Spend a day at an Anime Cafe! Part One of Four

The weather is nice, Summer is coming, and everyone is talking about what they will do with all their free time! Isn’t this the perfect time of year to spend a lazy day relaxing at an anime cafe? This after school, weekend, or date destination in anime isn’t just a location to pick up some quick and tasty snacks. Cafes in anime are often staffed by stylish and aloof guys or cute, maid uniform clad gals in shojo anime. Cafes are often the meeting spot for heated discussions or dramatic turning points in the story in josei anime. Even shonen anime will have at least one episode or reference to the quaint little eateries. Unfortunately, for those of us that don’t live in the anime version of Japan, these highly stylized coffee shops aren’t really an option to visit. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t create the same beloved treats that our favorite anime characters enjoy! So please join me for a four part series to taste some sweet cafe treats from anime!

Coffee Pudding – The Disastrous life of Saiki K

As a quick reminder, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K anime is about Saiki Kusuo, an all powerful psychic, but all he wants is a quiet life where he can enjoy fading into the background of his high school. Too bad the most unusual people keep popping into his life! Like a boy that can see ghosts, a magician that thinks Saiki is his mentor, or a school delinquent that thinks Saiki is his best bud (he’s not!). It takes all of Saiki’s super human powers just to find a little peace, and maybe a cup of coffee pudding or two.

It’s no exaggeration that Saiki Kusuo loves coffee pudding, in fact episode 6 focuses just on the challenges Saiki has when he tries to buy the biggest and best coffee pudding. If you’ve seen even a few episodes of this series it becomes quite clear that Saiki will do almost anything for his favorite jiggly dessert. Though Saiki seems to be able to find his pudding pretty easily in the anime, where I live in North America, coffee pudding is completely unheard of. In restaurants, cafes, diners, and grocery stores you have two options for pudding flavors: vanilla or chocolate. That’s it! But just because no one sells coffee pudding where you live doesn’t mean you can’t taste it. Making pudding by scratch is surprisingly quick and easy.

Coffee Pudding!

3 cups of your favorite coffee

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons Vanilla

Make the coffee as you would drink it, with cream and sugar ect. For best results do not use artificial dairy free products (creamer) or artificial sweeteners. These don’t react to heat well. You can use a variety of milks (such as cow’s milk, goat’s milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or soy milk) and natural sweeteners (such as table sugar, brown sugar, honey, agave, or maple syrup). Combine cornstarch and salt in a medium sized sauce pan. While off the heat, slowly add coffee cooled to room temperature to the sauce pan, whisking quickly to beat out all the lumps. Cook on medium heat whisking constantly until steaming and pudding is thickened slightly. It should be the thickness of a batter. You do not need to boil the pudding. Take the pudding off of the burner and stir to cool a little. Whisk in vanilla. Pour into bowls or small coffee mugs, cover with plastic wrap and press the plastic wrap onto surface of pudding (this prevents a skin from forming on top and it just looks nicer) and then cool in the fridge for 1-4 hours. Top with a swirl of whip cream and your favorite coffee toppings. Enjoy with your favorite episode of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K!