YAMADA-YA in ESASHI Town !

 by Kazu

We were heading to Esashi Town to take the train that connected Esashi Town and Hakodate City. Precisely sp aking, my wife would take the train and I would pick her up at the railway station in Hakodate City.
On our way to Esashi Town, Mt. Yotei and Mt. Rusutsu could be seen ahead. The white crown gave the mountains pomp and circumstance but the electric wires reduced the beauty of the scenery, I think.
I takes over three hours to reach Eshashi Town from Sapporo City by car.

The well-founded Japanese patisserie Yamada-ya in Esashi Town was re-built in the old town area as below. The location is a little bit different from the original building but the tasteful "Daifuku Mochi" is still so nice with its very soft rice cake and so sophisticated sweet red-beans paste.

The old town area of Eshashi was refurbished, remaining its old taste and traditional design peculiar to the port town.
The lineup of various kinds of sweets seemed to be reinforced a little bit.

When the town was established and flourishing with fishery of herrings , it was said that the spring in Esashi Town could not be seen even in Edo which meant old Tokyo in Edo Era.
Some Japanese traditional patissiers with high degrees of skill settled in Esashi Town in Edo Era. Yamada-ya is one of the patisserie established in the era.

I bought five plain "Daifuku Mochi", Moxa flavored, Mocha taste and with chestnut. All the rice cake "mochi" is covered with vinyl film to keep them fresh and soft.
It was a pity that strawberry Daifuku and salty-pea Daifuku were not sold because the Yamada-ya grade strawberry and peas could not be gained in this season. We may have to visit Esashi Town again in coming January.

This is plain type. The rice cake is incredibly soft and tasty. The sweet red-beans paste inside called "koshi-an" is the special of Yamada-ya. They should be eaten up in two days.

This is yomogi taste Daifuku Mochi. The dry powder of grass called yomogi that is used for moxibustion is in the rice cake.

The red-beans paste seemed to be the same as the plain type but the twist of yomogi plant gave the rice cake a nice flavor. These are the legacy of the prosperity in Esashi Town.