Dango

Traditional Japanese sweets are lightly sweetened and make use of savory components to achieve a dessert-like taste. Rice and red beans are two of the most common ingredients in Japanese sweets, but they work really well!

Dango is very popular and originated hundreds of years ago in tea houses in Kyoto. They are little round dumplings made from rice flour and are skewered in groups of 3-5 balls. There are several different styles and flavors. So far I've tried two: sanshoku and mitarashi.

The mitarashi has plain rice dumplings that are covered in a sweet soy sauce glaze. I did not care for these. I like the dumplings, I just don't like the glaze.

The sanshoku are very yummy, though. They are sweeter and the texture is great - that lovely, chewy mochi feel. Sanshoku always have 3 dumplings per skewer and they are pink, white, and green. The three colors represent the pink of cherry blossoms, the white of snow, and the green of new grass and leaves in the spring. All three taste the same and I love them!