Kanmi nomi zo shiru... Only sweet Heaven knows!

When a show came about in a corner of the world known as Japan, about a man who changes jobs so he can eat desserts and write about it - I still found out as it launched, though I wasn't on Netflix at the time but I guess it speaks volumes about the kind of pages I follow on social media! The premise kind of hit home hard because it was almost like someone was living my dream onscreen. There's been several occasions and my colleagues would vouch for it, when I've lamented how I'd rather be eating and writing about eating than working excels on profit margins about companies making couplings or airplane parts! So, even though it was in Japanese and I'm not the biggest fan of Foreign language television or cinema because one has to pay real good attention to the subtitles, I figured I was going to watch this show. Torrents failed me (can we please sign a petition to bring back the real Kickasstorrents!), online streaming sites failed me, Hotstar didn't comprehend what I was searching for even! Finally, when I got myself around to be part of my band of friends and also Netflix dacoits using free trials very effectively, it was the first show I watched. So, here's my honest and impressed piece about Kantaro, the sweet tooth salaryman.

  

A 20 odd minutes each episode, a twelve episode season is what we have so far. The protagonist Ametani Kantaro is this smart, professional mid-twenties employee who quits his previous job because it allowed him to only have sweets over the weekend and he wanted to be able to do this all week through. Hence, he finds himself a job as a salesman for a book publishing house in Tokyo. He must make sales visits selling new offerings to book stores across the city and he manages to finish his visits like a ninja, much sooner than others while keeping some time aside to visit a different sweet shop every visit. Later, he blogs about it under the name Sweets Knight. While the premise is fictitious, the sweet shops are real and apparently so are the delicious desserts he eats. So, we go along with him on this journey as each episode is dedicated to one special dish.

He's literally in heaven! Here he's devouring a Kakigori or a dessert of saved ice with freshly scooped melons and melon syrup!

The construct of each episode is quite planned as well (Heck, it’s a Japanese series!), starting with a brief of how he lands up in that district or part of town and oh, the serendipity - the area is famous for XYZ dessert. This is followed by a mini crisis of how to make time for the place, followed by his grand entry into the store, a description of the ambiance along with a brief history of the restaurant, how he orders for the special or signature dish, watches it being made while literally foodgasming as he describes the cooking process. Finally he digs in, devouring his dessert wholesomely, generally ordering for more of the same and then blogging about it immediately after he leaves the store. He finally ends up entering his office like a star who's over-done his job of the day. No one in the office questions him because he meets his targets and slowly becomes salesman of the month, even. Except, well Dobashi. A lady who loves sweets as much and follows Sweets Knight and starts seeing a correlation with a new post to the same location where Kantaro has visited. She spends time figuring how to whistleblow so she can report him playing hooky on the job, purely because she doesn’t believe one can be so perfect. She tries to honey trap him by telling him about a store via a comment she posts as Sweets Princess, then waits for him there. She tries to share some exquisite handmade desserts lying to him that they are from a supermarket - waiting for Kantaro san to explode in her face. But, Kantaro is always one step ahead - always composed, icy exterior and does not crack even though from inside he's a bundle of nerves figuring how close he was to getting busted! I must not forget to mention - in each episode there is 4-5 minute scene where other characters become the dish or generally Kantaro's head becomes the dish and there is a dreamy conversation about life at large. I ended up skipping this mindless part most of the times because I was mainly in a hurry to get to the next episode and discover what beauty is being shot.

The Fruit Parfait <3 <3

The season takes you through some delicious Japanese sweets, that being in India I have had almost NO exposure to, but can still find some familiarity with the ingredients. For instance, the first episode talks about a dessert called Shiratama Anmitsu - which ends up being made of ingredients such as red beans (humble Rajma?), Agar Agar (China grass!), Rice flour dumplings (Modaks?) topped off with a bunch of fruits. It’s a sort of a fruit trifle (I won't say Parfait, because there's a whole episode dedicated to that!).

The chocolate mousse dessert

This bar of perfectly made bean to bar chocolate! 

 The detailed description of the dish, its ingredients, how it tasted always made me drool and I decided to only watch while eating a meal, so I can't end up craving for something and skipping what I'm supposed to eat. Hell, that backfired in the next episode where he was eating shaved ice and I was shoving down Kundroo and roti! But, I'm saying that it the series is less alien than I imagined and slowly grows onto you. By episode 8, it doesn't shock you when a red bean sauce is served with a matcha icecream! 

The Savarin that Kantaro
devours at Cafe Recherche

Also some of the desserts he tries are Western but you realize have a huge popularity in Japan as well - Remember the parfait, then there's eclairs, the Italian Caramel pudding, the French Savarin and then there is ONE WHOLE EPISODE dedicated to Chocolate! Heaven, basically - in Kantaro's words "Sweets Heaven!"

 

Nevertheless, BIG shout-out to the camera work and photography which painstakingly and sometimes in real Slo-mo shoots fruits being scooped or this blast of a soft gelatinous ball of sweet jelly and makes you almost dive into that kitchen and can almost taste the juiciness. I've watched a whole bunch of food shows, no one has shot food better than in Kantaro. Even the pictures he puts up on his blog after the visits, puts an instagram influencer's page to shame. There's utter beauty in each shot that contains food and this has 100% won my heart!

This is the camera work you see to explain how juicy that jelly was! 

 
At 20 minutes per episode, its highly addictive if you're an incorrigible foodie like me. Its one of those shows you can easily binge watch and walk away smiling and not mind-fucked where you're trying to figure what the hell just happened. 

Slightly creepy - Kantaro eating an eclair in front
of his mom, who he's managed to put to bed!

Yes, the ending was a slight let down for me (No spoilers here) but I await the next season because we need  more such offbeat, somewhat creepy at times (the episode where he's eating sweets while his mother is sleeping like a deranged psychopath!), but warm and endearing shows about the things we love. Till then, as I dream about desserts, the next one I have is something "Only sweet heaven knows!".

Kanmi nomi zo shiru! 

Also visit this link if you're interested in a list of the stores he visits and are heading to Tokyo some time soon. I also read about a Kantaro food tour - and I can't wait to visit the city and take it someday!