© Ebiebi2 · CC BY-SA 3.0

🍱 Shio anbin

In Kuki City, Kazo City, Gyoda City, and other areas from northern to eastern Saitama Prefecture, "shio anbin" has been eaten to celebrate the harvest of new rice since ancient times. Shio an-bin" is a rice cake filled with sweet bean paste seasoned with salt instead of sugar, and the salt enhances the natural sweetness of azuki beans and glutinous rice. The sweet bean paste is now the mainstream, but this type was created in the middle of the Edo period, when sugar was so precious that the common people could seldom eat it. In the areas where "shio-an-bin" has been handed down, it is one of the familiar local dishes of the local people, and has been eaten on many occasions such as harvest festivals and other special occasions.