The "Japanese Specialty" Bread My Colleague Bought... How Did It Get Its Name? [Sunday Culture]

Bread Topped with Lattice-Patterned Cookie Dough...
No Connection to Melon Flavor
A Historic Bread Dating Back to the Early 1900s

"Senior, I bought melon bread. Would you like the one with cream or without?"

A while ago, a junior colleague handed me some melon bread they bought from a nearby bakery. It's similar to the Korean soboru bread, but the difference is that instead of a crumbly streusel topping like soboru, it is covered with a biscuit dough mixed with sugar, baked into a lattice pattern.

Strangely, when I hear "melon bread," I always expect it to taste like the ice cream "Melona." However, melon bread is simply a rich, buttery bread. It doesn't contain any cream or sweet bean paste inside. Even though the dough is sometimes green like a melon, you won't find any melon flavor or aroma. For Koreans who grew up eating Melona ice cream and are familiar with melon shaved ice, melon bread without any trace of actual melon is a rather puzzling concept.

Japanese Melon Bread. Camellia Bakery.

These days, however, there seem to be more fusion breads that actually reflect the meaning of melon bread. When I cut open the cream-filled melon bread my colleague gave me, I found a tangy cream inside that tasted just like Melona. I was secretly pleased to see that the melon bread I had only imagined had finally been realized to some extent.

So how did this bread, which contains no melon at all, end up being called "melon bread"? This week, let me share the story of Japan's melon bread, which contains no melon.

There are many stories about the origin of melon bread. Some say it began in the 1930s at a bakery in Kobe, where a round bread topped with lattice-patterned cookie dough was first sold. Others claim it originated from a Mexican bread introduced via the United States. There are also theories that in 1910, an Armenian baker at the Imperial Hotel combined the French galette with Russian bread-making techniques to create it. In short, there are many speculations about its invention.

There are also several theories about the origin of its name. Here are the three most prominent ones.

It was named because it resembles a real melon

This theory says that the round bread with its lattice-patterned top looks similar to a muskmelon. This is the most widely accepted origin story. Moreover, since melon bread was created in the 1930s, when muskmelons were considered a luxury item, some believe that naming the bread after the melon gave it an image of being a premium product that ordinary people could enjoy.

It was named after a bread-making machine

The second theory is that the name comes from a melon bread molding machine. There are bakeries across Japan that claim to be the originators of melon bread. In 1950, melon bread sold in Kobe was shaped using a mold originally intended for serving omurice. If you think about it, omurice is shaped like an oval rugby ball. While this shape is actually closer to a Korean chamoe melon than a muskmelon, the mold was called a "melon-shaped" mold. Even today, in Kobe and some parts of the Kansai region, melon bread is still made in this elongated shape, often filled with sweet bean paste. In fact, it looks more like chamoe bread than melon bread. The round melon bread we are familiar with is said to be called "sunrise" in Japan, as its shape resembles a rising sun.

Oval-shaped melon bread sold in Kobe, Japan. Kobe Consumer Cooperative.

It was originally meringue bread, not melon bread

The third theory is about the lattice-patterned cookie dough on top of the bread. This dough is made with meringue, which is whipped egg whites. In Japanese, meringue is called "merenge" (メレンゲ). Some believe that "merenge bread" gradually evolved in pronunciation to "melon bread."

With so many theories, it's no surprise that there are many regional varieties of melon bread. These days, you can find many creative versions, such as strawberry melon bread, chocolate chip melon bread, and fusion melon breads with ice cream or other fillings inside. These have become increasingly popular in Japan.

We have similar cases in Korea. For example, bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastry) contains no fish, and banana bread often contains no banana. The fact that Japanese melon bread contains no melon suggests that this kind of whimsical naming is universal, and I find it rather amusing.