The Kansai Parfait Quest Club

An obsession began with my friend Kelly. She craved a Japanese parfait. Every time we went out for dinner she pleaded with us to find a restaurant with one of the giant parfaits in the window, but for nearly two weeks we forfeited the parfait for a cheaper meal. The poor girl was clearly desperate.[singlepic=125,320,240,,left]

One Saturday evening Kelly, Other Kelly, Owen and I were in Den Den Town–an otaku paradise in downtown Osaka. We’d just finished shopping in the enormous shops full of manga, anime and action figures. We were enjoying a cheap meal of rice and tonkatsu at a restaurant a Japanese guy told us was, “Good good tasty!” when we had our sudden inkling. Parfait? There were no parfaits at this particular restaurant, but we were in Osaka. This was the second largest city in the entire country! There had to be some shop nearby that had them. The hunt was on!

In our excited group we bustled down a long street, peering inside restaurant windows with very little success. Past the subway we went, until we found a strip of shops called shinsekai, which means “New World”. It is located beneath the Tsutenkaku Tower and is filled with shops of every kind, and restaurants to fit any appetite.  We found one shop that had the parfait, and then another, and finally a third.  Each cost around 500 yen and up, but our stomachs were commanding us: PARFAIT TIME. [singlepic=46,320,240,,right]

As we chose one shop with a tantalizing chocolate and cornflake parfait in the window, Owen and I both had our video cameras glued to our hands, documenting our quest.  We sat our table and ordered our desserts, giggling in anticipation.  This better be one good parfait for 550 yen, we were all thinking.  The waitress brought it out to us. Wow. It was better than we imagined.  The raspberries were perfectly ripe, and almost every bite was a pleasant surprise. Japanese parfait soon became my absolute favorite dessert.  The four of us are hooked.

Not a few minutes go by when we already have the plans all laid out.  We are forming Kansai Gaidai’s first parfait club.  We will make it our goal to have one parfait every weekend together, exploring all of Japan for the most delicious parfaits and then documenting our findings.  The rules are set.  We will take photographs of each parfait and when the semester is over we will compose a brochure: Parfaits of Japan, Where to Find Them and How Much Money You Will Have to Fork Over to Get it. The title needs some work, but I already know this is one brochure that future Kansai students cannot live without.[singlepic=52,320,240,,left]

In any case, I have been named the Oneesan of the group: the big sister/photographer…in charge of taking awesome photos of food (Something I think you’ve all noticed). You can find the link to our Parfait Blog here. Of course, that does mean another side project for me, but I don’t even care.  I got parfait.