Japanese melon bread/melon cream puff

[MJP]

OK, I hope someone knows what I'm talking about, but either way, here goes.

My girlfriend and I go to Mitsuwa in Edgewater a lot. They used to have fresh melon bread at the bakery there. However, it's been almost a year since they seemed to stop carrying it. I faintly recall seeing on Food Network that there was a place that did Hokkaido-style cream puffs, and that's probably as good a place as any to start looking.

Does anyone know where this place is? Failing that, does anyone know a place in the city where we can get melon bread?

A brief explanation: melon bread is basically cake dough that's baked, then filled with custard that's flavored with melon extract. The whole shabang is coated with cookie dough and cooked until it's a little crunchy on the outside. It's totally delicious and part of Japanese pop cuisine that nobody really finds out about until you watch too much anime like me.

[raji]

There's a few Beard Papas around the city -

http://www.muginohousa.com/locations.html

and there's a few Japanese bakeries in Midtown, but if they don't have it at the Mitsuwa then I don't suppose they'd have it elsewhere...

I know what you're talking about, never have had it outside of Japan tho...

[MJP]

Do you know any names/locations of the Japanese bakeries? We'll be in the city to see the Daily Show taping on Thursday. They're on 10th/11th and West 54th, so the closer the better.

Jason Perlow just did a post on OTB about a Korean/Japanese cafe that does desserts and coffee, etc. in Fort Lee, which isn't too far. They have Beard Papa stuff there, so I'll give it a check.

This also may be a long, long, long shot, but do you know if any of those bakeries carry the Yakitate!! Japan breads and pastries that were licensed to the Lawson convenience stores in Japan? Yakipan is one of my all-time favorite animes and to eat the licensed stuff would be a massive coup. Failing that... know anyone who'll ship 'em from Japan? :-D

[larrylee]

MJP, have you gone down to Panya (Menupages) to ask? Or perhaps the counter at Cafe Zaiya?

10th/11th Aves near West 54th doesn't strike me as a hotbed of Japanese bakery activity. You're better off searching around the east village.

[MJP]

I stumbled across Panya just a few minutes ago. I need to firm up my Google-fu.

I'll report back on their offerings as soon as I can!

[raji]

メロンパンright? MELONPAN

Panya definiely, you can probably get it at Zaiya up in Midtown. There's a Japanese bakery on Madison above 42nd and also at Rockefeller center too...

They were probably just out of them that day at Mitsuwa! I think it's a fairly common item...

[MJP]

Trust me, Raji... Mitsuwa hasn't had them in at least nine months. ;-; They used to have the chocolate chip variety (meh) and the cream-filled one (ambrosia!) but they haven't had either. Weekends, weekdays, holidays, food fair days... you name it. They had 'em at the Hokkaido food fair the other weekend, but we were too late for the fresh-made ones that were being done esspecially for the food fair. They had imported ones, though, which were quite tasty... but not the same.

[larrylee]

Trust me, Raji... Mitsuwa hasn't had them in at least nine months.  ;-;  They used to have the chocolate chip variety (meh) and the cream-filled one (ambrosia!) but they haven't had either.

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Have you asked them the melonpan are no longer carried?

[dabestspooner]

Trust me, the yubari melon ones at the Hokkaido fair were ma ma, flavorwise they were good, but consistency was very mushy, and the crust was mushy even fresh from the oven. Zaiya has melon pan, so does panya.

[smgarsh]

as others have already stated, Cafe Zaiya (41st bet Mad. and 5th Ave) sells it. I saw the melon pan when I was there on Sunday.

[anpanman]

A brief explanation: melon bread is basically cake dough that's baked, then filled with custard that's flavored with melon extract.  The whole shabang is coated with cookie dough and cooked until it's a little crunchy on the outside.  It's totally delicious and part of Japanese pop cuisine that nobody really finds out about until you watch too much anime like me.

←

Your version of melonpan is a specialized variation the standard melonpan, which is not a filled pastry, but a slightly dense and chewy bread. Here's a wikipedia page on the melonpan (with a couple factual errors). The Japanese Wikipedia entryhas more information. According to this entry, the filled melonpan was introduced in Hiroshima.

For some pictorials on the melonpan, here is a melonpan blog. And here's another page with a pictorial of varieties of melonpan.

Nonetheless, the most likely place you'll find a yakitate melonpan is at Cafe Zaiya on 41st St and Madison. I doubt that you'll find a filled version of melonpan in NYC, unless you find a packaged version in the refrigerator section of a Japanese grocery.

[Pan]

If you have the time, it would be great if you could correct the factual errors in the Wikipedia article, so that it will be a better reference for those of us who are reading this thread.

[raji]

I happen to be meeting a friend at Cafe Zaiya tomorrow for lunch, and I'll settle this once and for all dammit!

[MJP]

Mitsuwa in NJ used to sell custard filled melon bread but then they inexplicably stopped. This stuff was delicious: melon bread filled with melon custard.

Panya down in the East village has melon bread but not the custard filled kind. Does anyone know any place in the city that has this delicious stuff?

[raji]

Someone else was asking, I picked up a MELONPAN at Zaiya today. I was going to take a picture but I'm tired and it pretty much looks like the picture I posted. It's also pretty much as anpanman describes it, "Your version of melonpan is a specialized variation the standard melonpan, which is not a filled pastry, but a slightly dense and chewy bread." There is a faint melon candy flavor to it, the same one you'll find in a lot of Japanese melon candies. I've never seen a filled on in the states, rather they're pretty common in conbini in Japan.

Here's my advice: If you're really slick, you might be able to convince the gals at the Beard Papa stand across from the bakery @ Zaiya to fill your normal melonpan with custard. It's certainly worth a try.