Book Talk: “Oishisou!!” Anime-Inspired Sweets & Treats by Hadley Sui
Hadley Sui (L), author of Oishisou!! The Ultimate Anime Dessert Cookbook, and illustrator Monique “Mo” Narboneta Zosa
Japanese sweets look cute as well as tasting good
An American food stylist who is in love with Japanese anime and sweets explained how she put the two together in her new cookbook, during a recent online presentation organized by the Japan America Society of Chicago.
The online book talk & demo on Nov. 16 featured New York-based Hadley Sui, who authored Oishisou!! The Ultimate Anime Dessert Cookbook. Monique “Mo” Narboneta Zosa, the book’s illustrator, appeared alongside Sui to talk about the creative process of the book.
Published in June this year, Sui’s cookbook carries over 60 recipes of pastries, candies, snacks and other treats that are frequently portrayed in Japanese anime and manga. For fans of Japanese pop culture with a sweet tooth, the book is a must-have.
At the end of the slide presentation, Sui demonstrated how to make Japanese sweets of sakura-mochi and mushroom-shaped chocolate snack, right from the book.
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Hadley Sui is a Brooklyn-based commercial food stylist, pastry chef, and recipe developer. Her love for Japanese culture and sweets began during the year she spent in Japan, living with host families and attending high school in the city of Yoshikawa in Saitama Prefecture. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in International Studies, she obtained a certificate from a local French pastry school. Now, she runs her own pastry brand, Hadley Go Lucky, in New York while developing and spreading new dessert ideas via social media.
Sui’s cookbook Oishisou!! was published in June 2022
*Japanese Sweets and Me*
When Sui was in Yoshikawa, her host family took her to a Mister Donut. There, she tried a Japanese-style bun. It was “so carefully made” and tasted magical, she recalled.
At a tea ceremony, Sui tasted nerikiri, a traditional Japanese confection, for the first time. The tiny, exquisite creation – you could finish it in just two bites – felt like something made of dreams to Sui.
She also experienced dagashi-ya, a penny candy store in Japan. When her high school classmates took her to one, those cheap and junky snacks and candies of multiple flavors were a discovery of another genre of Japanese sweets for Sui.
In general, Japanese sweets and desserts are categorized into two groups: wagashi and yogashi. Wagashi refers to traditional sweets that originated in Japan, while yogashi refers to desserts that originated in the West. Sui became fascinated with wagashi for their aesthetics and versatility.
“Shibuya Toast” is a dessert originated in Tokyo’s Shibuya district
The boundaries between wagashi and yogashi are often blurred in Japan today. One of Sui’s favorite Japanese desserts, for example, is a “Shibuya Toast” (named after Tokyo’s famous commercial/cultural district). A portion of a bread loaf is carved out and then stuffed with honeyed bread cubes and butter, with sweet toppings like fruit chunks, ice cream and whipped cream. The creation is what Sui calls “half wagashi and half yogashi,” where yogashi ingredients are used to make a new Japanese dessert.
Sui (R) with a wagashi maker
Nerikiri is often made to represent seasonal flowers
Fascinated with Japanese culture and sweets, Sui returned to Japan to study at Doshisha University in Kyoto. She joined a variety of workshops conducted by Kyoto artisans, including traditional Japanese cooking, paper making, and bow and arrow making. During this time, she had a chance to learn wagashi making - specifically, the nerikiri-style wagashi, which uses colored white bean paste to create shapes of seasonal flowers and plants.
*How the Cookbook Came to Be*
After graduation, Sui went to work in the food industry as a freelance commercial food stylist, helping clients prepare food for camera and collaborating with photographers and editors. During these busy days, her experience in Japan - and inspiration from it – kept tugging at her mind. Food and anime had been the gateways for her to studying Japanese and Japanese culture. Going back to the beginning, the idea of making a cookbook of desserts from Japanese anime was a logical thing to do for her.
Sui’s cookbook carries recipes of treats that are enjoyed by anime characters and their fans as well. They include taiyaki (fish-shaped pancake with sweet bean paste filling), dorayaki (pancake sandwich with sweet bean paste filling), warabi-mochi (starchy flower-based confection), anmitsu (a dessert bowl of sweet bean paste, rice flour dumplings, fruits and brown sugar syrup), mushroom-shaped chocolate snacks and street-style roast sweet potatoes.
She organized these recipes according to the venues where they can be found in popular anime, including:
Sui’s cookbook is full of Japanese goodies illustrated by Zosa
Matsuri (festivals) - This category includes festival foods that are popular at summer matsuri, local matsuri, and school festivals.
Konbini (convenience stores)
Pan-ya (bakeries)
Dagashi-ya (candy stores)
Ie-ni (at home) - This includes sweets that are often made at home, such as Valentine candies.
Issho-ni (to share) – This includes desserts that are often shared with friends and loved ones.
One of the “food tropes in anime” Sui wanted to include in her cookbook is the “Toast of Tardiness.”
Zosa’s illustration features a running girl with an “ogura toast” in her mouth
For many anime fans, an image of a high school girl running out of the door with a slice of toast in her mouth is a familiar one and is shared lovingly. The girl, being late for school, doesn’t have time to sit at the breakfast table. She grabs a piece of toast, puts it in her mouth, and starts running. When she turns around a corner, she bumps right into a boy, with whom she later falls in love. The toast in Sui’s cookbook is an “ogura toast,” a toast with sweet red bean paste. The cute illustration by Zosa is a comical complement to the recipe.
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Illustrator/designer Monique Narboneta Zosa has a 10-year experience in the publishing industry.
Zosa first got involved in Sui’s cookbook project as a designer. Her boss was looking for an illustrator whose style would fit “anime aesthetic.” Initially, the team reached out to Japanese artists. But because of the language barrier, their search turned more international.
Zosa was looking at the script of the book, when she began sketching images to go with it – cakes, buns, cute bunnies and even a running girl with a toast in her mouth. She showed the sketches to her boss, who then asked her to serve as the illustrator. It was exciting. “I just wanted to try,” Zosa said.
Sketches for Oishisou!! by Zosa
Zosa uses iPad for her work, as well as paper and pen. On iPad, she uses software such as Illustrator and Photoshop, where she can try and change different colors and sizes for her renderings. The initial sketching is very important to how the final image turns out. “[When I’m working,] I’m always thinking about the output, which is always in print,” she said.
Zosa currently lives in Tokyo with her husband.
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Sakura-mochi, or cherry blossom sweet rice cake, is a traditional springtime dessert that’s been loved by Japanese for generations. It’s made in two different styles: the Kansai-style “domyoji” and the Kanto-style “chomeiji.” Sui demonstrated how to make sakura-mochi per the domyoji style, taken from her cookbook.
How to Make Sakura-mochi
(Originally published in Oishisou!! The Ultimate Anime Dessert Cookbook by Hadley Sui, published by Insight Editions, ©2022 Insight Editions)
Sakura-mochi is a spring wagashi
Ingredients (for 6 pieces):
● ¾ cup glutinous rice, soaked overnight
● ¾ cup water
● 1 tablespoon sugar
● 3 tablespoons anko (red bean paste), chilled
● 2 drops pink gel food coloring
● Pickled sakura blossoms (sometimes sold as sakura tea)
Instructions:
1. Soak the pickled sakura blossoms in cool water for 15 minutes to remove excess salt.
2. Roll red bean paste into 6 balls of equal sizes and refrigerate.
3. Place the rice, water, and the pink gel food coloring in a medium microwavable bowl. Cover with a layer of plastic wrap.
4. Microwave for 6 minutes, mixing with a rubber spatula halfway through so that the mixture doesn’t harden on the sides.
5. Remove from microwave and mix vigorously, so that the rice begins to mash together and the color is evenly distributed. Do no mash the rice completely – some rice chunk definition is fine. Divide the rice mixture into 6 equal balls.
6. In a piece of plastic wrap in the palm of your hand, place a ball of rice and flatten it. Place the red bean paste ball inside and use the plastic wrap to mold the rice around it.
7. Delicately garnish each ball with sakura blossoms, patting the flower down so that it sticks to the rice.
8. Chill for 10 minutes before serving.
Sui demonstrates how to make Sakura-mochi