On March 25, the Japanese sweets shop "Nakamuraya Kashin Nakamura" (Shigemori-cho, Hirosaki City, TEL 0172-32-3656 ) began selling a sable "Vezinosaurus" with an eye-catching dinosaur illustration.

This product uses rice flour and vegetables from Aomori Prefecture and is designed with 6 types of dinosaurs. It was jointly developed by Kimiharu Nakamura, the fourth-generation owner of the same store, and Ken Ito, a professor at the Hirosaki Graduate School of Medicine who also serves as a professor at the Vegetable Life Science Course.

The two are childhood friends, and development began when Mr. Ito approached him, saying, "I want to make sweets that even children who don't like vegetables can eat vegetables." “My son, who loves dinosaurs, asked me at Nakamuraya, ‘Are there any dinosaur-themed sweets?

Looking back, Mr. Nakamura recalls, "At first, I was worried about what I could make because I had only made Japanese sweets." "Dinosaurs and Japanese sweets weren't connected, but I came up with a sable made from Okinawan rice flour. I had never made a sable before, but I wanted to take on a new challenge as a craftsman," he said.

Mr. Nakamura says that he repeated trial and error. “I struggled to keep the taste of the vegetables and eliminate the bitterness. Mr. Ito recalls, "We adjusted the amount of vegetable powder slightly to adjust the firmness (easiness of spilling)."

Vegetable flour is from Ebisawa Farm (Tohoku-cho, Kamikita-gun, Aomori Prefecture). Mr. Ito confidently said, "The unique combination of a farm that is particular about soil preparation and a sable made by a long-established Japanese confectionery craftsman has an advantage over other similar products."

Mr. Nakamura says with a smile, "We've prepared a device that allows you to think about the vegetables that are included, guess the dinosaur, and study the production process.

The price is 1,050 yen for a box of 6 and 2,750 yen for a can of 15. Sales will be at stores, online shops, and “Cafe & Restaurant Brick” (Yoshinocho, Hirosaki City).