Tag: sweets | RocketNews24

sweets

Who Needs a Cherry on Top? Osaka Café Crowns its Parfaits with Cake

May 11, 2013 by Casey Baseel
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Tokyo’s restaurants may have more Michelin stars, but for many Japanese foodies, the real culinary action is in Osaka. Particularly if your tastes run more towards good honest grub than haute cuisine, Japan’s second largest city is the place to be.

The people of Osaka enjoy a good meal so much that they coined the phrase kuidaore, to eat until you collapse. But even with this image firmly entrenched in our minds, the city has found a new way to surprise us with its gastronomic decadence.

On a recent day out in Osaka, our reporter stopped by a café and ordered a truly hard-core parfait. It wasn’t that the parfait was so big, and no, it didn’t contain any shocking ingredients. What blew our minds about this parfait was its topping.

It was a slice of cake, and it was so big it wasn’t even trying to fit into the glass.

May 11, 2013 by Casey Baseel
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Being in Japan gives you plenty of opportunities to knock back a beer. The country is filled with pubs, and alcohol consumptions is so accepted that should you tell people, flat-out, “My hobby is drinking,” they’re more likely to ask you to recommend a good bar than to stage an intervention. At the same time, Japan has countless places to sip a relaxing cup of tea, whether it’s the strong, frothy variety used in tea ceremonies called matcha, or hojicha, for which the green tea leaves are roasted before steeping. But with two tempting beverage choices to relax with and only so many hours in the day, how can anyone be expected to choose between tea and beer? As it turns out, you don’t have to. Read More

Cute Kyoto! We Taste Hidden Delights From a Traditional Sweet House in Pontocho

May 5, 2013 by Oona McGee
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Pontocho is one of Kyoto’s most beautiful geisha districts. With traditional tea houses, restaurants and bars all crowded together along atmospheric, stone-paved narrow lanes, this area breathes the air of an old, timeless Kyoto. Within its maze of weaving, intersecting alleyways, there are plenty of secrets to discover and hidden areas to explore. Walking through Pontocho, you might notice one of its many mysteries: the area is dotted with Japanese paper lanterns, all bearing the mark of the chidori, the plover bird. They’re incredibly beautiful, but why would a cute chidori design come to be on such traditional products?

Jan 14, 2013 by Philip Kendall
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And here we were thinking that our sugar-coated pastries came from Krispy Kreme and Mr. Donut. According to this promotional video for Japanese comic Tenshi no Doroppu (or Angel’s Drop as it is subtitled), however, cookies, cakes and doughnuts are not made but “born” by young ladies who are periodically overwhelmed by the power of pastry and let rip with a tide of sweets large enough to feed an entire truckload of hungry teenagers.

Potentially NSFW pics and a full intro video after the jump.

Dec 23, 2012 by Kay
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With Christmas now just a few short days away, I’m sure many of us are still frantically trying to get some last-minute Christmas shopping done. There’s also Christmas dinner to think about, right? And of course, the Christmas cake, which the children (and yes, adults too) are all looking forward to. But wait, who said you have to have cake for Christmas? Japanese wagashi creators, Japan’s version of patissiers, offer a choice of delectable looking Christmas treats that should be just as sweet as cake. Read More

Our Reporter Heads to Barcelona, Eats Delicious Dragon Quest Bubble Slime

Dec 4, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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During her recent trip to the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain, RocketNews24 Japan writer Megumi stumbled upon something that, to her videogame-tuned eyes, could look like only one thing.

The above image is one taken by Megumi when she visited the fantastic Brunells patisserie, or Pastisseria i salode te Brunells to be more exact, showing what is known as a “melonmelon” sweet. Although you and I see little more than a piece of rich, sugary confection, when Megumi first laid eyes on this delightful little green tongue pleaser, she could only think of one thing: a Bubble Slime from the hugely popular Dragon Quest role-playing games.

Nov 30, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Playstation 2 and Wii owners will likely be familiar with Ōkami, the adventure game set in ancient Japan that features an absolutely gorgeous wood-cut, cell-shaded graphic design.

The game puts players in control of the wolf incarnation of Shintō goddess Amaterasu, and quests them with using a magical, life-giving paintbrush to transform a dark, cursed world into one of plants, trees and flowers, as well as battling a few demons and evil spirits along the way.

On the same theme of restoration, a local website based in Rikuzentakata, a coastal town in Iwate prefecture severely damaged by the March 11 tsunami, has launched a special range of products officially backed by Capcom, the makers of Ōkami, with profits from their sale going to towards rebuilding the town and, much like the game, “restoring nature to its once beautiful state.”

Oct 24, 2012 by Philip Kendall
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Japan is no stranger to exciting, original or downright odd beverages. Just 20 feet from this writer’s apartment, in fact, there’s a vending machine that sells cans of grape jelly or caramel pudding flavoured “drinks”, and convenience stores stock an enormous array of beverages from green tea or chilled coffee to butterscotch milk and melon soda.

Still, it’s better than row after row of tremor-inducing caffeine-packed cola and the illegitimate offspring of child’s cough syrup and lemonade that is Dr Pepper, I suppose…

On the 15th of this month, however, dairy experts Meito brought Japanese consumers something altogether more challenging- a milk-based drink that’s designed to taste not just like strawberries, but classic Japanese favourite strawberry daifuku mochi rice cakes!

But no sooner had the delicious-sounding beverage found its way into stores than internet users starting leaving rather odd comments on message boards about the drink’s taste…

Oct 5, 2012 by Steven
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Japanese anime production studio Khara wants to make sure you’re excited for the upcoming Evangelion: 3.0 movie and they’re proving their sincerity by serving you the Third Angel Sachiel’s head on a platter.

Sep 16, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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Fall version of pyorin on sale at Nagoya Station.

“Pyorin”, the cutest sweet in Nagoya, is rising in the ranks of local Nagoya specialties. Take the sound a baby chick makes, “piiiii piiiii piiiii” , and the word pudding, or purin in Japanese, put them together with a darling baby chick face in the shape of a pudding-like dessert, and you have pyorin! Read More

The Cakes at Seoul’s Hello Kitty Cafe Are So Cute, You’ll Feel Bad Mutilating the Face of the World’s Most Beloved Cat

Sep 16, 2012 by Michelle
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Just about everyone knows Hello Kitty. The Japanese born cat of Sanrio, with her simple expression and cute little bow, has reached the far corners of the world. Hello Kitty, known as Kitty-chan in Japan, has made appearances on lunch boxes, debit cards, $5,000 necklaces, electric guitars, and even airplanes.

The expressionless white cat’s overwhelming popularity has spread throughout the world, prompting the creation of the Hello Kitty Cafe franchise in South Korea with locations in Seoul, Incheon, and Sinchon. One of our reporters, enamored by the cuteness that Japan’s most famous cat exudes, decided to pay a visit to Hello Kitty Cafe’s Seoul location.

Sep 14, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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Are you familiar with the Q-pot brand of jewelry? It could get a bit sticky if your tried wearing it on your next night out on the town, but it certainly is attractive, and tasty!

That is because Q-pot Cafe arranges chocolates, cupcakes and macaroons into delightful rings, bracelets, and necklaces! Never before has there ever been such delectable mouth-watering jewelry, something that is served up in the most appealing manner at the Q-pot cafe. Read More

The Very Bitter Gourd ‘Goya’ Ripens into a Sweet Treat!

Aug 13, 2012 by Karen Bremer Masuda
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The goya represents summer in Japan in many ways. This bitter gourd is a staple of Okinawa cuisine with a tropical image, its bitterness is celebrated as one of the healthiest foods around. If you can stand the bitterness then it is excellent for the skin, a beauty aide for women!

The ever popular ‘green curtain’, which is a vine plant grown on netting over windows to keep out the heat, often consists of goya plants. The leaves grow thick and can keep direct sunlight out considerably saving on cooling costs!

Goya growers and super markets throw out the over-ripe goya when it yellows, I suppose because it stops being the well-loved summer vegetable we all know.

But wait! If you let it ripen, it turns into a bright yellow sweet fruit! WOW! Where did that bitterness go?
Read More

Do 7-Eleven Mochi Feel Like a Woman’s Breasts? We Grope a Bunch to Find Out

Jul 29, 2012 by Steven
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Daifuku are a traditional Japanese confection composed of a soft mochi rice cake stuffed with a sweetened red bean paste called anko, and is one of the most popular sweets in Japan.

While nothing beats freshly made daifuku from one of those small mom-and-pop shops, you can still get some pretty tasty packaged specimens from convenience stores or supermarkets.

For example, we recently heard that one such brand of daifuku offered at 7-Eleven convenience stores are the same softness as a woman’s breast.

What? Taste? Did you not read the sentence above? 7-Eleven sells mochi that feels like boobs. Who cares about taste? Read More

Hello Kitty not picky about her jobs – this time she gets baked!

Apr 22, 2012 by Kay
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We’ve said before that Hello Kitty doesn’t appear to be too picky about her jobs – she seems willing to take on an awfully wide range of engagements upon request. Well, we’ve recently discovered that Ms. Kitty, as we sometimes like to call her, now has an amazing new job. This time, believe it or not, her job involves being baked whole and then sold as kongari-yaki or “golden brown baked Kitty”. What will become of our beloved Kitty? Will she come out of this endeavor unscathed? Read More

A Sweets Lover’s Paradise – Tokyo Confectionery Land opens in Tokyo Station and their “drinkable” cream puffs are a must try!

Apr 18, 2012 by Kay
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We have good news for all of you cream puff lovers out there. Three major confectionery makers have joined efforts to open “Tokyo Confectionery Land” in the “Tokyo Station First Avenue” shopping area on the Tokyo Station premies, and one of the confectionery companies involved, Fujiya Co., Ltd, is selling a seriously delicious confectionery – the “drinkable” cream puff! For anyone who loves cream puffs, or sweets in general for that matter, we think this is a must try! Read More