monaka; wafer cake filled with bean jam
A traditional Japanese sweet consisting of crisp wafers with sweet azuki bean jam inside.
I bought some monaka as a souvenir.
in the middle of; in the midst of; at the height of
Literary or poetic expression for being in the middle of an action or state. Often used in the form 〜の最中に.
The phone rang in the middle of the meeting.
Standard kanji spelling for both the sweet and the literary sense.
Kana spelling is common in everyday writing, especially for the sweet.
The confection’s name is traditionally traced to 最中の月, “the mid-autumn moon,” because its round wafer recalled the full moon. It was later shortened to 最中.