Himeji is a city of castle. Best quality goods of that moment have gathered in the city to please the military leader, including sweets. Iseya (伊勢屋) is one of the sweet shops that has opened during this time, which means the shop has more than 300 years of history.
Today, we are going to introduce their great Mochi to you. Their sweets are very great that their traditional taste is passed on until now. The great thing is that their products can be totally Halal! By reading this article, you will put their name in your backet list of Japan.
Credit: https://iseyahonten.com/
Why did they make sweets?
There is an interesting story how Iseya’s specialities were born. Himeji was not a big city when the castle was built. The city needed to meet the demand of the leader, so that the shop was ordered to polish the skill of making sweets.
They wanted to make tasty sweets, just like the ones in Tokyo or Kyoto, so that they have sent their chef to Tokyo. This is how they learned making nice sweets and started offering great sweets in Himeji.
Even now, the sweet shop is serving these sweets to so many customers. They are often introduced in gourmet magazine, too.
Package
What are their sweets?
Iseya is a Japanese sweet shop, so their products can be Halal. Risk of contamination is also very low, which is the reason why we can recommend their products to Muslims.
Their two biggest specialities are as follows.
Tama Tsubaki (玉椿)
This sweet is what represents the shop. It is a Mochi rice cake with yellow bean paste filling. The Mochi is slightly colored pink, because the sweet was made in the image of Camellia flower, Tsubaki in Japanese
The filling is pale yellow bean paste, but it is not too sweet. It is more like a custard than a bean paste. The size of the sweet is about 1cm. It can be a great sweet for your teatime.
Tsubaki in Japanese is a Camellia flower, which they are trying to depict with the sweet’s color and filling.
Soft Mochi with yellow bean filling, which are basic colors of Camellia flower!
Kanbe Hyoryo Mochi (官兵衛兵糧餅)
Kanbe is a name of military leader from Himeji who is said to have a great talent. Iseya has created this sweet with his name, and the sweet became another specialty of the shop thanks to the TV drama series few years ago.
Although it has Mochi in their name, it would be something different from what you imagine: It is harder than normal Mochi, and walnuts and black sesame give a crispy savor into the sweet. This type of Mochi is called Yubeshi (柚餅子), which we are sure that you can only try in Japan.
The taste is great, though it looks not that great.
*Soy sauce could contain very tiny portion of alcohol.
Price
5 for 810 yen
Expiry date
25 days
It is a big portion, so you can cut them into two.
As you can see, there is no obviously restricted ingredients inside the sweets.
Details of the shop
Name: Iseya (伊勢屋本店) Address: 84, Nishi Nikai cho, Himeji, Hyogo 670-0901 姫路市西二階町84番地 Tel: 079-288-5155 *Their products are available in major souvenir shops in Himeji, too.
Information as of June 2023. The sweets are not made as Halal or Muslim-friendly, so that there is a small risk of contamination. We are here to translate the labels, and we cannot be responsible of such cases.
