Although rice is the famous 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 who introduced it, there are dozens of varieties available to sample. While the word “bread” likely calls up visions of a loaf of sliced bread, there other types which would look more like a doughnut to most gaijin, like the famous famous Anpan, round bread with different types of Japanese 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, which is why Japanese say eating it will make you smart. One of my favorite types of Japanese pan is Curry Pan, fried bread with spicy curry inside, yum. Why can’t someone make this outside of Japan?
“Curry pan” is bread with delicious curry inside.
