Fried Maple Leaves Are A Yummy Seasonal Snack In Japan

Autumn is my favorite season that marks the transition from summer into winter. The normally green leaves of trees and shrubs turns red, yellow, purple and brown. Watching this natural changes is quite enchanting. The shedding of leaves gives the environment a lot of colour and happiness.

Although autumn leaves are a beautiful sight to behold, they can be a huge problem as they can clogged gutters and create a huge mess in the yard. But in Japan, they turned maple leaves into a tasty fried delicacy.

Fried Mapple leaves is a special delicacy in the Osaka Area, Northern Japan.

The crispy treat, called momiji, is made by frying Japanese maple leaves in tempura batter.

Some people even preserve the leaves for a year in salt barrels.

They are then fried in a slightly sweet batter made with sugar and sesame for about 20 minutes.

The leaves don’t really taste much, so the flavor depends on the batter.

Momiji tempura is claimed to have been around for over a thousand years.

It has taken centuries of tweaking to reach the current manifestation of the recipe.

If you ever find yourself near Osaka, make sure you try this crispy treats.