I live in Chiba prefecture and we have our own special confectioners called Orandaya – literally, Holland (the Netherlands) shop. They bake sweets and cakes inspired by the Dutch, and one of my students brought us their tulipe sable to share in class. Japan’s westernized sweets are strongly rooted in Western European styles, and thus sable – French shortbread, nice but largely quite basic butter biscuits – are quite popular. The “Tulipe” comes from the shape. While I won’t argue that these are stunningly original or unusual, they are nice enough and come on, a Japanese take on Dutch sweets? That in itself is a bit unusual!
Chocolates of Japan 