Namiyoshian (浪芳庵) is a company that produces Japanese traditional sweets, which was originally established in 1858 in Osaka. Their main store is located just within a walking distance from Nanba city center with 4 branches in the prefecture.
Main store has a cafe where you can try their fresh traditional sweets. This cafe is quite famous with a retro Japanese ambiance which is a great place to visit, however, bringing their best sweet to your friend is definitely a great idea, too.
Their famous sweet can be Halal or Muslim-friendly, which can be bought at Itami Airport. Let’s take a look at this product.
The best-selling product.
Namiyoshian itself was not a familiar name for Japanese until their product was introduced in a TV program a few years ago. After this product was introduced, it became popular and now it is the best-selling item at Itami Airport.
The best-selling item from Namiyoshian is “Mitarashi Dango”. Mitarashi Dango is a common Japanese sweet, Mochi rice cake coated with sweet oozy soy sauce. It usually has crispy but sweet taste, with soft but chewy Mochi.
The one from Namiyoshian looks different from ordinary Mitarashi Dango.
It is one big Mochi whose shape is like a drop, with less sweet but savory flavor. There is always a long queue to buy this sweet at the store.
There is also a take-away service, however, the expiry date is so short: It is only for one day! This is because the Mochi will be a lot harder, and the quality cannot be the same.
Why is it good for Muslims?
Mitarashi Dango usually contains Mirin seasoning in their sauce, but not the one at Namiyoshian! We could not confirm if there is alcohol used in their soy sauce, however, the sauce is obviously put on fire to remove alcohol. So far, there is no clearly restricted ingredients on the label.
Ingredients
Glutinous rice, sugar, maltose, soy sauce, starch, Konbu seaweed
price
5 for 864 yen, 10 for 1620 yen
As the expiry date is too short, it would not be a perfect souvenir, but it is worth trying at the shop when you visit.
How to warm Mitarashi Dango?
The sweet is in a plastic bag with so much sauce. There is a small card that explains the way to warm up the sweet.
It needs to be put in a boiled hot water for 5-7 minutes, however, putting Mochi in the hot water too long could also make Mochi way too soft. Never use microwave, as Mochi gets too hard.
What about their Dorayaki?
Dorayaki is another Japanese traditional sweet, it is a sweet pancake with red bean paste inside. If you know Japanese Anime Doraemon, probably you have seen this sweet.
Their Dorayaki is also very good, however, unfortunately this product is not Halal. It says that it contains Mirin alcoholic seasoning in the sweet, so if you would like to make sure you get Halal items, this should be avoided.
Details of the shop.
Name: Namiyoshian (浪芳庵)
Address: 31-7 1 chome, Shikitsu Higashi, Naniwa Ward, Osaka, Osaka 556-0012 大阪府大阪市浪速区敷津東1丁目7-31
The product is also available at Itami Airport and 2 other branches.
The product is not made as Halal or Muslim-friendly, so there might be a small risk of contamination, which we cannot be responsible of. We are here to translate the label and not judging if the item is Halal or not. Eat at your own discretion.