Dumplings over flowers

“Dumplings over flowers” is a Japanese saying that means “to prefer substance over aesthetic.” For the season of cherry blossoms, we have a traditional sweet called hanami-dango or cherry-blossom viewing dumplings. It consists of pink, white, and green dumplings on a skewer. There are different theories about the meaning of the colors. According to a dominant theory, they represent flowers in spring, snow in winter, and new leaves in summer.

In fact, this tricolor sweet is available all year round in some supermarkets. But convenience stores have one only during a limited period in spring. Their products are a little different from the traditional hanami-dango as the dumplings are not skewered. This one is from Seven-Eleven, for example.

With traditional hanami-dango, three dumplings are always skewered in this order; the pink one on the top, white one in the middle, and the green one at the bottom. It is also said that they respectively represent a pink bud, white blossom in bloom, and green leaf bud after the blossom has fallen.

The dumplings are mainly made from high quality powder of non-glutinous rice. Unlike traditional hanami-dango, they are stuffed with bean paste. The white and green dumplings have ordinary adzuki paste in them. But the pink one has pink paste (only a little paler than the dumpling itself) which may consist of white bean paste, extract of cherry blossoms, and food color described on the ingredient label.

I ate the white dumpling first. As I had expected, it had an ordinary taste but was soft and sticky. The pink one had a unique taste of cherry blossoms (?), which I found very delicious. The green one contained mugwort and had a flavor of grass. As a whole, this set of dumplings were very good, especially the pink one.

During cherry-blossom viewing, many Japanese people have parties under the trees, eating and drinking (not this year because of COVID-19). It may be fun and some of them actually prefer food or sake over cherry blossoms. The saying “Dumplings over flowers” is “Hana yori dango (花より団子)” in Japanese. The title of old Japanese comic books “Hana Yori Dango (花より男子)” is a pun on this saying. This series has been dramatized in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea and called “Boys over Flowers” in English.