Sando Shokupan: The Japanese milk bread taking the world by ttorm!
By Jean-Pierre Montanay
Sliced bread has a new star, as unexpected as it is delicious: shokupan, a Japanese milk bread nicknamed “Hokkaido milk bread” on the archipelago, in reference to its regional origin and the presence of milk in its recipe..
If food historians will tell you that a rudimentary version of sandwich bread already existed in Antiquity, modern sandwich bread emerged in the 20th century, first thanks to the British, who were the first to bake bread in a tin mold, before the Americans took over the recipe and turned it into a mass-market product thanks to a revolutionary innovation: the bread slicing and wrapping machine, invented in 1928.
This universal sandwich bread, which keeps for several days and is perfect for sandwiches, went on to become a phenomenal success, conquering the world and Japan as early as World War II.
Japanese bakers started with this classic American industrial sandwich bread and elevated it, using local flours, innovative baking techniques, and one now well-known secret: adding a mixture of flour and hot water to the dough.
This sandwich bread arrived in France in 2017, in Paris, at “Carré,” a Japanese bakery opened by a pioneer in the field, Michio Hasegawa, a Japanese artisan. Since then, it can be found on the shelves of fully French bakeries alongside traditional baguettes, such as at MieMie, which attracts a loyal clientele charmed by this Asian bread.
Tasting this bread is a real revelation! Its thick slices are incredibly soft, with a slightly elastic crumb that gives it the perfect structure for making everything from a croque-monsieur to a "sando", those Japanese sandwiches that have become serious rivals to the classic club sandwich. The most popular of them, the "tamago sando", is made with hard-boiled eggs mixed with mayonnaise.
If you stop by Carré, go for the most indulgent item on the menu: the irresistible "Tonkatsu sando", which, as the name suggests, is toasted and filled with crispy breaded pork topped with a bit of Bulldog sauce.
