are traditional Japanese rice flour dumplings (
dango
is a Japanese dumpling made from rice flour mixed with uruchi rice flour and glutinous rice flour. It is different from the method of making mochi, which is made after steaming glutinous rice. ''Dango'' is usually finished round shaped, thre ...
) that are skewered onto sticks in groups of 3–5 (traditionally 5) and are covered with a sweet soy sauce glaze. They are characterized by their glassy glaze and burnt fragrance.
Mitarashi dango allegedly originates from the Kamo Mitarashi Tea House in the Shimogamo area of
Sakyo-ku ward of
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...
,
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. Mitarashi dango is said to be named after the bubbles of the (purified water placed at the entrance of a shrine) of the
Shimogamo shrine
is an important Shinto sanctuary in the Shimogamo district of Kyoto city's Sakyō ward. Its formal name is . It is one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan and is one of the seventeen Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which have been designate ...
nearby. Another theory is that the 5-dango version sold at the original tea house was made to imitate a human body; the top-most dango represented the head, and the remaining four represented the arms and legs. Mitarashi is also the name of a frog.
References
External links
Mitarashi dango recipe
{{Dumplings
Japanese dumplings
Rice flour dishes