Regional food and famous sweets of Yamagata

Igamochi is Zao Onsen's small fresh rice confection: smooth azuki paste wrapped in a soft white rice dough, topped with a few yellow glutinous-rice...

Inago no tsukudani simmers rice grasshoppers with soy sauce, sugar, and often starch syrup until glossy and sweet-savory. It belongs to inland...

Noshi Ume is a thin amber confection made by cooking ripe plums with sugar, starch syrup and agar, then spreading and drying the mixture. It is chewy...

Omi-zuke is a winter pickle of finely chopped Yamagata-seisai mustard greens, daikon and carrot. Dark greens, white radish and orange carrot give a...

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Yamagata dashi is cucumber, eggplant, myoga, shiso, scallion, and other summer vegetables chopped finely and dressed with soy sauce. It is a solid...

Edible chrysanthemum ohitashi removes the petals, briefly blanches them in vinegar-acidulated water, chills and seasons them with soy, dashi or...

Fuki mame removes the skins of green peas, steams or simmers them tender and sweetens them while leaving recognizable pale green, floury beans.

Imoni simmers taro with meat, konnyaku, leek, mushrooms, and other vegetables and is shared at autumn imoni-kai gatherings. The social act of...

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Seisai-zuke is Yamagata's winter pickle of large, thick Yamagata seisai greens, first salted, then washed and pickled again in a soy-based seasoning...

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Yonezawa hiyajiru mixes blanched seasonal vegetables with a cool, savory dashi soaking liquid flavored by dried scallop, shiitake, freeze-dried...