The Biglobe Beauty site reports on a shop in Sendai serving up all kind of sweet things, and sake, and sweet things made with sake.
Kanmidokoro Hiiragi (甘味処 柊) is a bakery and cafe during the day, and a bar at night when it offers sake, coffee and cake. They also make the obligatory pun by slurring the start of the word “sweets” so they can insert “shu” (the other reading for “sake”) to make “shueets” (酒イーツ).
The cafe also uses sake lees (酒粕, sake-kasu), a popular cooking ingredient, to make its treats. The article points out that using sake in sweet dishes draws out its own inherent sweetness, and the cafe allows you to enjoy them together if you eat in at the small counter.
The cafe is run by a kikisake-shi, Tamura, and a patissier, Yagi. The main sake they use in their creations is local jizake from Miyagi Prefecture, but they also select different sake from far and wide based on how well it matches their cakes. They also change the sake used for each cake regularly, so you could order the same thing twice but get something subtly different.
The article then introduces a few cakes:
- Sake-kasu caramel: Smooth caramel mousse wrapped around sake-kasu infused crème brûlée, with a crunchy chocolate puff hidden underneath to provide a crunchy accent. The rich caramel sweetness fills the mouth, followed by the delicate aroma of the sake-kasu. (JPY 420)
- Gateau chocolat: Slightly bitter with a big chocolate curl in the style of Date Masamune’s crest [seriously, you cannot go anywhere in Sendai without seeing it…], this steamed chocolate cake contains both sake and sake-kasu. Moist in texture and topped with fresh cream with sake for that extra touch of luxury, the bitterness of the chocolate is perfectly balanced by the freshness and short finish of the sake. (JPY 400)
- Raisin sandwich: Two pieces of shortbread filled with cream and raisins soaked in sake for two days (JPY 200)
- Shu-cream: Another pun, this time on choux-cream, otherwise known as a profiterole.
Sake, wine and beer are available from JPY 700, with the range changing daily.
Links
- Original article (Japanese, Biglobe Beauty, 14 September 2018)
- Kanmidokoro site (Japanese, with lots of photos)