大分の料理：そばやせうま Oita local recipe: Buckwheat Yaseuma

What does a linguistics blog have to do with food? I am not sure why not, this is a traditional recipe from Oita Japan called yase uma. Yase (八瀬) being the name of the person who according to story made it for a child who fled the then capital – Kyoto. When trying it, the child said “Yase uma uma”, uma being umai – delicious. So it has been said that the word yaseuma was taken from these words.

Normally made from white flour, and kinako (きな粉) , toasted soy bean made into a powder and brown sugar. I had to try making it with buckwheat flour so I tried a mixed of 50-50. Next time I will try 100% buckwheat flour also known as 10 wari （十割）.

「やせうま」とは、昔、都落ちした貴族の子供が八瀬(やせ)と言う乳母に、黄粉をまぶしたおやつを｢やせ、うま　うま｣とねだったのが由来と言う説があります。今も大分に残る母の味として家庭でも甘味処でも親しまれています。

今回のやせうま、そば粉5割にして、おいしかったと思って、今度10割に試してみます。超健康的なやせうま！