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I saw my friend eating this Asian snack, either Japanese or Chinese, which I've seen before in those Asian markets. It is hard to describe, but it looks like a ball of dough, with a clearish color. It is not cooked, and it is not a dumpling. Inside the ball, there is some jelly substance with nuts. It's quite a strange food.

Can someone identify it?

enter image description here

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  • Is it like one of these?
    – Jolenealaska ♦
    Dec 17, 2014 at 1:30
  • No. Actually I think found what it is. I think its called a red bean cake and it looks like one of these photos.travelblog.org/Photos/26298/302099/f/…
    – ahhahahahhaha
    Dec 17, 2014 at 1:35
  • Oh OK. Those are common, and pretty tasty IMO.
    – Jolenealaska ♦
    Dec 17, 2014 at 1:37
  • @Jolenealaska : I've had the Korean version ... and they're ... interesting. Might be a bit of an aquired taste / texture. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't what I was expecting. (sort of like when you're expecting cola, and you get root beer ... even if you like root beer, it just seems wrong)
    – Joe
    Dec 17, 2014 at 2:25
  • 1
    This would be a better question without "looks disgusting". (And now I'm craving red bean cake!)
    – Erica
    Dec 17, 2014 at 12:57

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Based on your photo, this is most likely a wagashi (Japanese sweet) called daifuku in Japanese. It's got an outer layer made from cooked glutinous rice that has been pounded and kneaded aggressively until smooth, which is called mochi. The inside is often a red bean paste made from a bean called azuki in Japanese (or adzuki in an odd English-language spelling from circa the 1970s) and sugar. The bean paste is called anko (or sometimes just an), pronounced ahn-ko.

Variations in the exterior include flavoring with yomogi (mugwort), which turns the color greenish, or the addition of other colorants. The filling may be made from other beans such as white beans (shiro-an), green peas (uguisu-an), edamame (zunda), and so on.

There are variations made in Korea and China as well.

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  • Wagashi is much more varied than these - that is one wagashi, but there are many others.
    – Trish
    Oct 10, 2021 at 19:58
  • @Trish yes, that's why I said it's a wagashi called daifuku. There are other wagashi that are not called daifuku.
    – JasonTrue
    Oct 11, 2021 at 7:23

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