Shock victory for Japanese pancakes in a competition usually reserved for bread.

Curry Bread (or karepan as it’s known in Japan) is a popular snack consisting of curry wrapped in dough that’s been coated in breadcrumbs and then usually deep-fried.

▼ A sample of karepan from Japanese convenience store chains Lawson, Family Mart, and 7-Eleven.

Some aficionados might claim it’s the contrast between crunchy exterior and melty, chewy interior that’s part of what makes a karepan so good, but strangely, the judges at Japan’s annual Curry Bread Grand Prix competition appear to disagree.

Because this year, they’ve given an award to…

▼ …a curry dorayaki.

Dorayaki are Japanese sweets, made up of two small pancakes sandwiched around a filling that traditionally contains red bean paste. The dorayaki that won a mention in the Curry Bread Grand Prix, however, contains a filling made with…you guessed it — curry.

▼ The unusual treat is called the Hot Dora Butter Curry.

Created by long-established Japanese confectionery store Nakao Seigetsudo, which was founded in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, in 1870, the curry dorayaki won gold in the “Variety Division” of the Curry Bread Grand Prix.

▼ Well, it does contain curry, but we wouldn’t exactly think of this as a karepan.

The addition of curry puts a new spin on traditional dorayaki — or should we say, the addition of dorayaki pancakes puts a new spin on karepan. Either way, customers have been raving about the new product since it made its debut last year, and one of the things they love most about it, aside from its flavourful curry filling, is the fact that it’s designed to be stored in the fridge, so you can pull one out and enjoy it piping hot after a quick jaunt in the microwave.

The curry flavour is just one of the offerings in the company’s Hot Dora Butter series, which includes other interesting fillings like almond chocolate, sweet potato, and red beans and cream cheese. 

Priced at 302 yen (US$2.62) each, these thoroughly modern Japanese treats can be purchased online, where they’re also available in boxes of five or ten for 1,728 and 3,240 yen respectively. As bizarre as it sounds, we don’t think we’ll be able to resist the urge to try the curry dorayaki, given we’re so obsessed with Japanese curry we once even mixed 43 different kinds together to create the ultimate variety!

Source: Hot Dora Butter via Net Lab
Featured image: Hot Dora Butter
Insert images: SoraNews24, Hot Dora Butter
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