Japan 2019 - Kuzu-Manju

I usually go back to Japan in fall so that I can enjoy sweets made with chestnuts. I was there in June this year. Instead of my favorite chestnut sweets, Kurimaro, my teatime friends were traditional Japanese sweets that were made for summer and served chilled. Kuzu-Manji was an example. My mother bought two flavors of them for our afternoon tea. One was red bean paste and the other was lemon-flavored white bean paste. Both were covered with a clear jelly-like glaze made with kudzu (a kind of plant in the pea/bean family) starch. During an extremely hot and steamy Japan summer, this kind of cool sweets are always welcome more than buttery cookies.