Traditional castella sponge cakes, introduced to Japan by Portuguese merchants circa 1550, are cut precisely into bite-sized pieces before they’re soaked in bright yellow egg yolks and boiled in a sugar water syrup. The impeccable-looking sweets are completed with a roll in sugar.
This teaser clip is from the first episode of Food Odyssey, a 2014 Korean documentary series that explores cultures through their foods in 20 different countries. Here they travel to Nagasaki, Japan to see the creation of casdoce (カスドース), also spelled casdose and kasudousu, a confection that was originally created for the Japanese feudal lord of Hirado in the 16th century, a time when eggs and sugar were rare. According to the documentary, no commoners were allowed to taste them.
Read more history at Hirado-Tsutaya, a famed maker of the dessert.
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