Monday, April 11, 2011

cacao sampaka

While I was waiting for Satoshi to finish his German class on Saturday, I went to check out the Cacao Sampaka cafe in Umeda.

It is their first cafe in the Kansai area.

I've tried their chocolates before and liked them, and I was interested to see what types of things they offered at their cafe.

I had heard that people in Spain dunk churros into their cups of hot chocolate, so that is what I ordered, the churros set....1100 yen (about US$11)

The set came with one plain and one cinnamon churro. It also came with a strawberry chocolate dipping sauce.

As part of the set, I could choose one of their two types of hot chocolate 70% or 80%, I went with the 70% called Catalan.

Big disappointment on the churro, it was crunchy and very, very oily. Are they supposed to be crunchy and chewy? I kind of imagined it should be more like a cake doughnut texture, soft on the inside with a little crunch to it on the outside.

So, I dunked my first bite of churro into my chocolate...blah! and after that ate it with the sauce. The sauce made it bearable, but everything seemed to sit heavy in my stomach afterwards...blah!

I really liked the hot chocolate by itself though, a little acidic, very rich and creamy.

Will have to go back to try something else, maybe their gelats (gelato)?? (gelats is Catalan for gelato)

Cacao Sampaka
Daimaru Umeda 7F
Phone: 06.6341.7470
Open 10:00-20:00

11 comments:

manju said...

Glad the hot chocolate saved the day... sounds uber-rich! The churros I've tried were more a fried sweet bread dough with the cinnamon sugar sprinkle all over -- basically a long doughnut. I don't think they should be crunchy though. Gelati always sounds like the right way to do!...

Avo said...

Chewy and crunchy sounds like the right description for churros, except they aren't supposed to be too oily... Like all fried pastry it's easy to get the balance between heat and cooking time wrong and to make something that winds up being a crunchy oil sponge... : p
At any rate they should never be cake-like within, they more akin to European beignets or Chinese youtiao...
The plural of gelato is gelati.

As always, it's a pleasure to read about your food adventures. : j

K and S said...

thank goodness the hot chocolate was spot-on Manju :)

thanks Alesa, I have a feeling they had these churros premade. I'll change the plural to gelati right now :)

Take care you two.
Kat

Japan Australia said...

Love Spanish Churros. Yes, they are meant to be crunchy and chewy, which is different from most regular donuts. They are always best when made fresh.

Japan Australia

Nami @ Just One Cookbook said...

Haha your couple "blah!" comments made me laugh... I'm sorry it wasn't good. haha. The cafe looks fancy....

Rowena said...

Never had churros but I know that I've got a recipe stashed somewhere... And gelati or gelato is correct since both refer to an object that you don't normally count as one item on its own (same for ice cream since we don't go someplace to try ice creams). If you wanted to try a specific type of gelato..say...gelato di fragole (strawberry gelato), then you go back for the gelato!

K and S said...

Thanks J-A.

Glad I made you laugh Nami :)

Thanks Rowena :) hope you make some churros soon.

Take care everyone.
Kat

K said...

That's so disapppointing! A good churro is delicious, but a bad one can be really annoying for sure!

K and S said...

at least the hot chocolate was good K :)

Take care.
Kat

Deb in Hawaii said...

Glad the hot chocolate was good. I would describe churros as more crispy fried than crunchy but I don't claim to be an expert. ;-)

K and S said...

Would've been bummed if both items were a "no" Deb in Hawaii :)

Take care.
Kat