Walking in Kantaro-san's Steps: Kanmidokoro Hatsune - Tokyo, Japan
A couple years ago I stumbled across this show on Netflix while I was browsing the categories. I clicked on Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman on Netflix. It looked like the right amount of weirdness and complete "what the hell is going on." kind of show I needed that day. Boy, was I was right. It’s basically a sitcom crossed with a food/travel show, all filtered through a lens of grade-A Japanese weirdness. You need to add it to your show list if that sounds up your alley.
Anmitsu is a wagashi that dates to the Meiji era. It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae. The agar is dissolved with water to make the jelly. I went with the white syrup. They give you the option of white or black. Aka, brown sugar syrup or white sugar syrup.
In the first episode Kantaro goes to Hatsune and gets a delicious and out of this world treat, which looks like the commendation of everything Japanese. I immediately added it to my bucket list.
So after a bit disappointing morning of looking at wisteria flowers that were none existent, I was dyeing for a sweet treat and to step out of the sun.
The little shop was cool and there were a couple of older ladies attending it. They were a little weary of at first but once I made sure to speak Japanese they were more relieved. I ordered the treat Kantaro ordering in the show: shiratama ogura anmitsu. She instantly said, "Kantaro?" I had to chuckle.
Justin got red bean soup with mochi.
