🍱 Shusse Imo

During periods when rice was insufficient, people commonly ate tubers in place of rice in the southern part of the prefecture, which includes Kaiyo Town. "Shusse imo" is a local food devised among the variety of tuber dishes that are made. Steamed taro were fit into a cylinder, wrapped with smooth red bean paste and sliced into rounds. In the past, shussei imo were made in place of ohagi (rice balls with red bean paste); tubers were eaten as rice and thus promoted ("shusse") to the status of rice, and because of this shusse imo was given this auspicious name. Nowadays it is typically made with sweet potatoes instead of taro. Besides both azuki beans and sweet potatoes having a high fiber content, azuki beans have polyphenol and sweet potatoes are abundant in vitamins and nutrients like potassium, so it's handy not only a meal that fills you up, but as a food with a great deal of nutritional value.