| Chinese restaurants in California and around the | | | | other ingredients; a shrimp and pork bun flavored |
| globe serve pork buns. Barbecue-flavored pork | | | | with salt; and for dessert, a Belgian chocolate bun. |
| and other ingredients are cooked, stuffed inside a | | | | Family Mart shows 11 different options including |
| bun, and steamed. Little stands on the street | | | | pizza, curry, and a variety of pork and an buns. |
| offer pork buns as do exquisite dim sum | | | | One of the pork buns is a spicy bun, including |
| restaurants like City View in San Francisco. | | | | kimchi while another uses the same kind of pork |
| When I am in San Francisco, walking down Market | | | | slices as you can find in bowls of steaming hot |
| Street or people-watching on Union Square, I will | | | | ramen. The completely new variety Family Mart |
| buy a soft pretzel to eat. In Japan, I will stop my | | | | offers is a yakisoba bun. Yakisoba is a fried |
| car at a convenience store, probably one of | | | | noodle dish in Japan that is somewhat like chow |
| Japan's approximately 12,000 Seven-Elevens, and | | | | mein. The bun is simply stuffed with fried noodles. |
| buy a bun. Like at a drive-in, most people eat in | | | | Lastly, for desert, you can buy a pudding bun. |
| the car. Convenience stores rarely very provide | | | | I have never tried the desert versions of the |
| benches. | | | | buns, nor have I heard people speak of them. I |
| Japan has adopted and adapted this style of bun. | | | | remember the ice cream trucks of the suburban |
| When you are hungry, biting into a hot bun on a | | | | phase of my childhood, hearing them from far |
| cold winter day is one of the small pleasures in life. | | | | away, worrying that getting money from my |
| While you can find such buns sold at street stands | | | | mother and getting back would take too long, but |
| and in restaurants, and frozen in supermarkets, | | | | inevitably making it back on time for a piece of |
| many people get their buns at convenience stores | | | | cold childhood delight. Americans talk of the ice |
| such as Seven-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart, Save | | | | cream trucks and they live on in our memories. |
| On, Circle K Sunkus and Ministop. Some | | | | Japanese speak of the sweet potato trucks that |
| ingredients look familiar and some do not. The | | | | sell baked sweet potatoes. While sweet desert |
| most unfamiliar ingredient to Americans may be | | | | buns are sold almost everywhere in Japan, they |
| an, which is a sweet bean paste known by a | | | | are not yet fond childhood memories or the stuff |
| variety of names. We searched the web, looking | | | | of popular culture. Maybe they will be some day. |
| at convenience store websites to see their bun | | | | The Seven Eleven menu presents 13 different |
| menus. | | | | buns including many varieties of pork and an buns |
| While Lawson and Save On do sell many buns, | | | | as well as two pizza buns, one featuring melted |
| their websites fail to clearly present the kinds of | | | | cheese. A pizza bun usually refers to just the red |
| buns they sell. So, I would just like to comment | | | | pizza sauce without any cheese. Seven Eleven |
| on a Save On pork bun that we did find. Shaped | | | | also offers two pink desert buns called Sakura |
| like a pig with a snout sticking out, two floppy | | | | Buns which include an and other ingredients. The |
| ears, and two dark eyes, the fast food art | | | | buns are named after cherry blossoms; sakura is |
| embraced the Japanese concepts of cute and | | | | Japanese for cherry. For a different desert, |
| food presentation. | | | | Seven Eleven offers three small buns together, |
| After seeing the piggy pork bun, I no longer went | | | | one white, one yellow, and one brown for about |
| to Seven-Eleven. I started stopping at Save On. | | | | the price of a regular bun. Each bun is a different |
| Some Save Ons sold the piggy pork bun to silent | | | | flavor: salty caramel, maple syrup, and chocolate. |
| purchasers. Shiori, age eight or nine, and her | | | | The Circle K Sunkus menu lists 14 different buns |
| grandmother, who was over 60, were two of the | | | | including a variety of pork buns and curry buns. |
| more vocal purchasers. Shiori, spoke first, "That | | | | The curry buns include a chicken and cheese |
| pig is just so cute!" They talked at length about | | | | curry bun and a cheese curry bun. Like Seven |
| the cute floppy ears, the cute snout, and the | | | | Eleven, Circle K Sunkus has mini buns too. |
| cute pig shape. | | | | In most of Japan, you are never far from a |
| Returning to bun offerings, the smallest menu on | | | | convenience store. Steaming hot buns await in |
| the web, at Ministop, shows seven different buns: | | | | winter, but very few convenience stores offer |
| Two varieties of pork buns; two varieties of an | | | | the full menus. The hot bun cases used to heat |
| buns; a spicy seafood bun made from shark fin, | | | | the buns may just not be big enough. |
| shrimp, and an flavored with oyster sauce and | | | | |