Hot Buns in Japan: Pork, Pizza, Curry, and Salty Caramel

Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay AreaConvenience stores rarely very provide benches.
and around the world offer pork buns. Pork and otherJapan has adopted and adapted this style of bun.
ingredients are cooked, stuffed inside a bun, andWhen you are hungry, biting into a hot bun on a cold
steamed. You can find pork buns ranging from fastwinter day is one of the small pleasures in life. While
food buns at little stands on the street to the ecstasyyou can find such buns sold at street stands and in
of exquisite dim sum restaurants like Yank Sing in Sanrestaurants, and frozen in supermarkets, many people
Francisco.get their buns at convenience stores such as
When I am in San Francisco, walking down MarketSeven-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart, Save On, Circle K
Street or people-watching on Union Square, I will buy aSunkus and Ministop. Some ingredients look familiar and
soft pretzel to eat. In Japan, I will stop my car at asome do not. The most unfamiliar ingredient to
convenience store, probably one of Japan'sAmericans may be an, which is a sweet bean paste
approximately 12,000 Seven-Elevens, and buy a bun.known by a variety of names. We looked at
Like at a drive-in, most people eat in the car.convenience store websites to see their bun menus.