Anyone looking for a fun series to watch on Netflix Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman (Kantaro: O vendedor guloso – Title in Brazil) could be a good option.
If you like sweets, even better! This live-action adaptation, based on the manga Saboriman Ametani Kantarou (さぼリーマン 飴谷甘太朗), illustrated by Abidi Inoue and written by Tensei Hagiwara, showcases delicious options.
For those who like and follow about Japanese culture, they won't be surprised by the exaggerated, comedic way and the faces of some characters, but those who are not familiar will find some parts a bit bizarre.
If you were curious and want to know a little more, see a brief presentation of this Japanese drama available on Brazilian Netflix that also fits perfectly into the term known as food porn.
#foodporn
Despite the name the the focus is to bring beautiful images that stimulate your desire to taste the most varied illustrated foods. In this specific case, the most delicious sweets from the Tokyo region are presented.
In total, there are 12 episodes of 24 minutes that were created by TV Tokyo in association with Netflix.
Table of Contents
Kantaro: O Salário-doce Salaryman
The series tells the daily life of Kantaro, who, because he loves sweets (I suspect more than people) decides to quit his job, a system engineer (programmer), and start working at a magazine publisher, in the sales department, to be able to reconcile work with your love for sweets.
With this change, he can, during business hours, enjoy his hobby, as he is extremely efficient in his work and ends up quickly leaving time for him.
Over the course of the series you will often see him go into ecstasy eating the different types of sweets that appear in each episode. See the trailer below:
While tasting, he describes in detail the flavor, preparation method, and ingredients that were used. After finishing his meal, he usually publishes an analysis on his blog called Sweet Knight.
Cast
The protagonist is Kantarou Ametani (Matsuya Onoe) who plays the candy fanatic, but we have a few other characters that make this Japanese series even better.
Kanako Dobashi (Ren Ishikawa) plays her co-worker who is suspicious of Kantaro keeping a secret. Works with internet sales.
Toru Miyake (Sarutoki Minagawa) is his boss and cares a lot about his department's sales.
Daisuke Yamaji (Hiroyuki Onoue) another salesperson who usually fails to hit the sales target and gets a lot of scolding from Toru.
Erika Sano (Hazuki Shimizu) works with the publishing and sales side of the magazines.
guests
Some make a small appearance in certain episodes, more details.
Kentaro Ito (伊藤健太郎) as Takarabe Yutaka
Yagi Masayasu (八木将康) as Gogase Hiroki
Nakamura Yasuhi (中村靖日) as Matsuzawa Fuufu
Moriguchi Yoko (森口瑤子) as Ametani Eriko (Kantaro's mother)
Candy List in Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman
Each episode has as its title the name of the candy that will be the "main attraction", but sometimes others are mentioned. To make it easier I will make a small description of each one that was indicated/cited.
To make it even more complete, I'll also include the name of the store plus a link to Google Maps in case you already live or are going to travel to Japão.
Episode 1 – Anmitsu
Upon entering the store, placing the order and waiting for it to be ready Kantaro mentions some sweets he sees people eating.
Oshiruko
Similar to a thick broth soup, it has as ingredients the red bean or azuki that are mashed, resembling a paste (anko), and glutinous rice cakes (mochi).
apricot parfait
Dessert of French origin that you can find with the most varied fruits plus a cream. It is usually served chilled.
Kuzumochi
They are Japanese rice balls (mochi) made with the starch powder from the root of the kudzu plant and served chilled.
Anmitsu
What Kantaro ordered was the Shiratama ogura anmitsu (white rice dumplings made from glutinous rice flour with shiratamako) which has some ingredients such as anko/tsubuan made from azuki beans, agar-agar made by the shop owner himself, different fruits, etc. As a topping, we have the brown and white sugar syrup.
Store: Kanmidokoro Hatsune 【甘味処 初音】
Place: Chuo, Tokyo, Japan
On the YT channel Michelle Shirai she tastes this Japanese sweet:
Episode 2 - Kakigori
That day the temperature was over 37°C in Tokyo and to enjoy it he decided to eat Kakigori which is the Japanese slushie that has several flavors.
As usual, he chooses the store that is closest to the bookstores he will have to go through to fulfill his work tasks.
Despite having already planned, there was an unforeseen event that the first store is full and there would be no time to wait, but as I had foreseen this, he went to the second place that had already made a reservation.
melon kakigori
At first, he is undecided with so many good options on the menu, but ends up being convinced by the waitress because it's the melon season. He then chooses this flavor that has ingredients like sherbet, the fruit itself in balls, syrup (Andean) and gelatin that are all made from fresh melon.
caramel kakigori
After seeing a customer eating the caramel slushie, he decides to order the same. It accompanies the preparation from scraping the ice, putting whipped cream to salted caramel.
Store 1: Amaikko 【甘いっ子】
Location 1: Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Store 2: Kooriya Peace 【氷屋ぴぃす】 - Kooriya Peace【Ice House Peace】
Location 2: Musashino, Tokyo, Japan
Episode 3 – Mamekan
By coincidence he is given the task of having to go through 3 bookstores that are close to stores that are famous for their mamekan. He takes the opportunity to make a “triathlon” try each one, as they all have their own characteristics that differ from each other.
All have agar, red beans and brown or white sugar syrup. What makes the difference between these 3 stores he visited is the way of preparation and where the ingredients come from, especially beans.
Store 1: IRIE【甘味処いり江】
Location 1: Koto, Tokyo, Japan
Store 2: Umemura 【梅むら】
Location 2: Taito, Tokyo, Japan
Store 3: Sagamiya 【有限会社相模屋】
Location 3: Minato, Tokyo, Japan
Episode 4 – Parfait
Before starting his visits to the bookstores assigned to him for the day, Dobashi offers him a sweet that he bought in Ningyocho.
Dorayaki
Despite the kindness aimed at discovering if Kantaro is the sweet Knight, he refuses. This sweet is similar to a パンケーキ with anko filling most of the time, but it can also happen to have another.
peach parfait
Arriving at the store, we can already see that the menu has several types of fruits for the most varied sweets. He chose the most popular seasonal Parfait of that month, which was the peach parfait.
The cream can have ingredients such as egg yolk, yogurt, whipped cream, sour cream, milk among others and is served with fruit.
Store: Kajitsuen Libre 【果実園リーベル新宿店】
Local: Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Episode 5 - Hotcakes (Pancakes)
Before making his visits, he finds it difficult for his boss to ask a newcomer who is not doing well in sales to accompany him. When leaving to start selling Kantaro mentions three stores in the region plus one food/sweet from each one.
Kintsuba
Kintsuba is similar to dorayaki; it is made with a thin batter that goes on the griddle and with yokan filling. It is also known as Imagawayaki, which has another name depending on the region.
Store: Asakusaumegen 【江戸昔菓子あさくさ梅源】
Place: Taito, Tokyo, Japan
fruit sandwich
Sandwiches made with loaf of bread and stuffed with the most varied fruits.
Store: Fruits Parlor Gotō【フルーツパーラーゴトー】
Place: Taito, Tokyo, Japan
Profiterol
Created in , it has a sugary dough and the filling can vary, but we usually find it with cream, ice cream, etc.
Store: Rusurusu 【菓子工房ルスルス】
Local: Taito, Tokyo, Japan
pancakes
The dough is simple and generally only contains flour and eggs, but it can also contain milk. The pancake that the store owner made is traditional and made on a copper plate. On the roof there were two options; butter and maple syrup.
Store: Coffee Tengoku 【珈琲天国】
Place: Taito, Tokyo, Japan
Episode 6 – Matcha Bavaroise
After receiving a comment on his blog asking about the origin (European or Japanese?) of a certain sweet, once again Ametani is “lucky” to by a store that can clear this doubt.
However, there is a mangaka who is working in partnership with the publisher who was fascinated by him and begins to pursue him. Kantaro is cornered, but is saved by the artist's wife. As he has no choice, he invites them to the store/bakery.
Pig shaped biscuit
As an aperitif, the shop offers a pig-shaped biscuit made from haenuki rice with British salt plus tea.
Kamameshi
The manga artist ends up asking for Kamameshi, which is rice cooked in a cast-iron pot and may come with meats, seafood, and vegetables.
matcha cake
This cake was the store owner's inspiration to create her most popular candy. Its ingredients are wheat flour, sour cream, egg, matcha powder, etc.
Apple pie with ice cream
A very popular type of food and hardly anyone doesn't know or has eaten a pie. The dough will use wheat flour, yolk, butter, salt and sugar in most recipes. In the filling it is already explicit that it goes mace, wheat flour, etc. It is served with ice cream and was another inspiration for the shop owner as well.
matcha bavaroise
After a lot of trial and error the current version has become very popular. To make it look that way, in addition to using the matcha itself, she added gelatin, whipped cream and other ingredients.
The ready dish is whipped cream made with a high percentage of pure cream, bavaroise and anko.
Store: Kinozen 【 紀の善】
Local: Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Brazilian actress name
A curiosity is that in this episode 6 a Brazilian actress makes a participation playing Maria the mangaka's wife.
Simone is from São Paulo and has lived in Japan since 1993 and has participated in many variety shows, movies, series and ments. Although her Japanese is heavily accented in the Kantaro series, I believe it was on purpose.
In addition to Japanese, she speaks English, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. Below I will leave the links of her social networks.
Wikipedia | Instagram | Twitter | Ameblo | Inagawamotoko Profile
I hope you enjoyed the article! The second part with the last 6 episodes of Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman is already available at the link below.
Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman – List of sweets and places - Part 2
https://skdesu.descargarjuegos.org/en/japan-product/