Vegan sweets in May

Today, May 5, is a traditional festival day called Tango-no-Sekku to pray for healthy growth and success of boys. It is also my father’s birthday, and I give him sake every year. Now, it is a national holiday Children’s Day, but it is still intended for boys basically. Many families hang up koinobori or carp streamers and set out warrior dolls. According to a Chinese legend, a carp that can swim up the waterfall “Dragon Date” in the Yellow River can become a dragon. It is a symbol of success in life.

Samurai helmet and chimaki

For Tango-no-Sekku, we have two well-known sweets, kashiwamochi and chimaki. I heard the former is popular in eastern Japan and the latter in western Japan. In Hamamatsu, kashiwamochi seem to be much more common. It is a rice cake wrapped in an oak leaf and has adzuki bean paste inside. Kashiwa or an oak leaf is used to pray for the prosperity of descendants because oak leaves do not fall until the tree puts forth new leaves.

Today, I went to Mataichian in Entetsu Department Store. As it is a popular confectionary shop, there was a queue of customers to buy sweets for this festival day. They were selling three kinds of kashiwamochi. I chose a green rice cake with mugwort in it, stuffed with chunky bean paste. Unlike the cherry leaf of sakuramochi, this leaf is not edible, I guess.

Like other sweets of Mataichian, the bean paste is very good. The flavor of mugwort was moderate. The other two types are a white rice cake with smooth bean paste and a pink rice cake with white bean paste with miso added. According to their website, the pink one has many hidden fans. I must try it at some other time.

Two days ago, I went to my parents’ house, and my sister gave me sasadango or bamboo dumplings, a specialty of Niigata Prefecture. According to some websites, they eat them for celebration of tango-no-sekku. I liked the unique shape of sasadango that reminded me of a candy. Each of them was wrapped with several bamboo leaves.

Sasadango was dark green and reminded me of a green tea candy, however, it was the color of mugwort. As in the case of kusamochi in Doll’s Festival in March, mugwort is used to drive away evil spirits. The flavor of mugwort in this dumpling was strong, and it tasted somewhat bitter. It surely had some power. Bamboo leaves are also considered to be a protector against evil.

The dumpling was stuffed with adzuki bean paste. As Niigata Prefecture is known as a rich rice-producing area, they have good ingredients also for traditional sweets such as dumplings and rice crackers, and for sake.