Part of the LiveOAK Network

About Us:

We are a new media company publishing websites that focus on energy, the environment and sustainable living. By leading the conversation about green issues, LiveOAK aims to advance the principals of sustainability by making them meaningful and accessible to a mainstream audience.

Naturally Sustainable Packaging: Sasa-dango

  • Print

fooddrink
Talk about sustainable … These Sasa-dangos (mochi pounded rice balls filled with red bean paste and seasoned with mugwort) are wrapped in leaves and bound with a vine.  You steam it inside the grass wrap then unwrap and eat.  Simple, functional, beautiful and tasty.  

While the above presentation looks like they were wrapped to be sold in a trendy gourmet boutique the convention of wrapping these dumplings in is a function of utility, not aesthetics or sustainability.  In rural areas people become very adept at doing more with less, using the limited resources at hand.  This natural wrap served to preserve the dumplings as well as making them easy to carry and cook.  The unintended results are a well presented meal that is wrapped in all natural and abundant materials.  The Japanese seem to have a knack at melding functional and beautiful.

Image via hiromy on flickr

  • Share:
  •  
  • More:

Related Posts

No related posts.

8 Tweets

3 Responses to “Naturally Sustainable Packaging: Sasa-dango”

  1. Becky says:

    These look delicious! The Asian market near my house sells sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. I love the idea of packaging that you can just toss on the ground and feel good about doing it!

  2. Levi says:

    I agree, they look yummy. I actually thought they were tamales at first. The ones we make in Peru look very similar on the outside to these.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks


Leave a Reply

Additional comments powered by BackType