Otokomae Tofu Mushi Pan 男前豆腐店蒸しパン is really good! If you are in Japan and into mushi pan and/or Japanese convenience store junk food, this is worth looking for.

Otokomae Tofu Mushi Pan Steamed Bread - Package

Otokomae Tofu Mushi Pan Steamed Bread

Otokomae Tofu Mushi Pan Steamed Bread - detail

How Did Otokomae Tofu Mushi Pan Taste?
While the Otokomae Tofu cream bread was good it didn’t really wow me, this one has some wow factor to it! Some tofu is a bit crumbly and mochi pan is sticky and gooey. I was amazed that this mochi pan was both soft and moist and a bit crumbly!

It has a slight fruity fragrance that I imagine is supposed to simulate the fresh fruitiness of Otokomae Tofu, yet I suspect that it is neither natural or the fragrance of soybeans. Nice detail though.

The texture is more silky than ‘bready’, that keeps it on the tofu concept. While chewing it becomes creamy, just like tofu.

The taste is also similar to the texture, while it feels more ‘bready’ than tofu, the taste is very much of tofu. If you took a bite of this mushi pan, not knowing what it is, you would likely think ‘tofu’!

Tastes great and seems that it must have been very difficult to get the ‘tofu effect’ in steamed bread. I imagine the Pasco product development laboratory staff gave themselves a collective pat on the back when they pull this one off.

Otokomae Tofu Mushi Pan Steamed Bread - detail

Availability
According to Otokomaedofu’s blog this product will be available until February 28, 2010 in supermarkets and convenience stores in the Kanto, Chubu and Kansai regions (roughly the area between Tokyo and Osaka). Their tofu can be found in the tofu sections of most supermarkets.

From the Company Profile Page on Website - 'DonDondoko' is the Boss

Mothers Don’t Let Your Babies Grow-up to Work at Otokomae Tofu!
Though they make crazy great tofu, this is one odd company. In Japan, this is a company from the very wrong side of the tracks and one that is not really even plausible in old Kyoto. Despite the wacky corporate identity and website, this is a company to be reckoned with. Not just because it makes amazing tofu, but because just three years after the company opened for business the boss (shown above) was giving demonstrations abroad and actually shipping tofu to the US! (See this 2007 Japan Times article for details.)

According to commenter Akiko, the company profile above is fiction.

Links
Otokomae Tofuten Corporate Website (Japanese only)
Otokomae Tofuten on Facebook (in English)
Pasco Shikishima Baking Company (Japanese)

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In Japan, kuri-mu pan, or cream bread is ubiquitous and countless variations abound. This is a baked bread bun that is filled with custard cream and it is often flavored with something, coffee, fruit, maccha and so on. While I don’t recall having tofu flavored cream pan, I am sure it is not unheard of. This product is actually a korabo between Otokomae Tofuten and Pasco, a mass producer of bread in Japan.

Otokomae Tofu: Good Tofu is Creamy Tofu
The more soybeans that are used in tofu the creamier in texture and fruitier in fragrance and taste it becomes and Otokomae Tofuten uses lots of quality soybeans. While doing the research for this article, I realized that I need to interview Otomomae Tofuten and do a proper article about the company and their brand of excellent tofu.

On all of the Otokomae Tofu products the ‘男’ (otoko) character is featured prominently. This is the Chinese character that means man. Otokomae (男前) means handsome.

Otokomaedofu has an Un-Kyoto Brand Identity - 男 (otoko) means 'Man'

Otokomaedofu Cream Pan and Otokomaedofu Tofu and Package

Otokomaedofu Cream Pan

Otokomaedofu Cream Pan - Tofu Cream Custard Filling

How Did Otokomae Tofu Cream Pan Sweet Bread Taste?
I thought that this kuri-mu pan tasted very good. I have never been really excited about Japanese kuri-mu pan but I do pick this one up a few times a week. I especially like the tofu cream filling, it is very thick, a bit beyond creamy, approaching chilled cream cheese in consistency.

The bread bun is typical Japanese mediocre bread. It is soft, yet firm and rather chewy. The thick tofu cream filling is pure white in color as opposed to the usual off-white of kuri-mu pan fillings. Otokomae tofu is the heaviest, densest and most fragrant tofu that I have had, including compared to the legendary Morika Tofu in Kyoto. The filling is surely meant to evoke that density and definitely has the Otokomae tofu taste and fragrance.

When eaten the tastes of bread, cream and tofu meld together into a taste and feeling that was unique among kuri-mu pan for me.

As I eat (and enjoy) this, I find myself wondering if this is really Otokomae tofu I am tasting or a chemical approximation of what kuri-mu pan would taste like if it really were made with Otokomae tofu. But hey, this is junk food!

Availability
According to Otokomaedofu’s blog this product will be available until February 28, 2010 in supermarkets and convenience stores in the Kanto, Chubu and Kansai regions (roughly the area between Tokyo and Osaka). Their tofu can be found in the tofu sections of most supermarkets.

From the Company Profile Page on Website - 'DonDondoko' is the Boss

Mothers Don’t Let Your Babies Grow-up to Work at Otokomaedofu!
Though they make crazy great tofu, this is one odd company. In Japan, this is a company from the very wrong side of the tracks and one that is not really even plausible in old Kyoto. Despite the wacky corporate identity and website, this is a company to be reckoned with. Not just because it makes amazing tofu, but because just three years after the company opened for business the boss (shown above) was giving demonstrations abroad and actually shipping tofu to the US! (See this 2007 Japan Times article for details.)

According to commenter Akiko, the company profile above is fiction.

Links
Otokomae Tofuten Corporate Website (Japanese only)
Otokomae Tofuten on Facebook (in English)
Pasco Shikishima Baking Company (Japanese)

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Classic Japanese Candy: Sweet Potato Caramel さつまいもキャラメル

This unique caramel is made by the same Kyushu based company that makes bontan ame, another meibutsu (meisan) product. It indeed has a ‘caramely’ taste but is not as sticky and chewy as Western caramel. It still has a tiny hint of the granular stringiness of sweet potatoes. As bontan ame, it is not that sweet, probably about the right sweetness to satisfy a sweet tooth but not enough to affect the waistline.

This soft candy, like bontan ame is wrapped in the edible cellophane called oblaat that came to Japan with Western medicine at the beginning of the Meiji era. The oblaat immediately melts on contact with the tongue.

The ingredients are; mizuame (lit. ‘water candy’, a traditional sweetener), satsuma imo sweet potato, butter, sugar and condensed milk. Sweet potato makes up about 1/3 of the volume of each soft candy.

This, like bontan ame is very fascinating to me because it is made with Japanese ingredients and to Japanese tastes, but it was very obviously inspired by Western candy. In the Taisho era (1912-1926) Japan was heavily influenced and inspired by the West but was still distinctly Japanese. Much of the art, design, fashion and products of this era are very interesting to Westerners because they are modern, but not quite exotic. There is a connection to us but also there is something unique that we could not have come up with. I think that this era was Japan’s modern ‘Golden Age’.

Nostalgic Package Design

Sweet Potato Caramel with Oblaat Wrapping

Satsuma Imo (Sweet Potato)


Sweet Potatoes in Japanese Culinary Culture
Sweet potatoes are more ubiquitous in Japan than you might imagined. They are used in all sorts of dishes, especially confections. Sweet potatoes came to Japan from South America through Southeast Asia, China and the Ryukyu Kingdom, present-day Okinawa and landed in Kyushu about 300 years ago.

Production of satsuma imo soon flourished on the southern tip of Japan (called Satsuma then) because of the volcanic soil and hot climate. Kyushu’s famed imo-jochu, the shochu distilled alcohol of the region, is made from these same sweet potatoes. Farther north in Japan wheat and rice is used.

Production of sweet potatoes was limited to the Satsuma region for some time until a horrible famine swept Japan. The people in present-day Kagoshima and Nagasaki prefectures fared significantly better than other areas because they had an abundant supply of rich and hardy sweet potatoes. After the famine, satsuma imo production was promoted by the Tokugawa Shogunate in Tokyo and quickly spread throughout the country.

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Classic Japanese Candy: Bontan Ame – Mochi and Pectin Soft Candy ボンタンアメ

At a little old store in Kyoto, I found this HUGE box of bontan ame and had to get it. I have never seen a candy box so large in Japan. “Now this is some American-style SUPER SIZED bontan ame!”, I thought, when I spotted it. It is equal to about 5 boxes of the regular sized bontan ame.

The package design of bontan ame is a classic and harkens back to the era when Japan was modernizing based on Western influence and technology but was still distinctly Japanese, unlike the Japan of today that too often apes whatever is popular in the West. This era, about 80 years ago is one of my favorite eras of Japanese history, the other being the Warring States period.

Bontan Ame Candy and Nostalgic Package

About Bontan Ame
This candy (ame) is made from the bontan, also buntan (ぼんたん、文旦) fruit. This fruit is similar to a grapefruit but larger. Large specimens are the size of a volleyball. This fruit came to Japan from Southeast Asia so it grows in the southern-most island of Kyushu where the climate is most suitable.

Bontan ame was has been made by a company in Kagoshima City, Kyushu since 1926. It is said to be inspired by caramel. It is made of mochi, gyuhi, mizuame (traditional sweetener) and the bontan fruit juice.

Interestingly, each piece of candy is individually wrapped and is eaten with the wrapper on. The wrapper is made of oblaat which is gelatinous, transparent film that melts immediately on contact with the tongue. Oblaat originally came to Japan with Dutch medicine, it was used to wrap up bitter medicine in a package like modern-day gelatin capsules. In bontan ame it is utilized to prevent the sticky mochi-based ame pieces from sticking to one another.

How Does Bontan Ame Taste?
The first thing you notice about bontan ame is the oblaat, the odd crunch on your teeth from what seems like crisp cellophane. This lasts for only the first bite as it melts away in an instant.

If you didn’t know that bontan ame were made with citrus, you might not realize it when taste it as the taste is not heavy on citrus. It is certainly not sour or bitter like lemon or grapefruit. I suspect that the citrus aspect of bontan ame has been purposely mellowed, even more so than the fruit itself.

To me bontan ame is all about the texture. As it is made with gyuhi mochi and citrus pectin so it is of course very soft and chewy.

Like most Japanese sweets, the taste itself is not particularly sweet. Not just citrus, not just mochi, not just mizuame; it is a taste of what Japan created after initial exposure to Western technology and culinary culture. There isn’t really anything like it being developed by ‘junk food’ companies in Japan today.

If you come to Japan and you want to try to find some bontan ame, it is available in most grocery stores and some convenience stores. Look for the distinctive package.

Bontan Ame Candy and Nostalgic Package

Bontan Ame Soft Candies with Edible Oblaat Wrapping

Bontan Ame – Early Modern Japanese Package Design

Bontan Ame – Early Modern Japanese Package Design

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Mochi Mochi ‘Mushi Pan’ Steamed Bread もちもち蒸しパン

I first became acquainted with steamed bread in Western China. In China the steamed bread that I have had was usually filled with minced meat, spices and vegetables. In Japan, steamed bread, called mushi pan, is something that I have heard a lot of Japanese friends profess their love for, but I was never really into it. I am a REAL bread aficionado. I am really into all the Kyoto and Japanese cuisine you see on KyotoFoodie, but there is just nothing better to me than good bread and good butter. And where I come from, bread isn’t steamed.

Being steamed does create a very interestingly textured bread. It is quite heavy and wet. But mushi pan is usually sweetened with beans. I am not into that.

Then I met Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan, and I am a steamed bread fan!

Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan – Junk Food Package

How Does Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan Taste?
’Mochi mochi’ refers to the Japanese mochi rice cake made from sticky glutinous rice. Mochi mochi is a playful, onomatopoeic adjective that illustrates the heft and stickiness of this bread. This product is intended to be the meeting of steamed bread and mochi, and this sort of texture appeals very much to Japanese.

The taste is not very ‘bready’, it reminds me a bit of pancakes,  though too soft to be just a thick square pancake on the convenience store shelf. It really is something unique.

The bread is said to be milk caramel flavored. I picked up the caramel well, not too sweet though. But I didn’t get any milk flavor.

The top of the bread is pleasantly golden brown so it is not only steamed. At the end it must be exposed to direct heat from a flame or broiler. While taking a bite the aroma of grilled pancake and caramel is obvious, but not overdone.

The texture, the look and feel, the aroma, the flavor, everything is so perfectly done that this could only have been created in a laboratory. Alas, it is certainly junk food. But what junk food!

Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan is for sale in many of the convenience stores (Lawson and 99 Shop) and supermarkets in my neighborhood. It costs between 100 and 120 yen, depending on the store.

Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan – Served

Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan

Mochi Mochi Mushi Pan – detail

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Hello Foodies!

Thanks to all of you that took part in the Classic and Summer Theme Japanese Junk Food Presents! Subscribe to KyotoFoodie dealie and subscribed to KyotoFoodie!

We really appreciate your interest in KyotoFoodie!

We have two winners: Rachel and Julie. They will each be receiving a package with the fine Japanese junk food shown below!

Winners

Rachel
Coconut & Lime

Julie Sumiki
(no blog)

Classic and Summer Japanese Junk Food for the Winners

Again, thank you everyone!

P & P

Happy Birthday KyotoFoodie!

KyotoFoodie is now one year old and we are throwing a party with presents of Japanese ‘classic’ and ‘summer’ junk food!

Oh how time flies when you are blogging foodie. KyotoFoodie is now a yearling!

Continuing on the theme of our Win Fine Junk Food Help Improve KyotoFoodie Survey, we are going to give some Japanese junk food prizes to readers that subscribe to KyotoFoodie via email.

What should you do? Just go to that ‘Subscribe’ box at the top of the right column of the site and sign up. Be sure to confirm your subscription via the link sent to your email.

After 1 month we will randomly choose several subscribers to receive a present (see below). Winners will be contacted via email.

The Present — Classic and Summer Theme Junk Food

Japanese ‘Summer’ Junk Food

It looks like the theme is watermelon this year. Watermelon and salt KitKat, now that IS funky!!

Summer Theme Junk Food – Watermelon and Salt KitKat!

The package says to serve this KitKat chilled.

Summer Theme Junk Food – Watermelon and Salt KitKat!

Notice the salt shaker on the lower right.

Summer Theme Junk Food – Watermelon Gummy

This gummy comes in regular and sour watermelon flavors!

Japanese ‘Classical’ Junk Food

Bontan Ame (ぼんたん飴) – An Unusual Japanese Fruit

Bontan Ame Package

Bontan Ame Candy

About Bontan Ame
This candy (ame) is made from the bontan, also buntan (ぼんたん、文旦) fruit. This fruit is similar to a grapefruit but larger. Large specimens are the size of a volleyball. This fruit came to Japan from Southeast Asia so it grows in the southern-most island of Kyushu where the climate is most suitable.

Bontan ame was has been made by a company in Kagoshima City, Kyushu since 1926. It is said to be inspired by caramel. It is made of mochi, gyuhi, mizuame (traditional sweetener) and the bontan fruit juice.

Interestingly, each piece of candy is individually wrapped and is eaten with the wrapper on. The wrapper is made of oblaat which is gelatinous, transparent film that melts immediately on contact with the tongue. Oblaat originally came to Japan with Dutch medicine, it was used to wrap up bitter medicine in a package like modern-day gelatin capsules. In bontan ame it is utilized to prevent the sticky mochi-based ame pieces from sticking to one another.

Bontan ame is one of Paku’s favs.

Miyako Kombu (都こんぶ) – Kelp ‘Junk Food’

Classic Japanese Junk Food – Miyako Kombu

Miyako Kombu – Strips of Flavored Kelp

Miyako Kombu is a very rags-to-riches, entrepreneurial story. A poor, elementary school educated apprentice laborer from Kyoto at a kombu company in Osaka worked at a machine cutting kombu. The edges of the kelp leaf were cut off and could not be sold. He often chewed them while working, both to pass time and to combat hunger pains and he thought that with some flavoring added he could create a product like chewing gum. In 1931, when he was 19 he started out on his own and began selling flavored kombu.

Unlike imported chewing gum, the flavor of Miyako Kombu was well suited to Japanese tastes. Miyako Kombu uses fine kombu from Hokkaido and is flavored with vinegar, sugar and bonito extract. It is quite sour.

The package is small, a little larger than a package of chewing gum and the kombu comes in strips. It is easily transportable and can be kept in a pocket, briefcase, school bag etc. Miyako Kombu sold especially well at train stations and quickly became popular throughout the entire country.

In an economy where the life of a product in a convenience store is about 6 weeks, Miyako Kombu can still be found in any convenience store, supermarket or station kiosk in the country and in its original 1930′s package!

Hello everybody out there in FoodieLand and BloggieLand!

Hello from Peko and Paku at the ‘Gosho’ Imperial Palace

KyotoFoodie has been a lot of fun for us! We have enjoyed writing about the culinary culture of Kyoto and have learned a lot in the process. We have also made friends with some interesting people from all over the world and discovered some incredible foodie blogs and recipes!

Thanks so much everyone!

Judging from our stats, over the last months KyotoFoodie has become a big hit.

Our next step is to refine and fine-tune the site and to do this we REALLY need to hear our readers.

To help us understand how to make the site more interesting, useful and relevant to you, we are conducting a survey AND will award prizes for great feedback and ideas.

Please take this survey!

The survey is short, just 4 questions. Please tell us what you think!

Details:

• Survey ends May 16, 2008 at 11:59pm (Kyoto time).
• Several prizes consisting of ‘fine’ Japanese junk food will be awarded. The more great ideas, the more prizes!
• For ‘insanely great’ ideas, fine Japanese junk food AND something exquisitely ‘Kyoto’ will be awarded.
• The value of the prize will be about $20-25USD.
• Winners will have their prizes sent to them by post.
• The ‘fine’ Japanese junk food will be candy, chocolate and so on, nothing fresh. So it ought to be deliverable to your country. If it is not, our sincerest apologies.
• Multiple entries are permitted.
• Winners will be notified via email. We’ll ask for your mailing address then.
• If we announce the winners on the site, we will ask your permission first.