Melonpan
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| Alternative names | Melon pan, melon buns, melon bread |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Japan |
| Main ingredients | Dough, cookie dough |
Melonpan (メロンパン, meronpan), also known as Melon pan, Melon buns or Melon bread, are sweet bakery products from Japan, but also popular in Taiwan and China. They are made from an enriched dough covered in a thin layer of crisp cookie dough. Their appearance resembles a melon, such as a rock melon (cantaloupe). They are not traditionally melon flavored,[1] but in recent times it has become popular for manufacturers to add melon to melon bread. Variations exist, including some with a few chocolate chips between the cookie layer and the enriched dough layer, and non-melon versions flavored with caramel, maple syrup, chocolate, or other flavors, sometimes with syrup, whipped or flavored cream, or custard as a filling. In the case of such variations, the name may drop the word "melon" ("maple pan") or may keep it despite the lack of melon flavor ("chocolate melon pan").
The name has a bilingual etymology, since melon is a loan word from English, while pan[2] is from the Portuguese word for bread.
In parts of the Kinki, Chuugoku, and Shikoku regions a variation with a radiating line pattern is called "sunrise", and many residents of these regions call even the cross-hatched melon pan "sunrise".[3]
Melonpan and pineapple bun from Hong Kong are very similar. By comparison the Japanese style is lighter in weight and taste, slightly dryer and has a firmer outer layer (including top cookie crust) which resists flaking unlike its Hong Kong counterpart, which should be treated with care as the top cookie crust tends to flake easily. The Hong Kong version is also more moist and is generally soft on the outside and inside and has a stronger butter flavour.
In popular culture
- In the popular Japanese children's anime Soreike! Anpanman, Anpanman has a sidekick named Melonpanna who is a heroine with a melon bread bun for a head.
- The Japanese game show Hey! Spring of Trivia hands out an award labeled The Golden Brain to the most interesting piece of trivia presented. The award is a small brain figurine on a pedestal; doors on the trophy open out to reveal melon bread that accompanies the prize.
- In the Japanese manga and anime Yakitate!! Japan, newcomers to the bread chain Pantasia participate in a melonpan competition. It is explained that melonpan has a flaw: the cookie dough and the bread bake at different rates, and because of this the cookie dough covering is almost always underbaked so that the bread inside will not burn.
- In Treasure's video game Gunstar Heroes and its sequel, Gunstar Super Heroes, one of the bosses is inexplicably named "Melon Bread" despite appearing as a giant, disembodied face.
See also
References
- ^ Kazuko, Emi: Japanese Food and Cooking
- ^ See Infoseek Japanese-English dictionary for pan/パン and Japanese words of Portuguese origin
- ^ "Melon Pan"/"Sunrise" dialect survey map from Nikkei
External links
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