The Nagoya Foodie: Masa Cafe: A Different Type of Sandwich Bread

In the midst of a shoku pan boom, I was excited to have lunch at a shoku pan specialty bakery. Shoku pan is the Japanese for a loaf of bread, the kind that is square or rectangular shaped when sliced and is often used for a sandwich, or toasted and buttered in the morning. This trend has been going on strong for a couple of years now with new shops opening around the country still. The price of one loaf could be at least 3-4 times more than that of the loaf you can get in a regular grocery store. Here, at Masa the price of half a loaf is ¥400. These specialty shops put a lot of time into trial and error when creating their signature bread and mostly always claim to use only the best of ingredients in the best way possible to bake the kind of bread the creator had in mind. Here they claim to use ingredients only from Japan. The flour is from Hokkaido, the milk from Hakodate (a slightly richer milk than the regular 3.0% milk, this one being 4.0%). The honey comes from bees that feed on Japanese lotus, rapeseed and other flowers, and the butter is also from the large dairy producers, Hokkaido.

I decided to try the Running Egg open sandwich ¥580 (¥638 with tax). I first pushed away the toppings of the toast so that I could try the bread on its own. It was generously buttered and just by pulling it apart I could tell the inside was soft and moist. Upon first bite I could taste something flowery and it hit me that it must be a special kind of honey (I only found out later that they use a particular honey). The crust of the bread, although crispy, I could tell that it is the soft type when not toasted, something that many people here like.

Running Egg open sandwich

The bacon was soft and wasn’t overly salty. It had a good amount of fat streaked through it. Running Egg is a brand of egg where the eggs have been laid less than 3 days ago and is supposedly higher in nutrients than a regular one. I liked the crispy edges, and the yolk was nice and runny. The yolk itself was mild but that perfectly brought out the honey flavor and buttery bread. Using this bread gives egg toast a whole new flavour. The egg, in combination with the shoku pan and the bacon makes it have a sweet and savoury flavour because of the prevalence of the honey used in the bread.

The accompanying salad of mixed greens and a cherry tomato was dressed with a light, peppery olive oil vinaigrette.

The eat-in area has a comfortable atmosphere that is not too busy. Although simple, they do put some time and care into making their dishes, so be prepared to wait. You can fill your own cup with the orange water they provide and sip on it while you wait. On this day Christmas music was playing in the background. I noticed that they have a pianist come in and perform every Thurs .

On the way out, I picked up a peanut cream bread that was being sold on the table near the register. It had the same honey aftertaste as the shoku pan which went well with the sweetened peanut butter. The bread was very soft, but had a denseness to it that made it a bit chewier than the shoku pan.

Peanut cream bread

I just had to come back to try their number one recommended open sandwich (I saw it on tv), the gratin open sandwich (¥580 plus tax). Their signature bread is covered in bechamel sauce and baked with bacon and cheese on top. Course black pepper is sprinkled for accent. This time the salad included a cabbage coleslaw, nice for some sweetness to go with the bitterness of greens and olive oil. I didn’t particularly care for the black pepper because it overpowered the sweetness of the cheese and mild honey flavor of the bread (which is what makes this bread unique). The thick small strips of bacon on the other hand was a good addition with the mild saltiness bringing out all the other flavours. I thought the bread would get quite soggy from the toppings, but it was still palatable and the crust remained chewy.