While it might be hard to believe, and I am not ashamed, some junk food in Japan really captivates me. This quasi-junk food, mochi mochi mushi pan, or steamed bread has got me. I haven’t been able to get over it for a year now so I thought that I ought to introduce it on KyotoFoodie. It is quite interesting stuff!
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
