I grew up with great Japanese sweets and snacks, and one of the best sweets that reminds me of my childhood is “Cream Pan” or cream bun, basically a bread filled with sweet custard cream. The kind I used to have came from local bakery, but there are some serious professional who takes anything that is ordinary to extra ordinary.

And yes, there is a store that took the concept of simple cream bun to the extra level… Hattendo has been in operation since 1933, and they still make the sweets the best they know; hand-made, hand-crafted, from the bread making, cream preparation, filling and wrapping are all done by hand. That is the only way to assure their highest quality cream bun! They started in Hiroshima, but they have several locations outside Hiroshima, thank goodness! And to my surprise, I happened to walk by a small Hattendo shop when I was walking the subway platform walkway at Shimbashi station.

Since they are not a fully-equipped store, they had limited offerings, but all I wanted was their “original” so it was just fine! At this location, you can get the custard, whipped cream, macha, chocolate, and Azuki sweet bean. They are all hand-wrapped and placed in the cool, refrigerant box. They are best served chilled.

So, I bought the Custard Cream Bun (210 yen, roughly $2). It is made from the simple taste of custard and rich whipped cream, the original Hattendo cream bun. Since this was my first time trying their cream bun, I wanted to start off right, with their classic, original cream bun. The bread was so soft and delicate, and the filling was super creamy, dense, rich, it truly melts in your mouth!

 

This certainly was the best cream bun I have ever had. Super high quality, very classy, and you can tell it was made with care. It really disappeared too quickly… So if you are in a mood for classy, sweet, soft and fluffy snack, then go over to one of the Hattendo locations and get yourself some cream buns!

Hattendo – Wing Shimbashi, Minato, Tokyo Japan

八天堂 – JR新橋駅