gohei mochi; skewered rice cakes with miso sauce
A regional dish from the Chūbu region, especially Nagano, Gifu, and Aichi prefectures. Pounded rice is shaped into cakes, skewered, grilled, and coated with a sweet miso or soy-sauce-based glaze.
I ate gohei mochi at a roadside station in Nagano Prefecture.
The fragrant miso glaze of gohei mochi whets the appetite.
Standard kanji spelling for this regional dish.
Rarely used kanji form; 五平餅 is much more common.
The name is said to come from the shape resembling a gohei (御幣), a wooden wand with paper streamers used in Shinto rituals. The exact origin is uncertain, but it is strongly associated with the mountainous regions of central Japan.