Melonpan

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Typical Japanese melonpan with a grid resembling the skin of a melon which is inexpensive in Japan

Homemade melon buns

Melonpan variety containing chocolate chips

Melonpan (メロンパン, meronpan^?), also known as Melon pan or Melon buns, are inexpensive, sweet bakery products popular in Japan, Taiwan, and China made from an enriched dough covered in a thin layer of crispy cookie dough. Their appearance resembles a melon, such as a rock melon (cantaloupe). They are not necessarily melon flavored.^[1] Variations exist, including some with a few chocolate chips between the cookie layer and the enriched dough layer, and non-melon versions flavored with caramel, maple syrup, chocolate, or other flavors, sometimes with syrup, whipped or flavored cream, or custard as a filling. In the case of such variations, the name may drop the word "melon" ("maple pan") or may keep it despite the lack of melon flavor ("chocolate melon pan").

The name has a bilingual etymology, since melon is a loan word from English, while pan^[2] is from the Portuguese word for bread.

In parts of the Kinki, Chuugoku, and Shikoku regions a variation with a radiating line pattern is called "sunrise," and many residents of these regions call even the cross-hatched melon pan "sunrise." ^[3]

Melonpan and pineapple bun from Hong Kong are very similar.

1 Popular culture
2 Notes
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Popular culture

In the popular Japanese children's anime Soreike! Anpanman, Anpanman has a sidekick named Melonpanna who is a heroine with a melon bread bun for a head. Melonpan is also mentioned in many other manga and anime series as a preferred food of one or more characters such as Azumanga Daioh's Osaka, Shakugan no Shana's Shana, or Dears' Ren.
The Japanese game show Hey! Spring of Trivia hands out an award labeled The Golden Brain to the most interesting piece of trivia presented. The award is a small brain figurine on a pedestal; doors on the trophy open out to reveal melon bread that accompanies the prize.
In the Japanese anime Yakitate!! Japan, episode 13, newcomers to the bread chain Pantasia participate in a melonpan competition. It is explained that melonpan has a flaw: the cookie dough and the bread bake at different rates, and because of this the cookie dough covering is almost always underbaked so that the bread inside will not burn.