Sweet Things and Beverages

Fresh fruit in season is good at the end of a Japanese meal, though certainly not essential. The Japanese do not eat dessert in the Western sense of the word, and their sweets are more likely to be served as mid-afternoon snacks. Here is a small selection of the sweet things I find the most appealing. Serve them, if you like, at the end of an otherwise Western meal or for tea, or for your own version of a Japanese meal.

Traditional Japanese tea cakes filled with bean paste are time-consuming and difficult to make, and since they quite frankly remain unappreciated by most Westerners I have decided not to include them. Such cakes are best enjoyed as part of the Tea Ceremony, since the bitter, frothy, vividly green tea is a perfect complement to them.