12 Chocolate Desserts I tried in Kyushu, Japan
Part 1...
Konnichiwa!
I’ve just gone a week without drinking any chocolate. We’ve been renovating the kitchen, and I just can’t bring myself to use the microwave to make a hot chocolate. Maybe I should have explored the BBQ… Luckily, the kitchen is now at a usable stage, so I am typing this while sipping.
We recently visited Kyushu, the southwesternmost of Japan’s four main islands, known for its volcanoes, hot springs, food and warm weather. We rented a car and toured the province over a two-week period. I’ll share more about this trip in future posts, but I wanted to start with a few chocolate desserts we tried along the way.
Chocolate bananas in Kitakyushu. Choco bananas, as they are called in Japan, are a popular festival sweet made by dipping a skewered banana into chocolate and then decorating with colourful sprinkles. This one we enjoyed at the famous drumming festival Kokura Gion Taiko which has been held for the past 400 years around the Kokura Castle. Teams of drummers of all ages move around the city performing and chanting.
Selection of sweets and chocolate at Manu Coffee: Not much is open at 9am in Fukuoka. The city stays up late and wakes up late, it seems. But you can find coffee—very good coffee. We found Manu Coffee a few blocks down Teri-machi-dori Avenue. Its bright yellow exterior called us in. See my review of their hot chocolate over at Ultimate Hot Chocolate. We ordered it with this little plate of local sweets, including a small bar of chocolate from a local bean-to-bar chocolate maker.
Neji Choco from Kitakyushu: We found these little chocolates in Beppu, the land of onsens and volcanic springs. But Beppu is quite close to Kitakyushu, which we hadn’t realised was historically a city of steel. These chocolate souvenirs were inspired by that, sold in little boxes similar to real nuts and bolts. The ingredients say they are made with “bitter-tasting 50% cocoa-based couverture chocolate”. Not sure that is selling it to me, but I almost bought them to see if the nuts and bolts actually work (which their website suggests they do!). You can even mix and match, so a dark chocolate nut with a strawberry chocolate bolt. Fun idea.
Salted koji chocolate icecream made with Mano flowers. Appartment Coffee in Yumato doesn’t do hot chocolate. They do amazing coffee instead. But they do serve a range of outstanding ice creams, with all ingredients sourced very locally: lemongrass from one of the neighbours’ gardens, sweet summer oranges from the town over, and plums from Mifune. You need a car to reach this ice cream, which is completely worth it, not just given the flavour of the ice cream, but also the beauty of the region, including nearby Mount Aso and Takachiho Gorge.
Aso Chocolate Pudding from Patisserie Roku: This gorgeous little pastry shop makes a chocolate pudding using the famous milk from nearby Mt. Aso, where the cows munch on rich and nutritious volcanic grasses (we tasted the milk, and it is indeed very tasty). This milk is mixed with local eggs from Soyo no Tsuki, vanilla beans, and then chocolate of some sort (they don’t say). I’m not usually a pudding kind of girl, but I was today, and I enjoyed it. If you are staying at one of the ryokans in Kurokawa, which I highly recommend you do, this is a must-stop.
6. Chocolate Kumamon in Kumamoto: While taiyaki, a crisp pastry with cream fillings, are usually shaped like fish (tai), which is a symbol of good luck in Japan, in Kumamoto everything, including taiyaki, is shaped like Kumamon, the city’s mascot. “Kuma” means bear and “mon” means person or thing. This cute bear won the national mascot competition in 2011 (which isn’t easy, as there are a lot of city mascots in Japan). This pastry was filled with chocolate and sold in the little village of tourist shops at the Tourism Centre of Kumamoto near the castle. Not quite at the level of Patisserie Roku above, but when it’s shaped like a cute bear….
Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!
The countdown has begun…
There are 49 days until the release of my new book, The World of Chocolate, published by Artisan/Hachette globally! Pre orders really help get the book into bestseller lists and get the media talking about chocolate. So, if you want to be really on top of your Christmas presents this year, maybe consider a little book on chocolate?!
Giselle
Chief Chocolate Sipper
www.ultimatehotchocolate.com, on insta @ultimatehotchoc