalents | 0.08 g |
Zunda Mochi (ずんだ餅)
Meanwhile, Zunda Mochi is among the so-called Three Best Sendai Meibutsu (三大仙台名物) specialties, along with Gyutan (牛タン) and Sasa-Kama (笹かま), and this one is from Kikusuian (喜久水庵).
Zunda Mochi is usually like this, but this one comes in a Daifuku style, filled with sweet green bean paste called Zunda-An (ずんだ餡) made from mashed edamame beans sweetened with sugar.
Unlike Hagi no Tsuki, if you can prepare Mochi rice cakes, Zunda Mochi is relatively easy to make (like this). So if interested, why not try it?
(Reference Pages: Wikipedia 萩の月, ずんだ餅 )
