manju
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: manju
form: manjus
form: manjū
Etymology: From Japanese 饅頭 (manjū), from Chinese 饅頭 /馒头 (mántou). Doublet of mandu, manti, and mantou.
Senses: examples: text: Then, replying to Gyowo’s interrogation, he announced that as he had as many manju cakes as he wished for, and as he was no more use in this world, he would not mind dying.
ref: 1930, Yosoburo Takekoshi, The Economic Aspects of the History of the Civilization of Japan, volume III, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, page 76:
text: My mother opened a large bag and took out four bottles of beer, some manjus and iced cakes.
ref: 1973, Ryuji Nagatsuka, translated by Nina Rootes, “Part One”, in I Was a Kamikaze, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., published 1974, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 57:
text: Smiling, she pours a cup each for herself and Shiro, goes back to the kitchen, and returns with a plate of manju. Each manju is shaped like a maple leaf. / “These are specialties of Hiroshima. You’ll like them because they don’t have bean paste inside. The outside part is like pancakes. Inside they have chocolate or jam. Try one.” She holds the plate toward me. / I take one of the manju and bite into semisweet chocolate. “This is great.” / Michiyo and Shiro are looking at each other and nodding. See, she likes the manju, they must be thinking to each other.
ref: 1995, Kyoko Mori, The Dream of Water: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 193:
text: Madara assumes the form of a chubby, mochi-like cat named Nyanko-sensei who loves to drink sake and eat manju and ebi furai—and pretty much anything else.
ref: 2020, Diana Ault, Cook Anime: Eat Like Your Favorite Character—From Bento to Yakisoba, New York, N.Y.: Tiller Press, Simon & Schuster, Inc., →ISBN, page 18:
text: Angel hummed, their gaze shifting from him to the plate of manju sitting on the bench.
ref: 2020, Naomi Aoki, Deadly Game, →ISBN:
text: The cream was thick and complimented the pancake-y batter of the manju perfectly. […] “Manju originated from Chinese mantou, that deep fried bread thing you dip in condensed milk that you can get in Binondo. But this is Japanese. And the Japanese version is made with red bean instead of chocolate or custard.[…]”
ref: 2022, Carla de Guzman, Some Bali to Love, Midnight Books:
text: They say in Slam Dunk that you need to have self-control to grab rebounds, and the girls exhibited a lack of that: they bought up over half of the manju I made. I could never make enough manju. […] “Well, I know that children can’t be eating that many manju, and grabbing manju off the shelf isn’t exactly the same as grabbing rebounds, so why don’t y'all bring that same tenaciousness to your post-manju workouts?[…]”
ref: 2023, Shoji Goji, translated by Eric Margolis, Loner Life in Another World, volume 6, Seven Seas Entertainment, →ISBN:
text: It also comes with dessert — seasonal potato manju and fruits anmitsu.
ref: 2023 April 30, Dining Out (Honolulu Star-Advertiser), page 16:
glosses: A traditional Japanese confection; most have an outside made from flour, rice powder, kudzu, and buckwheat, and a filling of red bean paste, usually made from boiled azuki beans and sugar; in Hawaii, Okinawan ones are made with a filling of purple sweet potato, butter, milk, sugar, and salt, but the most common filling is bean paste.