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Portuguese
introduced bread in Japan!? |
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For Japanese,
bread is the second staple food next to rice. As there are various
kinds of bread all over the world, Japan also has their traditional
bread. Before I talk about Japanese bread, let me tell you how Japanese
met bread. It was 460 years ago that Japanese met bread for the
first time. One day in 1543, a Portuguese ship came to Japan accidentally
because of a terrible storm and the Japanese saw these Portuguese
eating something unfamiliar. That was bread! However, the majority
of Japanese were not allowed to eat this kind of Western food since
Japan didn't have diplomatic relations with other countries. During
this period, bread was baked only for Dutch people living in the
southern part of Japan. When a new era started and the Japanese
government began to propel the Western culture, bread was finally
permeated into Japanese people. That was about 150 years ago. This
movement became a big chance to change the Japanese food culture.
But in spite of the government's policy to change the staple food
from rice to bread, people still preferred only rice until a very
unique bread -- anpan was invented. |
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Japanese
style bread was born! |
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Have you every
heard of anpan? An means sweet bean paste and pan means
bread. Just as the name implies, this is a bread with red bean paste
filling. Anpan is the oldest type of bread in Japan and it was invented
in 1873 by a man interested in bread. In those days, bread was still
not so popular among Japanese, so he decided to invent a bread that
could be popular with every Japanese people. He noticed that there
was a popular food that was similar to a bun called a sake-manjyu,
which was stuffed with sweet bean paste. The sweet bean paste was
wrapped in soft dough-type crust using yeast. He tested using yeast
in bread and discovered that he was able to make the softest bread
by doing so. He stuffed this bread with sweet bean paste like a
sake-manjyu, and finally the first anpan was produced! Japanese
people welcomed this new product and it became very popular! After
the anpan was introduced, many kinds of bread with filling was invented.
For example, jam pan, (custard) cream pan,
etc. There is the baguette in France, the nan
in India, and there is the anpan in Japan. Each country has its
traditional bread. How wonderful it is! Here, I will introduce how
to make anpan. You can make the dough easily with the Zojirushi
Breadmaker!
[to Part 2] |
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