Desserts in Japan — Coffee Jelly, anyone?

Desserts in Japan can be a little different from what you might find back home. One popular dish in Japan is coffee jelly, coffee flavored gelatin that’s really good with whipped cream on top — Starbucks even sells a Coffee Jelly Frappe in the summer which I love. Another popular dessert in Japan is purin, egg custard flan pudding with caramel sauce on top which was unknown to me before I got here. Nata de Coco is a well-known dessert in the Philippines with firm, chewy squares made from coconuts, and it’s popular in Japan — it’s really good in yogurt. Cake is big here too, and most cake shops are small, highly professional outfits who bake fabulous delicacies and sell them for $5 per piece (you almost never buy a whole cake in Japan, it’d be too expensive). Finally, there are many kinds of ice cream in Japan, from matcha (green tea) and azuki (sweet Japanese beans) to variations on Italian gelatin and “soft cream” (what soft-serve ice cream is called here), although my favorite is vanilla with a little matcha powder sprinkled on top.