Monday, September 15, 2008

Café au Lait Daifuku




















Day fifty-six: Caf
é au Lait Daifuku
Shimoda,
¥160

Since Japanese flavors (matcha, black sesame, etc) have stormed their mouth-watering way into many Western baked goods and frozen treats, it only seems fair for Western flavors to make a few forays in return. For my money, coffee is one of the most successful invaders, possibly because it has a bitterness on par with matcha and a sesame-like nuttiness.

I found this "caf
é au lait" daifuku at a neighborhood sweetshop in the little seaside town of Shimoda. Of the many fresh sweets on offer this was the only one innovative enough to merit an explanatory sketch. Like a cutaway diagram of the earth's core, it showed a core of thick whipped cream surrounded by coffee-infused white bean paste and a mantle of coffee mochi, with a coffee-bean shaped chocolate perched on the north pole. While I've enjoyed coffee daifuku in the past, this was my first experience of having a little cream thrown into the mix and I'm hooked.

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