Coffee Jigglers

Saiki K.’s coffee jelly habit is now my own.

Hi, anime friends! It’s Elyse here, with my third cooking-from-anime newsletter. Itadakimasu!

What I watched: 斉木楠雄のΨ難 (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.)

Kusuo Saiki is not your average high school kid in anime. He wishes he were an outcast, instead of constantly attracting people who seem to really care about him. He’s trapped with two adoring parents in a loving relationship. And he has...two little pink antennas poking out of his pink hair that prevent his psychic powers from destroying everything in sight.  

Comedy ensues! I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard watching an anime since I binged ワンパンマン (One-Punch Man). You get everything from Saiki’s perspective, like in most anime, but it’s not the typical touchy-feely thoughts that flood a teen’s mind, rather sharp, funny commentary from a smart kid who can’t escape dumb situations. I realize the way I described him makes him sound insufferable, but think of him as your witty coworker who sends you secret Slacks during a particularly boring or chaotic company-wide meeting (we all have one). They pump out quick little quips in response to the ridiculousness unfolding around you, and you gobble them up as fast as you can, eagerly waiting for the next one. You feel a rush being in on the joke. That is what watching 斉木楠雄のΨ難 feels like. 

This anime is less of one big grand adventure and more of a slow roll through someone’s life. Each episode in these three seasons is pretty self-contained, so I treat this anime as less of something to inhale all at once and more like something to snack on every so often. Speaking of snacks…

What I cooked: Coffee jelly 

“Were you eating...coffee jelly...” my coworker asked me over Slack after our Zoom call (azns KNOW). Oops. Usually I turn off video when I’m eating—isn’t that the internet version of covering your mouth?—but I was too excited to dig into my wobbly mountain of pure caffeine to remember. Rude! To add insult to injury, I was actually a few minutes late to this meeting because I had been carefully sculpting my afternoon pick-me-up, initially trying to mimic Saiki’s simplistic version but eventually giving into being extra. 

For everyone who has watched this anime, I think we can all agree that the only thing Saiki loves in this world is coffee jelly, a perfect dome of coffee in Jell-O form. Coffee jelly doesn’t pester him to get ramen, grovel at his feet for access to his powers to undo a dumb thing, or attempt to seduce him. Well, actually, maybe it does do that last one. Everyone always seems to be chasing Saiki and he barely reciprocates. The only thing he proactively pursues, aside from saving the world on occasion, is coffee jelly, whether it’s a stash of pre-packaged cups pillaged from a konbini or a pristine puck of it, crowned with a snowcap of whipped cream and served in a glass coupe, at a cafe. It gives him, a true curmudgeon, such joy. 

I made this straight-forward Taste recipe from assistant editor Tatiana Bautista...twice. The first time I was an idiot and used gelatin, in lieu of the agar, but forgot to bloom it so the jelly never set. The second time, after a speedy delivery of agar-agar, all went according to plan. I boiled the water with the agar, then stirred in instant coffee and sugar and lowered to a simmer. After a few minutes, once all the ingredients melded together, I poured the mixture into a square baking pan and bid goodnight to my sweet little jelly as I placed it in the fridge to set. 

The next day, I decided that ten minutes before my aforementioned meeting would be a great time to contemplate how I wanted to put together my dessert. Would I follow Tatiana’s recipe, which calls for chopping up the jelly into cubes and drowning them with a condensed-milk-and-heavy-cream syrup? Or would I stick to Saiki’s less-fussy method, with just a hunk of coffee jelly and perhaps a dollop of whipped cream? I chose both. I tried but failed to encourage my husband to help me whip some heavy cream into snowy peaks. Four minutes of furious whisking later, I had the whipped cream ready and stirred together Tatiana’s two-ingredient syrup. I cut the jelly into jiggly squares and plopped them into a clear glass cup, drizzling them with the syrup and topping them with a forceful dollop of whipped cream. 

I happily ate it during the Zoom meeting, not trying to hide it—or my pleasure in slurping up each sugary square. I did mute myself though. I’m not a monster.