コメダ珈琲店は最高の小麦で溢れていた

Gift: Chirimen Nuts from Shimogamo Saryo, Kyoto

This episode's guest gift came from Shimogamo Saryo, a venerable Kyoto restaurant established in 1856 near Shimogamo Shrine. Their chirimen nuts are a handmade confection: nuts, dried fruit, chirimen jako (tiny dried whitebait), and ground sansho pepper all bound together in a house-made candy glaze. The effect is a refined sweet-and-savory bite where the candy's sweetness and the sansho's brightness build on each other the longer you chew.

Tanabe, who normally dislikes both nuts and dried fruit, was won over immediately. "Nothing is hard — it's all soft. The dried fruit doesn't stick to your teeth. The chirimen jako and sansho make it so easy to eat," she said. Both hosts decided it pairs equally well with tea or with alcohol, and elevated it to official "Valentine's gift for your boss" status on the spot, also promising to bring it along the next time either of them is invited to guest on a special TV program.

Diet Over! A Liberation Breakfast at Komeda Kohi

The diet that has been a running thread on the show finally reached its finish line. After wrapping the final weigh-in VTR in Shinjuku at around 9 a.m., both hosts were starving — they had stopped eating the night before. Bikkuri Donkey briefly came up as a candidate, but was rejected because they wanted regular menu items rather than a morning set. Komeda Kohi (コメダ珈琲店), which serves its full menu from opening, was the obvious choice.

Anri ordered butter toast and egg salad toast; Tanabe ordered butter toast and ogura (sweet red bean) toast. They also got a six-piece Komechiki, Komeda's fried chicken. A small miscommunication followed: Anri ate three pieces assuming they were splitting them evenly, then said "the other three are yours," only to learn that Tanabe had been waiting the entire time because she assumed all six were hers. The glare Tanabe had shot when Anri tried to rush the additional order also turned out to be a silent protest — "How can you order extras when you haven't even offered me my Komechiki yet?"

The Quotable Moment: "Chicken Only Truly Begins When It's Fried"

Mid-Komechiki, Tanabe — fresh off two and a half months of nothing but steamed and boiled chicken — delivered her verdict: "After all, chicken should be fried. It only truly begins when fried. Frying locks the umami in; steaming lets it all escape. Boiling is the same. Pan-frying just tightens it too much." Karaage, tori-ten, fried chicken — she proclaimed the absolute supremacy of deep-frying across the entire category. Both hosts agreed this line would go down as the defining quote of the whole diet.

Chaotic Second Round, and a Mysterious 1 kg Drop

Still hungry after the main spread, they debated additional orders. Anri had been dreaming of Neapolitan pasta throughout the diet, but discovered Komeda's version comes on a plate with salad. "On this one day, the first day after the diet ends, I absolutely do not want to put salad in my stomach," she said, and let the dream die. She pivoted to gratin, but when Tanabe suggested pizza as a lighter option, Anri agreed and they split it. Tanabe, who had planned only to add a drink, somehow ended up with more toast as well; Anri added a soft-serve ice cream on top of everything. They then went to another shop and ate scones, completing what they called their "total blowout day" before resolving to go back to sensible eating the next morning.

The twist: Anri stepped on the scale the following day and was down 1 kg. A gym-focused acquaintance she had met during the diet explained that when the body is already moving in a fat-loss direction, it can keep dropping even right after the diet ends. Both hosts found this simultaneously baffling and entirely satisfying.

Listener Mail and Tanabe's Parasite Tendencies

Two listeners sent the same tip independently: Yamadaya Manju (山田屋まんじゅう), a long-established wagashi shop in Ehime, is selling a seasonal autumn manju called "Anri" — a chestnut manju made with white bean paste and chestnuts, on sale through the end of October and available online. Both hosts loved the theory that "an (あん, bean paste) + nori from kurinori (栗のり, chestnut paste) = Anri."

The Yamadaya connection has a personal backstory: Tanabe first encountered the manju when she visited friend Sakayori-san's home to celebrate the birth of Sakayori-san's child. Sakayori-san's mother served them as tea sweets, and Tanabe ate four or five pieces at a first meeting — which later earned her the comment, "Tanabe-san, don't you think you relax a little *too* much at other people's houses?"

That instinct runs deep. At both Anri's family home and Sakayori-san's family home, Tanabe immediately locates the massage chair and falls asleep. At Sakayori-san's, she was out cold before anyone had properly fussed over the newborn baby. At Anri's family New Year's gathering, while Anri and a friend were busy introducing the cats and explaining liquors, Tanabe had quietly moved to the center of the table and was already hosting the conversation among Anri's mother's friends.

Further revelations: Tanabe once put 1,000-yen roasted chestnuts from Asakusa at the bottom of her bag and placed Anri's designer wallet — worth several tens of thousands of yen — on top "to keep them safe." And at a private room in Imahan (今半), the storied Asakusa sukiyaki restaurant, when the attendant asked "Who shall I serve the first piece of meat to?", Anri's mother immediately answered "Tanabe-san." "My mother is a full-on Tanabe devotee," Anri said with a resigned laugh.

A final listener letter spotlighted the Cointreau Mocha at Takase Yogashiten (高瀬洋菓子店) in Ikebukuro — a coffee cream cake flavored with Cointreau. Anri, who first heard about the shop from Tanabe, calls it "Ikebukuro's happy spot" and says she always picks up bread there now.