🍚 Jambo Mochi (Japanese Rice Cake Dipped in Sauce)
“Jambo mochi” is freshly pounded “mochi” (Japanese rice cake) or "dango"(dumpling) made with glutinous rice flour. The mochi is skewered onto two bamboo sticks and dipped in a thick and sweet soy sauce syrup. It is a traditional snack from Kagoshima prefecture. When the name of the snack is written in kanji, the meaning is “two sticks mochi.” “Jambo mochi” dates back a long time during the Nanboku-cho period, when the son of Emperor Go-Daigo, Prince Kaneyoshi was staying at the Taniyama Castle in Kagoshima city. It is said that the castellan Takanobu Taniyama served “mochi” (=Japanese rice cake) on bamboo sticks dipped in a sauce of miso and muscovado sugar to Prince Kaneyoshi. When the prince asked Takanobu what the name of the dish was, Takanobu made up a name on the spot, which was “jambo.” In the Edo period, Taniyama offered “jambo mochi” to Shimazu, the feudal lord of the Satsuma Domain and this is how the mochi became a traditional snack of the Iso area. There are other theories as to how the mochi got its name. In the past, upper-class samurais held two swords on their waists and “jambo mochi” is said to resemble them. The word “jambo” is said to have come from China and the pronunciation was changed from the original Chinese “lian” to “jam.”