A little of each town’s story

Enoden Monaka

From: A hundred-year-old house in the town of the Enoden

A monaka stamped with the hiragana for "Enoden"

Ougiya's specialty. Monaka wafers packed in a box shaped like the Enoden, each stamped with "Enoden" in hiragana. There are said to be five fillings: sesame, plum, yuzu, and smooth and chunky bean paste with gyuhi. The one I ate had green tea bean paste the color of the train, with chewy gyuhi inside. Not too sweet. The price tag called it a designated confection of Kanagawa Prefecture.

Sources: mapple.net

This moment in the journey

Enoden monaka in the hundred-year-old house

Back at the hundred-year-old house, the garden was bright green in the sun. On the table, a cold drink, a clear jelly sweet with a leaf on top, and the Enoden monaka in its irresistible packaging.

I opened the box and unfolded the paper. The shop staff had wrapped each one so carefully. Pressed into the wafer were the hiragana letters for "Enoden"; I felt some kind of local love in those letters.

Breaking one open, I found green tea bean paste the same color as the Enoden's body, with a piece of soft gyuhi inside. Not too sweet: the gentle taste of a sweets shop with 200 years of history. Outside the latticed window, the trees swayed. A special sweet that makes an afternoon in Kamakura even happier.

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