Budou-Manjyu

Tokushima Awa's famous grape buns

Hinode Honten” in Tokushima has been making this traditional manju for over 100 years. The name “grape buns” is not derived from the word “grape” but from the word “budo” (martial arts). I thought it was grapes because of the purple package, but it was named after Budo (martial arts).

When you open the package, cute skewered dumplings appear. Five small-sized dumplings are strung together.

The shape of the skewered dango made me think it was a manju made with rice cake, It was a dumpling with a string of rounded bean paste.

The originality of the dumplings seems to have been created by a novel method of kneading milk into the white bean paste, a process that was novel at the time, nearly 100 years ago, and made the dumplings famous in Tokushima.

A grape bun with five small red bean paste dumplings in a row. The sweetness of the bean paste is refreshing yet nostalgic, and the dumplings are easy to crunch.