Parfaits are attractive for their colorful appearance and layered presentation, but one lover of alcoholic beverages thought it wasn't right that only people with a sweet tooth should enjoy the treat. He has come up with a new variety of parfait called "shoppafe" (salty parfait) in which foods that can go well with alcohol are arranged in a glass.
This treat is the brainchild of izakaya pub writer Paricco, who looks to take the sense of excitement of parfaits and bring it to drinking situations. You can enjoy shoppafe year-round by making various arrangements using different ingredients. Cooking expert Go Igarashi made some samples of the treat for The Yomiuri Shimbun.
"If you use colorful ingredients and can make beautiful layers, it looks like a real parfait," Igarashi said. "The key is to use something white as a substitute for fresh cream."
First, Igarashi arranged different ingredients in three glasses of the same design.
In the first one, cut vegetables were topped with salted yogurt, with slices of roast beef placed on top like the petals of a flower. The second one used various meats, such as steamed chicken breast, beef jerky and a scoop of corned beef that looked just like ice cream. The third one had yakisoba fried noodles at the bottom so that it can be eaten as you finish off your drinks. A piece of saketoba salmon jerky was inserted on top as a substitute for a straw.
I tried them and found that they all had strong salty flavors, enough to make you feel like having another drink. With various ingredients used in one glass, you can enjoy the changes in flavors and textures as you have more bites of a salty parfait.
"The Instagrammable layers of ingredients can lose their form as time passes," Igarashi said, "so you should take photos right away."
Next, Igarashi used a deep, wide glass to serve a "curry shoppafe," which featured a vivid layer of pink and white in the middle with Caesar salad dressing and mentaiko spicy cod roe. The curry served on the surface looked somewhat like chocolate.
Finally, Igarashi shared a recipe for shoppafe using ingredients that are low in carbohydrates.
Coarsely chop a cucumber and cut several cherry tomatoes in half. Place them in a bowl and dress with shirodashi noodle soup (which is similar to mentsuyu but has a lighter color). Open one package of natto and pour the attached sauce over it without mixing. Scramble an egg, add mayonnaise and mix. It's all right to microwave a beaten egg then break it up if you prefer.
Then place the following ingredients in the glass in this order: chanja Korean salted cod innards, oboro-dofu (tofu that has not fully solidified), natto, cucumber and cherry tomatoes. Top with karaage fried chicken, the scrambled egg and kimchi. Garnish with chopped green onion.
Shoppafe can be easy to make, even for those who do not usually cook.
"It's fun just to think about which ingredients to combine," Igarashi said. "You can use your own creative ideas to make various versions."
"Vegetable parfaits," meanwhile, have been introduced on the website of Kenko Mayonnaise Co. as a new presentation style for salads.
Shown online are recipes for three vegetable parfaits. The first one features Caesar salad, while the second is based on poke, a Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. The third is a Nicoise-style salad, which uses potatoes and olives, among other ingredients.
"With all these parfaits, you can consume one-third of the [government-recommended] daily intake of vegetables," said an official of the Kobe-based company. "They can cover three aspects [of the current food trends]: health consciousness, being Instagrammable and the parfait boom. And they also can be a nice treat to finish off your drinking."
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