Walking Nara’s Backstreets
A Sweet Break at Dessert Shop Karamell
After wandering through the backstreets a while longer, it was time for a snack. For our afternoon sweets break, we headed to Dessert Shop Karamell.
As the name suggests, this is a dessert shop. It’s apparently run by a husband-and-wife team of pastry chefs.
No wonder—the owner pastry chef, Shinsuke Muraoka, previously served as head of the pastry departments at the RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka and ANA Crowne Plaza Kobe (formerly the Shin-Kobe Oriental Hotel), and was also in charge of pastry studies at Hyogo College of Nutrition. Together with his wife Mitsuyo, who is also a pastry chef, he chose a quiet spot in Nara and opened this café so the two of them could take things at a gentler pace. Dessert Shop Karamell | Gourmet | IzaiZa Nara | JR Tokai
One thing to note: ordering only coffee is not allowed, and although each plate comes piled with several desserts, each person is required to order one item.
After much indecision among all the cakes, I chose the Engadiner. It’s a traditional Swiss pastry: a caramel and walnut tart topped with orange cream and chiboust cream.
If I say it’s the pastry that served as the basis for Kamakura Beniya’s Kurumikko, that might give you a rough idea of the flavor. The deer was so cute!! And it was delicious too…
The chocolate gelato I had with it was also incredibly good, and I was completely satisfied. I did start to worry whether I’d still be able to eat dinner, though (lol).
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