Karintō

Karintō (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 karintō is coated with brown sugar, recently other variations appear in the market, such as white sugar, sesame seeds, miso, or peanuts.

Karintō

Type	Snack food
Place of origin	Japan
Main ingredients	Flour, yeast, and brown sugar
Cookbook: Karintō   Media: Karintō

History

Karintō's roots are unclear, with primary origination theories being either China from around the Nara Period or being derived from a Portugal snack in a later period. In either case it has been available from street merchants since at least the Tenpō era, roughly from 1830 to 1841.