How was the weather where you are yesterday? It was the day the full-moon should be seen last night that people in Japan celebrate and enjoy viewing the beauty of it. By hoping to see the beautiful full moon we traditionally eat round (moon-shaped) Mochi. However, the shape of the Mochi varies depending on the area.

Tsukimi Dango

I was hoping to see the beautiful full moon and made two types of Tsukimi Dango. ‘Tsuki’ means moon and ‘Mi (Miru)’ means to view in Japanese.

The first sweet is eaten mainly in the Kansai area where Kyoto and Osaka are located. Instead of a round shaped Mochi this one has a water-drop-shaped one and the middle part of Mochi is wrapped up with sweet Azuki (red) bean paste. The shape of Mochi is supposed to look like yam called ‘Satoimo’ that was originally eaten as the representation of the moon in the old days and the bean paste is supposed to be the cloud. All together it shows the sight that the full-moon is just starting to come out from the cloud.

I lived in Osaka for several years when I was young but I actually don’t remember much about this sweet. Instead what I know well as the Tsumiki Dango is this one in the second photo.

It’s a Mochi type sweet in the water-drop-shape and always comes in tri-colour of white, pink and dark brown. I made this sweet for the first time and found that the brown one which I used brown sugar to flavour and colour came out very nicely.

Both sweets are Vegan and Gluten free.

Although I was hoping to see the beautiful full moon last night, the sky was cloudy and started raining in London so unfortunately I could not see the moon at all. I hope you could see it clearly in your area.