I hope they throw salt over everything.

With a well preserved sense of decorum and pageantry, the traditional sport of sumo remains an essential symbol of Japanese culture. Now, it has combined with another staple of Japanese culture, the pop-up cafe.

From now until 26 November, the Sumo Collaboration Cafe will be up and running at Kawara Cafe & Dining Kitte in the Hakata Ward of Fukuoka. The main dish served at this cafe is fittingly chanko nabe, a hearty hotpot often eaten by the wrestlers at sumo training stables. The Chanko Set here is a mixture of chicken, vegetables, and wheat miso butter. It costs 1,680 yen (US$11) and comes with rice, miso soup, and salad. This recipe is recognized by the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament, so you know it’ll deliver on taste and quality.

For desert, the Tiramisu Sweets Set costs 1,580 yen ($10.50) and comes with a variety of fruits, ice cream and more. The highlight is the tiramisu which is served in a square masu cup and decorated to look like a sumo ring. Even better, it comes with a dish of salt that you can toss onto the ring to purify it, while enhancing the flavor and authentic sumo feel of it all.

There’s also a Pudding Parfait for 1,280 yen ($8.50), which is a parfait topped with a generous portion of purin-style pudding which is then topped with a scoop of ice cream to resemble a sumo wrestler right down to its little chonmage.

Drinks include four types of Sumo “Kawaii” Floats for 980 yen ($6.50). Each of the matcha milk, strawberry milk, blueberry milk, and mango milk drinks is topped with ice cream and a wafer with one of six sumo prints on it.

Customers will also receive a commemorative placemat and coaster to take home and there’s even a cardboard cut out of an ukiyo-e sumo wrestler for photo-ops.

The cafe is set up to coincide with the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament being held in Fukuoka from 12 to 26 November so it’d make for a great pre-match meal to get into the fighting spirit.

Cafe information
Sumo Collaboration Cafe
Venue: Kawara Cafe & Dining Kitte Hakata
Address: Fukuoka-ken, Fukuoka-shi, Hakata-ku, Hakataeki Chuomachi 9-1, Kitte Hakata 9F
福岡県福岡市博多区博多駅中央街9−1 KITTE博多9Ｆ
Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Source, images: PR Times
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