Karintō

Karintō (かりとう,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.^[1][2] It has a deep brown and pitted appearance, and takes the form of a bite-sized pillow or short, sausage-like cylinder.^[1][2] Although traditional karintō is coated with brown sugar, other variations now appear on the market, such as white sugar, sesame seeds, miso, or peanuts.^[1]

Karintō

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

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. The English release changes this to fried dough cookies, as karintō is not a well known food in the West.

• In Gosick, Kujo gives karintō to Victorique, who comments that they look like dog feces.

• In Jin (TV series), karintō is infused with vitamins to treat a reluctant patient.

• In Lycoris Recoil, karintō are a staple food at the dorm.

• In Mirmo!, karinto is Yashichi’s favorite food.

• In Magical Emi episode 34, karintō are featured as a snack a character spends the entire episode trying to conquer his fear of.

History

Karintō's roots are unclear, with primary origination theories being either from around the Nara Period^[3] or being derived from a Portuguese snack in a later period^{[citation needed]}. In either case it has been available from street merchants since at least the Tenpō era,^[3] roughly from 1830 to 1841^{[citation needed]}.