🍱 Udemanju (Bean-paste bun)

Saitama Prefecture has a well-established wheat culture and has produced a variety of manju(buns). Tokorozawa City, in particular, used to be a field crop area, mainly for wheat, potatoes, and tea, with wheat being a typical winter crop. Wheat is a crop that is sown in late fall and harvested in late June of the following year. Therefore, new wheat with a particularly fragrant aroma was available during the Bon Festival. “Ude-manju" was made using this new wheat. “Ude-manjyu" is a word derived from "yude-manju," which means "boiled manju," and is characterized by the fact that it is boiled in plenty of hot water instead of steamed. By boiling, the texture of the buns becomes firmer than steamed buns. Sometimes it is just kneaded flour and boiled, but depending on the time period or region, it may also refer to a manju filled with Anko (sweet red bean paste).