Sawayaka Walking in Iwata (2) - Red rice with chestnut & soymilk delicacy

When you participate in walking events associated with local festivals, you can sometimes find simple traditional food in some stalls. In Sawayaka Walking in Iwata last Saturday, I found red rice with chestnut sold in a tent in front of an old confectionary store Iguchi Seika. It was on the main street in Mitsuke, the area where Old Mitsuke School is located. Along the street, you can see flags of Jubilo Iwata, a local soccer club.

This area has a large shrine Mitsuke Tenjin, which is famous for its naked festival held on Saturday and Sunday immediately before August 10 on the lunar calendar. During the festival, awamochi or millet dough cake is eaten to pray for rich harvest. Iguchi Seika is the only confectionary store in the town that manufactures this special sweet all year round.

In the store, we could taste awamochi. It was much softer than a rice cake and very good. However, they sold only boxes with 6 pieces, which was too many for me. So, I bought red rice with chestnut instead. In many Japanese style confectionary stores, you can find red rice or glutinous rice bold with adzuki beans to be eaten as a meal. It is called sekihan or okowa and was originally eaten at festive occasions. The one I bought was more gorgeous as it had also chestnuts in it. In the pack, there was a small bag of sesame and salt to sprinkle on the rice.

During Sawayaka Walking, the participants also visited a shop of yuba or soymilk skin located about 1 km from the train station. The shop’s name is Yuba-no-Kyouka, however, the company name seemed to be Sakaguchi Shoten seen on the building.

It looked like a factory rather than a shop, but we could come in and taste various products. Their soymilk was surprisingly thick. I bought soymilk with yuba in it and ate it at home with soy sauce. It looked like yogurt with chocolate sauce and tasted as rich as yogurt.

The red rice was also good with natural sweetness of chestnut. The ingredients were only glutinous rice, adzuki beans, chestnuts, and salt. Though red rice is also available in the section of ready-to-eat food in supermarkets, the one from an old Japanese style confectionary store is worth tasting even though it is more expensive. They have a long experience working with rice and adzuki beans, which is reflected not only to the quality of their sweets but also that of red rice.