Kimuraya, Tokyo

I first discovered melon pan in Tokyo, several visits ago, when someone brought them into our office.  I was totally in love with the sweet soft dough and the crispy cookie-like top.  I was also very jetlagged, and likely easily influenced by ravenous hunger at unpredictable times.

But ever since that visit, I've sought out melon pan, not only in Tokyo (including at the breakfast buffet at the Westin, which did have good chocolate chip melonpan, and Sekai de Niban-me ni Oishii Melonpan for the very famous melonpan stuffed with ice cream and pineapple), but really, anywhere I see it (like, Aki Boulanger in Paris and Fujipan in Sydney).

This visit though, I had struck out on my melonpan at Pompadour (lackluster), and thus did a bit of research on Japanese bakeries.  And thus, I quickly learned about Kimuraya, perhaps the most famous bakery of all.

Kimuraya was established in 1869. They invented the anpan, one of the most common Japanese baked goods.  Now, of course that is the item they are most known for, but I saw good things about the melonpan too.

Melonpan ... with real melon?!

It turns out, that Kimuraya makes two different melonpan.  One, like I was expecting, an item that *looks* like a melon, but contains no melon.  The other ... which does.  The later of which I'd clearly never want, given my melon allergy.

My visit was not to the main store in Ginza, but rather, the stall in the Matsuya Food Hall.  It was about an hour and a half before closing, and the pickings were getting a bit slim, so perhaps I didn't notice that they had two different ones, and I pointed to the wrong one?  Or, more likely, they were sold out of the regular one.

Let's just say ... this experience was not what I expected.

Packaging.

 My item was nicely wrapped up and handed over in a branded bag.

Ginza cream melon.

"We put melon puree in cream and melon skin and dough! You  can enjoy the taste of melon wherever you eat.  The cream also contains melon pulp."

I clearly didn't have this description available when I got the item. This, was not the regular melonpan.  No, this was the Ginza Cream Melon.  Uh-oh.

I opened my item with glee, thrilled to see that the top was crispy as I wanted, and it looked so very well sugar coated.  It was about this time however that I noticed that the top was ... green?  Well, huh, that was different.

Ginza Cream Melon: Side.

The topping, while crisp and sugary as I wanted, tasted ... well, like melon.  I thought it was my brain playing tricks on me, as it was green, and looked like a melon after all.  It couldn't possibly really be melon, right?  These things are never actually melon ...

I still liked the topping, but was a bit unsettled by the melon taste.  The rest of the bread though really let me down.  It wasn't nearly as soft and fluffy as I wanted, and didn't taste very fresh.  Sure, it was 6:30pm, but ... I just expected better.

Ginza Cream Melon: Inside.

As I continued ripping pieces off, I  made another discovery.  Um ... my melonpan had a filling.  A pink filling.  A pink ... melon filling.

This was *very* clearly melon flavored, and a really odd consistency, kinda like a jelly.  Not a cream.  It had little bits of ... candied melon in it?

Once I realized this was melon, I didn't dare take another bite to investigate further, but I was fairly fascinated.

I ... did not like this filling, and found the bun a bit stale, but, maybe if you want real melon, and get it earlier in the day, it is good?