Dumpling Festival in Hattasan

Hattasan Soneiji (usually called Hattasan) is a temple famous for its dumplings. At the beginning of this year, I visited there and wrote an article about it. In November, they have a dumpling festival where you can taste various dumplings from different areas in Japan. Last Sunday, I took a train to Aino, the nearest station to Hattasan. The station is located in Fukuroi and took about 20 minutes to get there. Near the south exit, there was a free shuttle bus to the temple.

However, I couldn’t take it this time because I participated in Sawayaka Walking, a walking event organized by JR Central. The distance to the temple was about 3 km. We passed by Ecopa Stadium where some games of the 2019 Rugby World Cup took place. On my way back from Hattasan, it looked fine against the blue sky.

Hattasan is a popular temple for the first temple visit of the year. To my surprise, I found their premises were as crowded as on the New Year’s holidays. I thought of buying their special “tea dumplings” that are not available on the New Year but soon found it impossible. There was already a long queue with countless people. However, there were still more than twenty kinds of dumplings to choose from according to the brochure.

 I entered the venue of Dumpling Festival with full of expectation.

I was surprised again to see how crowded it was in the main venue. I saw some people standing here and there with a placard with a number, showing the end of the queue for each dumpling.

I wanted to have walnut dumplings because I had never eaten them before. The queue was long, but I could get one pack. I was relieved because I had heard that many popular dumplings would be sold out before noon though Dumpling Festival would be held until 15:30.

As there were so many kinds of dumpling, I felt like obtaining one more. I was interested in one of the dumplings from Kyoto, but the queue was too long. I got out of the main venue and found some other dumplings sold outside. One of them was mitsufuku (three lucks) dumpling grilled with charcoal fire, a specialty from Mt. Takao in Tokyo.

Don’t they look delicious?

I had to stand in a queue again, but I enjoyed seeing how they prepared dumplings.

I chose miso with walnuts for the sauce though they had also soy sauce. I think miso with walnuts can be found in many mountainous areas in Japan as I had seen similar sauce in Aichi Prefecture as well. The newly grilled dumplings tasted very good with this sweet-and-salty sauce.

In another stand, I bought yuzu tea. I drank it for the first time. Though yuzu is a citrus fruit and sour, the tea was sweeter than I expected.

In addition to dumplings, there was a market of local farm products in the temple. One of the stands sold traditional snacks such as puffed rice and rice brittles. I bought one bag of puffed raw rice, which was recommended to be eaten with yogurt. I thought of soymilk yogurt sold in some supermarkets in Hamamatsu.

When I left Hattasan, there were still many people entering the gate. I suppose this temple will become one of the major spots to see autumn leaves at the end of this month.

When I came home, I ate the walnut dumplings from Kasuriya in Yamagata Prefecture.

The dumplings were made from rice flour like common dumplings. But the paste was a unique mixture of white kidney beans and walnuts, containing also sugar, white soy source, starch syrup, salt, and enzyme. I think it’s a good idea to add walnuts (or some other kinds of nuts) to bean paste as they add a rich flavor. This paste was as sweet as ordinary white kidney bean paste, but it had something different.