’Do It Yourself’ Azuki and Monaka 京べに

Happy Birthday Dear Miwa
It was Miwa‘s birthday the other day and one of her co-workers gave her this interesting Kyoto wagashi called Kyo beni, literally Kyoto lipstick. I got to try some and here is what I thought:

At first sight I was like; Huh, Tsuruya Yoshinobu makes canned sweets now? What is the world coming to? The packaging is very un-shinise.

Kyobeni: Monaka Wafer and Ogura Anko – Package

Tokyo vs. Kyoto
While novel and modern, Kyobeni is not weird or nouveau. Being nouveau for the sake of being nouveau is what Tokyo is all about and that is completely un-Kyoto.

D.I.Y. is not a tradition in Kyoto. Ideally, everything is done by someone whose specialty, whose purpose to exist, is to do that task. And equally ideally, you have a specialty so that you can afford to always pay or hire a specialist for what you want to need. For example, a metal smith that only makes handcrafted finger catches for sliding fusuma screens. You don’t just drop by Home Depot to pick up a Made in China finger catch. You hire a specialist craftsman to make one just for that screen, just for that room in the house.

Well, those days have largely past and in the last decade 100, now 99 Yen Shops, discount outlets and ‘do it yourself’ inspired home centers have sprung up all over Japan. Even in the suburbs of old Kyoto there are a few now. (Even this Kyoto foodie gets his favorite Japanese junk food at the 99 Yen Shop.)

Kyobeni: Monaka Wafer and Ogura Anko

Kyobeni: Do It Yourself – Spreading Anko

The Vexing Problem of Soggy Monaka and “I want to be crisp”
Louis Kahn, the philosopher poet-warrior architect said that if you ask a brick what it wants to be it will say, “I want to be an arch.” And then you can tell that brick that arches are very expensive and the same thing can be accomplished with a concrete lintel or steel beam, and the brink will say, “I still want to be an arch”. The Kyoto approach to cuisine is like this. If you ask monaka what it wants to be, it will say, “I want to be crisp”.

Monaka is a light and airy, extremely crisp cracker or cookie-like wafer that is usually used to make something like an Oreo Cookie; two wafers of monaka with an sweet azuki bean (anko) filling. I am lukewarm on both anko and monaka but I really enjoyed this. Though freshness is of the essence in Japanese cuisine, by the time that you sink your teeth into a pre-made monaka confection, the monaka has lost its crispness due to absorbing water from the anko paste.

Tsuruya Yoshinobu saves the day with a D.I.Y. version! The monaka and anko are packaged separately in airtight packages and you apply the anko paste at the time of consumption.

Kyobeni: Making the ‘Cookie’

What Makes it Kyobeni ‘Kyoto’
Kyo-beni The monaka cookie is in the shape of a maiko’s (geisha, geiko) lipstick compact.
Ogura-an This anko is chunky with many of the azuki beans retaining their shape. Mt Ogura is in the Western Hills of Kyoto, in the Sagano district. As the different species of trees on Mt Ogura change colors in the autumn, spots of differing color are created. To the ancient imagination, this was said to resemble the spots on a deer fawns coat. This anko is not uniform in texture and has variations, and is said to be like Mr Ogura. Hence, Ogura-an. (Kind of a stretch for what I consider my wild imagination.)

Kyobeni Characters on Wafer

京 (kyo, as in Kyoto), べに (beni, red, as in lipstick)

About Tsuruya Yoshinobu
Tsuruya Yoshinobu is a popular wagashi shinise from Nishijin that has successfully expanded and now has stores in many of the department store food courts throughout the country. Tsuruya Yoshinobu’s main store (honten) is on the north-west corner of Imadegawa and Horikawa streets in the Nishijin neighborhood.

One things though about these old shinise shops in Kyoto; they never change. (Or, so they say.)

Kyoto Souvenir Shopping List
Kyobeni ought to make a very good foodie souvenir to take back an authentic and crispy taste of Kyoto.

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Shiruko is a hot, sweet soup-like dessert flavored with azuki beans and mochi that is very popular in Japan. It can be found on the menus of traditional style tea houses. I was given an elegant set of 5 shiruko in packages on the theme of the Daimonji. Daimonji is an event unique to Kyoto in which huge Chinese characters and pictograms bonfires are burned on the mountainsides of Kyoto in late August. Each serving of shiruko in this set is in an edible toasted mochi package that melts when hot water is poured on it. Each mochi package is branded with one of the 5 bonfire symbols.

Shiruko usually is a thick and sweet soupy paste of boiled and crushed azuki beans and is often garnished with mochi and candied chestnuts. This is a Kyoto-style shiruko is a bit more refined. Each serving is a sealed, toasted, seared and branded envelop made from mochi flour, this cracker-like shell is called monaka in Japanese. The azuki beans are finely powdered and mixed with sugar and potato starch. To prepare you simply break apart the package in a bowl and pour on boiling water. After a minute or so it is ready to slurp or spoon. The monaka mochi envelop is of course edible as well. It has an earthy, toasted rice taste and is pleasantly gooey and spongy after soaking.

Kyogozan Shiruko Package

The Chinese characters; 京 (Kyoto), 五 (five), 山 (mountain) are read as Kyogozan in Japanese. These are the five mountains around the city where the bonfires are burned.

Kyogozan Shiruko Package Opened

This is a bit over-packaged but not too bad by Japanese standards. (I took out some bubble wrap for this photo.) The paper explains about the Kyogozan. Of course everyone that can afford to shop for this kind of wagashi knows the history. There are also beautifully printed preparation instructions.

Daimonji Bonfire

This is the largest of the characters. ‘大’ means ‘great’.

Kyogozan Shiruko

Daimonji: A festival like non other in the entire world! Daimonji, literally means ‘great (big) character’. On a mid-August night massive bonfires are burned on 5 mountainsides surrounding Kyoto in the form of Chinese characters and pictograms to guide the visiting spirits back to the other world.

The Five Mountains
大 Daimonji This character means ‘great’ and is the ironic character of the custom.
妙 法 Myo Ho These two characters refer to the teachings of Buddhism and are a part of a mantra.
Funagata Funagata is a pictogram of a boat.
大 Hidari Daimonji Hidari Daimonji literally means ‘left’ daimonji, it is far smaller and on a hill in the west of the city.
Toriigata Toriigata is a pictogram of the torii gate that marks the enterence to a Shinto shrine.
(quoted from this KyotoFoodie article)

Kyogozan Shiruko Detail – Dai (大) Character

Kyogozan Shiruko Detail – Myo Ho (妙 法) Characters

Kyogozan Shiruko Detail – Funa (boat) Pictogram

Kyogozan Shiruko Detail – ‘Left’ Dai (大) Character

This dai is smaller than the first.

Kyogozan Shiruko Detail – Torii (Shinto Shrine Gate) Pictogram

Preparation

Kyogozan Shiruko Preparation and Serving – Break

Kyogozan Shiruko Preparation and Serving – Pour

Kyogozan Shiruko Preparation and Serving – Stir and Wait

Kyogozan Shiruko Preparation and Serving – Slurp

Most people would use a spoon.

How Did it Taste?
It tasted very good. I was surprised how much I liked the soft and spongy toasted monaka package. I really like how that ‘package’ is eaten, and not just eaten, it adds an essential flavor to the overall balance and complexity.

The ingredients are simply: mochi rice, azuki bean, sugar, potato starch and salt. The elegance of the taste comes from the selection of the ingredients, preparation and presentation. That is what makes Kyoto ‘different’, or so we say.

Who Makes This Wagashi?
This wagashi is made by Suetomi. We featured them in this article last year about namagashi for the tea ceremony and while their wagashi tastes just fine, their haughty attitude leaves me with a yucky taste in my mouth. But it is not like I am not grateful, thanks to cold, stuck-up, pretentious phonies like Suetomi, I was inspired to start my new project: OpenKyoto. You can read about my frustrations at ‘Trying to Open Kyoto‘ here. Please cheer me on! (I need it.)

Daimonji Gozan-no-Okuribi Viewing Party and Torii ‘Gate’ Bonfire
I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend a Gozan-no-Okuribi viewing party in Sagano, the still somewhat rural western edge of the city. This area has the torii shrine gate which cannot really be seen from central Kyoto anymore. This year was the first year that I had seen it up close. The hosts kindly sent each of us off with a box of this wonderful shiruko . Read this article on OpenKyoto for more.

Torii Bonfire and Floating Lanterns on Hirosawa Pond

Miwa found this very unusual ‘Eco Eco Mochi’ the other day. The producer, Sentaro, whose tasty wagashi products we have reviewed a number of times on KyotoFoodie, explains that as this mochi uses the skins of azuki beans for flavoring, which are usually thrown out as waste, it is environmentally friendly mochi. This is the first ‘eco’ mochi that I had heard of, it was reasonably priced and very tasty!

What Makes Eco Eco Mochi ‘Eco’?
When koshian, fine azuki bean paste is made, the skins of the azuki bean are separated out. Monaka, another wagashi product also produces some waste in the form of crumbs. Sentaro puts the azuki skins and monaka crumbs to use to flavor the gyuhi-mochi in this novel product.

The azuki skins are completely unnoticeable in the gyuhi-mochi. They must be well pulverized before being added. The cookie-like monaka crumbs no doubt easily dissolve though.

The orange label on the package says in big handwritten characters, ‘Eco Eco’ (エコエコ) on the right side. This is quite original and startling to see on a wagashi package.

Sentaro’s Eco Eco Kinako Mochi: Package

Sentaro’s Eco Eco Kinako Mochi: Kinako Powder

Sentaro’s Eco Eco Kinako Mochi: Azuki Gyuhi Mochi and Kinako

Sentaro’s Eco Eco Kinako Mochi: Azuki Gyuhi Mochi and Kinako

How Did it Taste?
Gyuhi-mochi is very soft, this gyuhi-mochi was almost too soft. Getting it out of the box and onto a plate was a bit tricky. The mochi must be poured into the box when it is hot and then after it cools it is slightly scored into bite-sized pieces. Finally, kinako powder is sprinkled on top.

The taste was quite excellent. It had a taste that I am not sure what I could compare it to. To me it didn’t taste like azuki. It was a full-bodied kind of taste that you don’t get from other gyuhi-mochi.

The kinako powder that you see sprinkled on top is not made from soybeans as usual, but from kuro-mame, black beans. Rural Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures produce the most famous black beans in Japan. Black bean kinako powder is considered the best. This kinako was not sweet as is sometimes the case.

Azuki Gyuhi Mochi and Kinako Served

How Eco is It?
All in all, I thought that the taste was very good and the marketing angle even better. Traditionally, nothing goes to waste in Japan. This is especially true in anything related to food. I wonder if the azuki skins really would have ended up in a landfill — or garbage incinerator, as is the case in Japan. Or, would they be used for something else, even sold to another company that just makes things with azuki skins?

I did not interview Sentaro so this may well be something significantly more eco-friendly than other mochi. But, I doubt it.

The cost of energy (and food) in Japan is high, so very little waste is guaranteed. Packaging, especially of traditional and food related products, is another story though. By Japanese standards, the packaging of this wagashi was not excessive. I think that Japan could make additional progress toward greater environmental sustainability by reinventing packaging and wrapping. Wrapping is a very important part of Japanese culture. For example, more than just ‘put’ on, a kimono is wrapped and tied on.

The beauty and care of traditional Japanese packaging should not be lost, it is special and it is a feast for the eyes. However, this is one area that the Japanese need to do some kaizen (continual improvement philosophy) on. Not in terms of visual appeal, but in terms of environmental impact. This is something that Japanese businesses are excelling at all across the country. But when will the old shinise stores in Kyoto join the modern world and do their part?