Take it easy with some Japanese traditional sweets ♪

Soba Sumire’s Taiyaki

A soba and taiyaki restaurant in Chuuwa, located next to the Seven-Eleven on the opposite of the outdoor shop Shugakuso.

This place is a type B employment support, so people with disabilities are working here.
Everyone is lively, the staff is very polite and kind.

The menu contains various dishes, from cold soba to warm soba, tentacle rice bowl, Japanese curry rice, inarizushi (sushi wrapped in a slightly sweetened fried tofu), smoothies, Japanese sweets, parfaits, etc…
The prices are more than affordable!

There is so much dishes available for you to choose!
Just looking at the menu is fun.

It's nice to have Japanese tea on the menu.

Our reporter heard that the tea here is served in an iron kettle.
Then, there is no other choice. She went for the green tea and taiyaki set.

The taiyaki was normal-sized but the dough leftovers around it are big!
Actually, the dough leftovers also contains some adzuki red bean paste making the pastry more voluminous than the usual taiyaki.

The dough is thin and crispy, the bean paste is made from Taniguchi Farm's Shumari red bean paste.
The fish-shaped snack was only slightly sweetened so even if the pastry was big it didn’t feel heavy in our writer's stomach.

Tea is hot and delicious...
The iron kettle is classy and our writer is happy to have hot refills.
Moreover, if it’s only ¥400 our reporter may become a loyal customer!

There was also a set of soba and taiyaki.
Our reporter will definitely come here again and become a regular.

* Shop info *
Taiyaki Soba (Sumire)
・ Address: Asahikawa-shi Chūwa 4-jō 4-chōme 4
・ Telephone: 0166-73-7181
・ Business hours: 11: 00-16: 00
・ Regular holidays: Mondays and Tuesdays (open on public holidays)
・ Official website: https://island-llc.com/sumire/
・ Official Facebook: https://00m.in/2xraF

Yori Michi Cafe Sanpo

Located on the 2nd floor of Asahikawa's department store Sanbankan, a cute cafe opened.

Despite being placed on the busy women’s goods floor, thanks to the windows and the wood walls, the cafe is calm and peaceful.

There are colorful menus and food samples around the shop, creating a fun atmosphere.
Past noon, the cafe was crowded with customers.

There are also main dishes. The napolitan looks delicious!

Naporitan or Napolitan is a popular Japanese pasta dish. The dish consists of spaghetti, tomato ketchup or a tomato-based sauce, onion, button mushrooms, green peppers, sausage, bacon and optionally Tabasco sauce.
It is very similar to the Spaghetti Napoletana.

There was also some traditional Japanese sweets here.
Bean Daifuku Set, Matcha Warabimochi Set, Shiratama Zenzai, Matcha Warabimochi Cream Zenzai, Sanpo Anmitsu ...

Japanese tea is included in the sets.
The Sencha tea and Hojicha tea (roasted green tea) are served in a tea pot.

Zenzai, also called O-shiruko, is a red bean soup made with adzuki beans. Some mochi are usually in the soup.

Warabi mochi is a bracken-starch dumpling.

From wikipedia:
Anmitsu is a Japanese dessert that dates to the Meiji era. It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae.[2] The agar is dissolved with water (or fruit juice such as apple juice) to make the jelly. It is served in a bowl with sweet azuki bean paste or anko (the an part of anmitsu), boiled peas, often gyūhi and a variety of fruits such as peach slices, mikan, pieces of pineapples, and cherries. The anmitsu usually comes with a small pot of sweet black syrup, or mitsu (the mitsu part of anmitsu) which one pours onto the jelly before eating.

Our reporter ordered a matcha warabi mochi cream zenzai.
The cream part is actually a vanilla soft serve under which more azuki beans are hidden.
The warabimochi had the bitterness of matcha and was delicious.

The next time our writer want to try the lunch set out.

* Shop info *
Detour Cafe Sanpo
・ Address: Asahikawa City 3 Jodori 15-chome Right 1 Sanbankan Asahikawa Main Store 2nd floor
・ Telephone: 0166-25-0003
・ Business hours: 11: 00-18: 00
・ Regular holidays: Irregular holidays, equivalent to Sanbankan

Cafe Sebastian

Cafe Sebastian is a popular cafe in the residential area of Kaguraoka

Here, coffee beans are home-roasted, explaining why there are so many types of coffee available!
The roasted coffee scent is everywhere.

The menu is large too! Meals and desserts are various and look good.

From what our reporter heard, they serve also Japanese-style sweets but since she couldn't find any on the menu she ordered something else.
This colored dessert might be a time/season-limited dessert since strawberries, and thus ichigo daifuku, are popular in Japan during winter.

You saw it, our reporter ordered a ”Ichigo Daifuku Hot Sandwich” !
She chose to eat it with her son.
What kind of texture will this dessert have... ?

Margarine, red bean paste, strawberry and mochi are sandwiched in a sandwich bread.
The saltiness of the margarine contrasting with the sweet red bean paste is exquisite.
It's chewy and crispy! The strawberry is juicy ! A lot of different textures are mixed in the sandwich making the snack very fun to eat.

It's delicious enough as it is but since fresh cream was served with, our writer’s son eat the dessert with the fresh cream on.
Cafe Sebastian also serves Japanese tea, herbal tea, and black tea. Perfect to go with Japanese sweets.
Our writer decided to have some lemon-flavored herbal tea after her sandwich.

It's a hot sandwich that looks pretty.

* Shop info *
Cafe Sebastian
・ Address: 8-6-1-2, Kaguraoka, Asahikawa-shi
・ Telephone: 0166-65-8686
・ Business hours: 11: 00-19: 00
・ Regular holiday: Irregular holiday
・ Official site: https://cafesebastian.com/

Conclusion

Our writer is used to eat Japanese sweets at home, but it's also nice to have some in restaurants too.
If you know a great place to eat traditional sweets, let Mami know and she will investigate on it !