A Special Tribute to Yatsuhashi

07 October 2008

I am usually more attracted by savoury than by sweet snacks, but here in Japan this is all different. I completely fall for Japanese sweets, particularly those made of rice dough, and filled with sweet red bean paste. There are many varieties I like, but my favourite type is still a certain specialty from Kyoto, which I believe can hardly be topped by anything. If you ever liked pinching raw cookie dough behind your parents’ back, or would even have preferred eating the Christmas cookies raw than baked, eating yatsuhashi will feel like a childhood dream come true.

These little delicacies are made of patches of thin, rice flour-based dough folded to triangles, typically with red bean paste in the middle (just like triangular-shaped ravioli). The original ones are cinnamon flavoured, but they now come in a variety of different tastes, such as the chestnut-filled ones which are popular now in autumn, or the black sesame ones, which rank high among my favourites. But whatever the flavour, the best part of the yatsuhashi remains their soft and juicy raw dough...

I first tried yatsuhashi when we came to Kyoto during our honeymoon two years ago. I actually ate a whole box of them during our first night in Japan, when I was woken up at 3 am by a severely empty stomach due to the jetlag. I was immediately hopelessly taken with these sweets. Lacking any knowledge of Japanese back then, I simply named them "labbrige Kyoto-Eckchen", trying to describe their shape and texture (sorry for all non-German-speakers – this term can hardly be translated; "labbrig" can maybe best be described as "soft and flabby", while "Eckchen" literally means "little corner"). Although I now know what they are really called, I often keep calling them by my own invented name, as I find the expression kind of cute, just as the yatsuhashi themselves…

The only problem about yatsuhashi is that they are hardly available anywhere outside the Kyoto and Osaka area. Even in Tokyo they are really hard to get hold of. Once I saw some as a special promotion at our local supermarket, but they were obviously of inferior quality, as the dough was disappointingly chewy. All the more enthusiastic I was about the little surprise awaiting me in our hotel room in Kyoto, where we spent last weekend, celebrating our second wedding anniversary.

Kyoto Revisited

Not only the two boxes of my favourite yatsuhashi Simon had arranged for made me feel like being back in our honeymoon. After seeing a few sights we had missed on our last trip, we revisited many places and areas around the city we had particularly enjoyed back then, and surprisingly little seemed to have changed (in contrast to the fast-lived Tokyo, where our restaurant recommendations from two years ago are now completely outdated).

The food market, the cute little tea house and the restaurants we had gone to back then were all still in place, and still just as good. The big difference was that this time all the things that seemed so exotic to us two years ago now actually felt very familiar. This does not mean we enjoyed it any less – on the contrary, it was a real pleasure to look at these places with some more background knowledge.

Particularly the restaurant (called "Kyoshiki") we went to on Saturday evening, which we considered one of our best culinary experiences during our honeymoon. We were not sure, however, if it had only been so memorable because it had been our first evening, and the first time we'd had a "kaiseki" style dinner (this is considered the Japanese haute cuisine, very refined, and, other than usual, served as a sequence of dishes). But we were not disappointed – also compared to other restaurants of this style, we found the place still absolutely remarkable. Kyoto takes particular pride in being very rich in arts and culture, which can be noticed in many places, this restaurant being no exception. The owner was visibly flattered when I told him that we had been there two years before, and liked it so much we came back (he, as well as the staff, were also visibly relieved that they could talk to us in Japanese).

I think there is not a single place in Japan that is not famous for some kind of food, but even so I find Kyoto and its kaiseki cuisine particularly refined. It is also a wonderful place to stroll though the quaint little streets, browse through all the nice little shops and stop for some green tea ice cream at one of the tea houses. In any case, I think the place that invented yatsuhashi should always deserve special mention!