Simply for Inspiration: Millefeuille

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Melon Pan メロンパン

Lunch is by far my favorite meal of day.  Lunch in the city is even better!  Come noon time, people are out and about, rushed and looking for something quick, yet satisfying to last them til sunset.  I completely agree with the high value of spending time cooking a meal, then sitting down and savoring it, but my alter ego loves to eat on the run.  Shove me into a grocery store, farmers market, or food cart block and I’ll make it out more than satisfied!  Apita Supermarket’s stand-alone bread bakery on the main floor of the mall I worked in in Japan is one of those place I wouldn’t mind getting shoved into again.

My guilty lunch-time pleasure there was Curry Pan カレーパン, a slightly sweetened dough filled with a spoonful of spicy curry, then, get this, breaded in panko and deep fried.

But, in some unfortunate cases, with the tasty usually comes the scary not far behind,  ie. hot dog bun-shaped rolls, split open, spread with mayonnaise and topped with steamed corn kernels.  Sorry, I didn’t include the recipe for that one.

Every supermarket and convenience store I came across in Japan had a renowned crust-less sandwich section lined with rows of pre-packaged staples:  peanut butter &　…peanut butter; egg salad;  tuna (never accompanied by visible vegetables!  veggies in sandwiches send Japanese kids running for McDonald’s); jam & margarine; ham & cheese, you get the bland idea.  These Wonder Bread pillows, with mechanically sealed edges, came in a pack of two.  My awesomely beefy 5’10” brother laughed at the thought of these being considered a meal (it took three packs to remotely fill him up).

But what the supermarkets and convenience stores generally lacked in savory, bread-encased meals-on-the-run, they made up for one sweet treat and one treat alone:  Melon Pan メロンパン.

Yes, this one’s made by “Smile Oven”.  It just can’t get any better.

Melon Pan, or melon bread, is called such because the markings on the surface as supposed to resemble a melon (cantaloupe) and pan is the Portugese word for bread that the Japanese borrow.  Traditionally, Melon Pan doesn’t taste like melon, but some companies have started adding melon flavor to the dough. It’s made by forming rolls with an enriched white dough, then encasing the rolls in sugar cookie dough, scoring the top, sprinkling the whole thing with sugar, then baking.

What get me about this bread is the textures!  Usually dense bread in the center, a crunchy cookie crunch, and granulated sugar sprinkled on top.  Some brands put mini chocolate chips in between the bread dough and cookie layers — yes.  Very yes.

Check your local Japanese or Asian food market for Melon Pan メロンパン (or Curry Pan or the mayo-corn hot dog bun, we won’t judge!).  In the Portland area, Melon Pan is available at Uwajimaya, 10500 Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, Beaverton, OR 97005, of which there are also locations in Seattle, WA and Bellevue, WA.  Have you seen it sold near you?

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Simply for Inspiration: Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan Croissant

This mouthwatering piece of pastry is the brainchild of Paris’ top pâtisserie chef Pierre Hermé.

The Ispahan flavor concept is a melodic combination of rose, litchi, and raspberry.  The red flecks clinging to the outside?  Dried raspberry.  The almond cream hiding inside the croissant is flavored with rose water and studded with litchis.

Caravans of students from school would grab the metro to the nearest PH store for these babies, bringing them back for the people who didn’t have time to get away!  Hands down, the best school snack I’ve ever had!

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Christmas Croquembouche

About a month ago, I began working for a local candy company.  About a year and a half ago, after his previous, non-food-related business slowed, the Candy Man (my boss and the headhancho) researched products that hold steady during economic downturns.  The top three, he later told me, are alcohol, firearms, and candy.  What a combination!

We spent a month in the church kitchen preparing for this holiday season, hours stirring sugar at scalding temperatures, scraping out every last drop of cream from gallon-sized cartons and then going back out to buy more.  I tempered pounds upon pounds of chocolate and dreamed repeatedly about clouds raining hazelnut crumble on me.  And when the back stock was bought-out and we had to tell calling suppliers that we were completely sold out for the rest of 2009, I pictured myself spending the two week vacation asleep on the couch, trying to uncoil my fingers from a spoon-shaped grip and finally washing the scent of chocolate out of my hair.

My fingers uncoiled, my hair was washed clean, and I was tying my apron behind my back on my way to my family’s kitchen come 10am on my first day off.

Croquembouche means “crack in mouth” in French.  It is a traditional French wedding cake, comprised of caramel-dipped cream puffs that are made of pate a choux (the same dough used when making eclairs).  The centers can be filled with whipped cream or pastry cream of any flavor.  Once the puffs have been filled, they are dipped one-by-one into hot caramel and stuck together in winding circles that come to a peak.  The center of the final piece is usually hollow.  I decorated mine with spun sugar (simply drizzling some hot caramel over the finished product with a fork) and sugar-coated fresh cranberries.  The puffs are filled with vanilla pastry cream.  I think I smell a new tradition!

Happy Holidays, wherever you may be and however you may celebrate!

Wishing you warm hands, full bellies, and good company this holiday season!

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A Twist of East and West: Sadaharu Aoki

Sadaharu Aoki is a master of all masters when it comes to twisting classic recipes with unexpected flavors.  Aoki was born and raised in Japan.  After finishing culinary school in Tokyo, he moved to Paris, France looking for job to improve his talents.  It was there that Aoki started capitolizing on pairing classic French pastry recipes with unique Japanese flavors.  His first shop, Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki, opened in 2001.  Eight years later, he has three shops open in Paris and two in Tokyo.  His shops are Japano-Francophiles playlands!

The cases gleam with blindingly bright colored twists inside.  And believe it or not, those intense hues are all naturel — Aoki doesn’t use any artifical colors or flavorings.

His Black Sesame éclair (accompanied with an Ume macaron in the picture) is a prime example. Aoki adds Japanese black sesame paste to French pastry cream, then encases it in pâte à choux – providing a slight variation on the traditionally chocolate or coffee flavored éclairs.  With a perspective outside of traditional, Aoki also makes French flavored éclairs with caramel and sea salt.  The fondant on top glistens smoothly, the pastry cream-pastry ratio is spot on (no messy overflow or cracks), and the intesity of the flavors is enough to yell “THIS ISN’T YOUR AVERAGE ECLAIR”, yet still leaves you wanting seconds.

Aoki also uses macarons, chocolates, cakes, and ice cream sandwiches to showcase flavors, among others!  Yuzu is a sour Japanese citrus fruit that tastes like a mixture of grapefruit, lemon and tangerine.  Ume, a sour plum, is eaten many ways in Japan:  dried, pickled, wrapped in a triangle of rice, and thanks to Aoki, also in dessert.  Genmaicha is a mixture of green tea and toasted brown rice.  You can see the tea leaves and puffed brown rice grains that expanded while roasting on the top of Aoki’s Genmaicha éclair.  Azuki beans are sweet red beans, that are either left whole or crushed into a paste and used as dessert fillings.  And probably the most spoken Japanese dessert flavor, green tea.  But from Aoki’s macarons to his éclairs or his “Bamboo” cake (a green tea-flavored Opéra), the green tea flavoring is delicate and deep, never grassy or over-powering

Sadaharu Aoki’s talent in twisting unexpected marriages rings around the world and shouldn’t be missed next time you’re in France or Japan.

Paris locations:

-35, rue Vaugirard 75006

-56, boulevard Port Royale 75005

-Galerie Lafayette Gourmet; 40, boulevard Haussemann 75009

Tokyo locations:

– 3-14-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku

– 3-4-1 Shinkokusai BLD Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku

– 9-7-4 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo Midtown B1F

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