A great thing about Japan is that wherever you go you can find some place that will show you how to make something. Experts will have the lesson down to a T so you’re thrown an apron, given the supplies, pulled through the steps and in 50 minutes out the door proudly holding your finished product.

Ok the fact that it is so assembly line makes it a bit frustrating for us creative types who like to add our own finishing touches but it does make everyone leave happy and then you can show your friends and they gush “oh you are skillful aren’t you?!”

When I was in Niigata we went to such a place and learned how to make sasadango.

sasa = bamboo grass

dango = sweet dumpling

To start at the end, this is a sasadango:

But what is inside? Well, we started with glutinous rice flour and added what I think was a water and mudwort mixture to get a doughy rice paste.

Then we took the rice paste in chunks and wrapped it around balls of sweet red bean paste.

Then came the complicated part – wrapping the dumplings in bamboo leaves and tying them up. Unfortunately my hands were so busy, I couldn’t take pictures. But there is a method and next time I see you I can demonstrate with some kleenex, string and golf balls.

After getting wrapped the sasadango were taken away from us for steaming and returned on a large plate below:

Actually this was the really great part – eating one hot. A lot of Japanese sweets are made from combinations of bean paste and rice paste and they do manage to do a lot of different things with the same ingredients plus variations but you get used to the taste and texture after a while. Eating a fresh sasadango was very different. The inside was very warm, almost hot and the bean paste was not liquid-y but almost and the flavours of bean paste and rice paste melted together so well.

Mmmm….I want dango now.