1.
cherry blossom rice cake
A traditional Japanese sweet made of pink-tinted rice cake filled with sweet red bean paste and wrapped in a salted cherry leaf. A seasonal confection associated with spring, especially the cherry blossom season and Girls' Day (March 3).
春になると桜餅が食べたくなる。
When spring comes, I start craving sakuramochi.
桜餅の葉っぱは食べる人と食べない人がいる。
Some people eat the leaf on sakuramochi and some don't.
ひな祭りに合わせて和菓子屋で桜餅を買ってきた。
I bought sakuramochi from the Japanese confectionery shop for Girls' Day.
CULTURE:
A signature spring sweet in Japan. There are two main regional styles: the Kanto style (長命寺), made with a thin crepe-like wrapper, and the Kansai style (道明寺), made with coarser, chewy rice. Both are wrapped in a salt-pickled cherry leaf (桜の葉), which is edible. Whether to eat the leaf is a perennial topic of light debate.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 桜餅の葉: the cherry leaf wrapping
- 桜餅を作る: to make sakuramochi
- 道明寺: Kansai-style sakuramochi
- 長命寺: Kanto-style sakuramochi