Kogane-Imo

Looks just like a baked potato with a unique cinnamon flavor

“Kogane-Imo” produced by “Kameya” in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture. Kawagoe flourished as a castle town in the Edo period (1603-1868) and is often called “Koedo” because of its elegant streets lined with old storehouses and merchant houses called “kura-zukuri. “Kameya” is an extremely long-established Japanese confectionery founded in 1783 in Koedo, and boasts a history of more than 230 years.

When you open the long, thin, elegantly designed package labeled “Koedo Kawagoe Confectionery”,

What came out was a pastry that looked exactly like a baked potato. The outside was dusted with flour, but the aroma of cinnamon wafted through the air.

Inside is white bean paste. The texture of the manju skin is wrinkled like the skin of a real baked sweet potato, and the white bean paste inside looks like a baked sweet potato itself.

The sweet white bean paste is refreshingly sweet, and the cinnamon goes well with it. It is the first time for me to taste this flavor, but I feel no sense of discomfort. The thin skin of the manju and the white bean paste have a simple taste, but the cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top give it just the right amount of sweetness.