Type Snack Main ingredients Yeast, Brown sugar, Flour | Place of origin Japan | |
 | ||
Similar Muscovado, Manjū, Wagashi, Kenpi, Senbei | ||
Karinto (花林糖, karintō, (ateji)) is a traditional Japanese snack food. Sweet and deep-fried, it is made primarily of flour, yeast, and brown sugar. It has a deep brown and pitted appearance, and takes the form of a "bite-sized" pillow or short cylinder. Although traditional karinto is coated with brown sugar, recently other variations appear in the market, such as white sugar, sesame seeds, miso, or peanuts.
Contents
History
Karinto's roots are controversial between China around the Nara Period to Kyoto aristocrats or from Portugal in later period, but in either case it has been available from street merchants since at least the Tenpō era, roughly 1830 to 1841.
In popular culture
In Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice, police detective and forensic scientist Ema Skye constantly eats karintō on duty (the snack was localized as chocolate-flavored "snackoos").
In Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, karintō is stated to be one of Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu's favourite foods.
In Gosick, Kujo gives karintō to Victorique, who comments that they look like dog feces.