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http://www.jaykun.com

The Melon Pan Journey - round 1

The Melon Pan. Undeniably one of my top 3 favorite things in the entire world. This bread is a very simple thing that can be found in various forms all over the world, but I fell in love with it in Japan. Anybody unfamiliar with this form of baked goodness can wiki it here (Melon Pan), but basically is just a sweet bread baked with an outer cookie crust to resemble a melon like structure with a rough exterior and a soft interior. I grew up eating countless of these things, and depending on where you buy it, they are always different from one bakery to the next. Traditionally they were just flavored with sugar, butter and maybe a hint of vanilla. But over the years bakers have become more creative to make it match better to its namesake, or to take it in a whole new direction and incorporate flavors like chocolate, strawberry and coffee just to name a few.

I realized that whenever I do see a new bakery or a new Melon Pan that I have not consumed before, regardless where I am, I will buy it out of curiosity and because I'm uncontrollably addicted to these things. I have probably consumed hundreds of these things by now, but I have realized that only a few handful have really blown my mind, albeit some have come really close to that perfection mark. So whenever I do buy a new Melon Pan, I am always filled with excitement and anticipation to eat it, to see if it will come close to that perfect bread I am in search of.

So now, I have decided, to document my journey and periodically inform you of some of my top Melon Pan discoveries, and here is my most recent top 5:




1. Melon Pan @ Kinokuniya Bakery, Mitaka Station (south gate), Tokyo
Score: 9/10

This was a huge surprise just because I pass this bakery almost everyday at my home station. It's a newer bakery that used to be a Starbucks, but turned into a bakery sometime last year I think. For some reason I was never motivated to try this place out, until my mom randomly brought one home for me during new years. This bad boy is an extremely simple Melon Pan with just a hint of melon flavor, but scored full marks on both taste and texture. Sometimes the best is the most simple things. Nothing too creative about this one but executed to almost perfection. As soon as I wolfed this one down, I went back and bought a bunch more.




2. Melon Pan w/ orange zest @ Pompadour Bakery, Mitaka Station, Tokyo
Score: 7.5/10



Another well known bakery chain, I knew this was gonna be pretty good as soon as I laid eyes on this one. Taste and texture let me down just slightly because the orange zest was a little too strong, and and texture was a little too dense for my liking, almost on the verge of being slightly doughy. But overall it was a real good Melon Pan with a different twist I haven't encountered before, so scores high on creativity. I would definitely try this one out again to see if it's gotten better.




3. Café Au Lait Melon Pan @ Blégrâce Bakery, Kichijyoji Station (Inokashira-line terminal), Tokyo
Score: 7.5/10

Total random discovery as I was waiting for the express line to go to Shibuya for the day. I followed my nose to fresh baked bread and found these guys. I usually don't like bakeries when they add too much flavorings into the crust because it becomes too sweet or too gimmicky, but I was quite wrong about this one. The crust was really light and crisp, and the coffee flavor wasn't too strong at all. The bread on the inside was also very light, and was filled with freshly whipped cream filling that wasn't sweet at all, which mimicked the milk added into a café au lait. I felt they were very successful at capturing the café au lait essence and still retain the Melon Pan structure.




4. Yuubari (Cantaloupe) Cream Melon Pan @ Sunkus convenience stores, Tokyo
Score: 7.0



For the most part, when you try a pre-packaged Melon Pan from anywhere, you don't want to get your hopes up too high. But this is one of the few exceptions where you can expect something quite good. I didn't expect much at all when I bought this sucker, but I was sold after one bite. The outer crust was softer and more velvety than the usual variety of Melon Pan, and the bread on the inside was just normal, nothing special. But they were spot on with the yuubari, or Japanese cantaloupe flavors infused into the bread. I'm not a big fan when they overstuff breads with too much cream/custard, but this just had a small thin layer in the center, and was more of a melon-custard.





5. Melon Pan @ Family Mart convenience stores, Tokyo
Score: 6/10

Another pre-packaged melon pan from the Family Mart chain of convenience stores. This is actually what the old school traditional Melon Pans look like, yellow, ugly and almost like a turtle shell. But I was drawn to this sad looking bread because the yellow squares reminded me of sticks of butter. And as I ate this bread, it really did have a lot of butter flavor, which I really liked. Nothing spectacular about this one, except it was a nice buttery well rounded Melon Pan. Very simple, but was not dry, was not too sweet. A solid 6.




Runner Up #1 - Lemon/Vanilla Melon Pan @ The Saint Germain Tendresse Bakery, Shibuya Station, Tokyo
Score: 4.5

This one was actually a huge letdown. I read the sign for it and the description said something about this being the baker's pride, infused with lemon and vanilla bean, all baked in a perfect crust. The only reason this one is here because the baker actually did a great job infusing lemon and vanilla flavors into the crust. You could actually see specks of black from the vanilla bean in the crust. But one bite and I knew this was a loser. Maybe it was just sitting out too long, I'm not sure, but the crust was way too hard and the inner bread was extremely dry.





Runner Up #2 - Chocolate Chip Melon Pan - by Pasco bakeries available at most supermarkets, Tokyo
Score: 4



For the most part, I wouldn't recommend buying any baked products by Pasco. I've tried some of their other baked goods, and they're all consistently just mediocre. But the chocolate chip part influenced me and I was just curious to try this. As soon as I opened this one I knew it wasn't a winner by far, but I still ate it because I love Melon Pan. Flavors were OK, a little too sweet/chocolatey for me. A little dry and the crust was almost mushy. But the one thing that I liked about it was it had a chocolate bread interior, which came as a surprise for me. Because it surprised me, I gave it the last runner up position. But no, I will not buy this one again.

"Raw" Caramels from Hokkaido

Imagine combining the texture of real butter and the flavors of rich homemade caramel. An instant melting sensation that flows outward from an epicenter of pure velvety awesomeness that is not too sweet and infused with plenty of that subtle burnt sugar flavors. Before you even realize it you're smiling because you just had a orgasm in your mouth and your eyes are threatening to roll back into your cerebrum doing reverse summersaults of joy. The euphoria makes your knees buckle and when you regain coherence you realize you've already unwrapped another and are about to repeat the process.

That's exactly what the Hanabatake Farms in Tokachi, Hokkaido have accomplished with these "raw", or nama caramels. They were so popular earlier in 2009, they would sell out in a flash and be impossible to find at any retailer. But I guess the boom has died down a little, allowing me to partake in this heavenly experience.

Because the Hanabatake Farms produce their own milk, I'm sure this experience can be credited to the freshness and the simplicity of the ingredients. Ingredients include: fresh heavy cream, fresh whole milk, liquid sugar (水飴), granular sugar, honey, butter and vanilla beans.





Hanabatake Farms - http://www.hanabatakebokujo.com/

EGG DECAPITATOR/HOLDER (from NOTCOT.com)

Just saw this on NOTCOT as I was doing some jetlagged browsing. A pretty ingenius German device to open eggs in a stylish way, seems especially great for soft boiled eggs for in-the-shell consumption.



image from NOTCOT

see full review and more pics here:
http://www.notcot.com/archives/2010/01/cregg_-_egg_dec.php

official website:
http://www.brainstream.de/cregg.html

New Year's Resolution??

OK, so being in Japan and gaining a good 20lbs in 1.5 weeks has inspired me to fire up this blog again. So for my 2010 NYResolution, I will regularly update this blog! We'll see how long this lasts... haha. Now what do I write about...

French Breakfast Radishes

Or also called summer radishes. Nice and spicy! Saw these at the farmers market and just thought they looked cool. Like albino alien fingers! Didn't really know what to do with them, so the farmer gave me an old french home comfort recipe. Something like a snack to whip up at home, kind of like an equivalent of a grilled cheese maybe? Sounds really boring... but it was actually quite yummy.

What you need:

Handful of radishes (sliced thinly)
French baguette
Unsalted butter
Crushed salt and pepper

Slather butter on both sides of the bread, pile the radish up high, and crush some pepper and sprinkle some salt on top and enjoy! The really thin radishes give a really good texture as you chew.





*I might want to try it with cream cheese instead of butter next time, and maybe adding some capers and some smoked lox. Or maybe brie and prosciutto...

Fennel and Halibut

Almost everyone at the farmers market had fennel this week, so I decided to try this ingredient out. I've never cooked with fennel before, although I've seen it numerous times on TV and such. I nibbled on the leaves to figure out the flavor, and I instantly thought of soup. So here's what I came up with.



Ingredients (serves about 4):

1 bulb large fennel
½ bulb large white onion (thinly sliced)
5-6 large shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
6-8 white mushrooms (sliced)

2 cups chicken stock
3 cups some other stock (I made a scallop/mushroom stock)

also: sea salt, fresh ground pepper, parsley, oregano, olive oil, garlic powder

Prepare the fennel:

Cut the fennel lengthwise, drizzle heavily with olive oil. Season sparingly with sea salt, black pepper and oregano. Bake at about 350º for about 30 minutes, keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn completely. Bake it enough so its soft and tender, but not overcooked so it still has a little bit of firmness on the outside. Remove it from heat and let it cool so you can cut it.

Cooking:

In a medium sized pot, sautee onions and mushrooms with the olive oil, seasoning with salt and pepper. After cooking these for a little bit, slice up the fennel like an onion and add to the mix. After a few more minutes, the salt should have pulled out a lot of the water, add the soup stocks. Let simmer for about 10 minutes, letting all the flavors mix and become harmonious. Take off heat, put the mix into a blender and pulse it briefly just to chop it up a little more and you can pour the soup directly into bowls from here. Finely chop up some parsley and sprinkle on top, and you're done.





To go with the soup, I decided to make one of my favorites, a halibut bake. This one is really easy.

Ingredients (1 serving):

fresh halibut
2-3 white mushrooms (sliced)
2-3 shiitake mushrooms (sliced)
1/4 pack of enoki mushrooms (sperated)
1/8 bulb white onion (thinly sliced)
fennel leaves

also: sea salt, black pepper, lemon slice, white wine, mayonnaise

Cooking:

On sizable sheet of foil, place the halibut in the middle. Season with salt and pepper, and turn up the sides of the foil to make something that will resemble a boat (think water tight, after baking there will be a lot of liquid). Throw the onions and mushrooms all around and on top the fish, season a little more with salt and pepper. Add about ½ tablespoon of mayo on top, splash with about a tablespoon of white wine, throw a small stalk of fennel leaf and the lemon slice on top. Close off the top of the foil boat, and bake at 350º for about 20 minutes. When you remove from the oven, if you hear the liquid sizzling/boiling, thats confirmation that it's done. Be careful because the liquid will be hot. Carefully open the foil (steam will be hot too), and you can eat directly. Bon appetit!



* A little fresh ground black pepper on top of the soup adds a nice finishing touch.
* For people who like acid, squeeze some extra lemon on top of the halibut right before eating.
* Complements to Jon who made a nice bruschetta as an appetizer.