![sakura mochi sakura mochi](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f8/1c/3b/f81c3ba2c9a5290dd9e7d036faafc534.jpg)
Once they are dried, they are wrapped around the rice cake, completing the sakuramochi. Sakura tree leaves are steeped in brine and allowed to pickle. It is generally colored pink or red and mixed with fruits or anko (bean paste) for more variety of flavor.Īt this point, the sakuramochi is no different from other kinds of mochi. Sakuramochi is usually in a ball form, or flattened and then rolled. Mochi is used in many kinds of Japanese dishes and sweets, including daifuku 大福, ozoni お雑煮, and dango 団子. Once the rice has been thoroughly pounded into a gooey paste, it can be cut and formed into balls, rolls, or any shape that you think rice should be. Mochi is basically rice, water, some sugar, and a ton of elbow grease.
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Even now, the descendants of Yamamoto Shinroku continue to sell Sakura Mochi near Chomeiji Temple in Tokyo. Yamamoto’s creation became so popular that it was shown in paintings at the time and has persisted as an integral part of the hanami season up to the present era. Now, pickled leaves didn’t exactly fly off the shelves, but that salty tang wrapped around a sweet ball of mochi sure did!–modern sweets embrace this salty/sweet mix all the time. Noticing the plethora of green cherry blossom leaves, a gatekeeper of the temple, Sakamoto Shinroku, decided to pickle them in brine (a common food-preservation and flavoring technique called shiozuke 塩漬け) so as to preserve them for next year’s blossom events. So much so that Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune decided to turn the banks of the Sumida River near Chomeiji Temple into a sakura garden. By the Tokugawa (Edo) Period (1603-1868), hanami was a codified and cherished part of the culture. The short-lived blooms have caught the eyes, ensnared the hearts, and inspired the pens of innumerable Japanese lying idly beneath their branches. Hanami 花見 (cherry blossom viewing) has a long history in Japan. So what makes this wagashi 和菓子 (Japanese traditional sweets) different from the many iterations of mochi available year round? Sakuramochi, a seasonal play on the beloved pounded, rice, sweet dates back to the early 1700s, well before Captain Starbuck ever sailed into Pacific Waters. Thankfully, Sakamoto Shinroku did! In recent years, the ever-hip, ever-trendy Starbucks has been selling Sakura-inspired drinks and sweets during the cherry blossom season, but this is far from a new fad.
#SAKURA MOCHI FULL#
Have you ever looked at a Japanese cherry tree in full bloom and thought, “gee whiz those leaves look delicious!”? … Me neither. Sakuramochi: See Beautiful Cherry Blossoms, then Eat Them?!