10 Japanese Desserts That Are As Unique As Their Taste

Japanese food is one of the most popularly loved cuisines around the world. It offers a great deal of texture, flavour and essence. Finishing these delectable dishes with equally delicious dessert is food done right.

Japanese desserts are just as delicious and unique as the main course. Here is a list of yummy sweet goodness that you must try.

* Mochi

This dessert is a rice cake made of a paste of short-grain glutinous rice moulded into shapes with water, sugar and corn-starch. Mochi is eaten year-round but is traditionally associated with the Japanese New Year. It comes in many flavours and with fillings such as sweetened red bean paste, white bean paste, or plums.

* Shizoku

This traditional Japanese dessert is a sweet porridge that’s made with red bean paste and can be of two types – one where the beans are completely crushed into a paste, and one where there is a mixture of paste and roughly crushed beans. Shizuko is usually served with mochi or rice flour dumplings.

* Yokan

A thick jelly-like dessert that is made from red bean paste, agar, and sugar and formed into blocks that are sliced and eaten. Yokan may also contain chopped chestnuts or persimmons.

* Dango

These sweet Japanese dumplings are related to mochi; made from mochiko (rice flour) they are often served three to five on a skewer, with green tea. There are many different varieties such as the tree-coloured hanami dango, traditionally made during Sakura-viewing season, and mitarashi which is covered in syrup made from soy sauce and sugar.

* Kakigori

A classic summer treat, kakigori is shaved ice. Simple and sweet fruit-flavoured syrup is the traditional topping, but these days everything from fruit and chocolate to azuki (red bean) and mochi (a soft and chewy rice cake) partners well with the refreshing shaved ice.

* Purin

Japanese purin, or pudding, is a very common treat and can be found in any convenience store or dessert shop. Most look like a French crème caramel, but pudding’s versatility has led to all kinds of different flavours and combinations being invented.

* Anmitsu

Anmitsu is a traditional dessert made with anko (red bean past) and agar jelly. Mochi, fruit and sweet syrup are common additions, and whole azuki beans can be used in place of or in addition to anko.

* Manju

Manju is originally a Chinese steamed cake. They are filled with anko (red bean paste) and some are uniquely shaped. Manju is often given to friends or family members as a souvenir. This is probably the most popular Japanese dessert.

* Anko

Anko (bean paste), which is akin to a sweet bean jam, is the Japanese traditional taste you can add to so many of your favourite desserts. It's been eaten in Japan in Japan for centuries. It's a make or break kind of dessert, some people love it, some people hate it.

* Oshiruko

Oshiruko is a Japanese traditional dessert which is made of anko, sweet red bean soup, and mochi. It is considered to be a comfort food in Japan, especially during cold winter days. The custom of eating oshiruko is especially strong at the beginning of January, because people celebrate the New Year by eating lots of mochi.