Dining Dreams

Food porn. Now you know what Japanese salary men really lust after. From the old guy in Samurai Gourmet and his dining adventures, to the Solitary Gourmet who hunts down quaint eateries in between his sales calls, and now the latest, Kantaro: The Sweet Tooth Salaryman, food TV is getting more explicit by the day - and we love it.

So much so that we will put up with the cheesy storylines, Kantaro's immaculately drawn eyebrows and the cringe-worthy fantasy scenes where his (or someone else's) head is replaced by a musk melon, red bean or cube of kanten jelly, just to watch him dig into elaborate traditional Japanese desserts filmed in vivid, detailed slow motion. Just fast-forward through his hammy food orgasms if they get on your nerves. The real joy in this series comes from the real-life sweet shops he goes to (take note of addresses while watching) and the history and detail of the desserts that will entertain and educate any food geek obsessed with Japanese cuisine.

When the sugar-high gets too much, switch over to Solitary Gourmet, which has six seasons worth of eating episodes where travelling salesman Inogashira-san wanders through the streets and always finds amazing and inexpensive eateries that serve everything from okonomiyaki with rice in Osaka to beef rice and deep fried sweetcorn in Tokyo. In general, all these food shows have boring storylines - but once you get through the foreplay, the climax is way worth it.