Although rice is the staple food of Japan, eaten with almost every meal, the Japanese are no slouches when it comes to bread. Called pan in Japanese (from the Portuguese), Japan’s bread culture is quite interesting. Of course the “basic” type of bread is the normal sliced variety, called shoku-pan or “eating bread,” and I love how you have the option of buying a loaf with eight, six or four slices, depending on how thick you want your sandwiches or French toast to be. (Hope you like white bread, however, as other varieties are hard to come by.) Often what the Japanese call “bread” would qualify as a doughnut to Westerners, such as the famous Anpan, round bread with different types of sweet beans inside, or Melon Pan, essentially a large piece of sweetened bread that looks like a honeydew melon cut in half — or like a brain. One of my favorite types of Japanese pan is Curry Pan, fried bread with spicy curry inside, which is a great snack when you’re hungry between meals. The other day I went into a bakery and saw what I consider to be the pinnacle of food culture in the world: fresh-baked “Bacon Cheese France” which is French bread with bacon and Camembert cheese baked right inside it — oishii!
French bread with bacon baked inside? Back up the truck.
