Karintō

Karintō 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, sausage-like cylinder. Although traditional karintō is coated with brown sugar, other variations now appear on the market, such as white sugar, sesame seeds, miso, or peanuts.

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.
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.
In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba season 3 episode 1, Tanjiro is offered to snack on karintō by the village chief, Tecchin.

History

Karintō's roots are unclear, with primary origination theories being either from around the Nara Period or being derived from a Portuguese 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.