KATSUTANI KASHI PAN HO ー Unexpected Japanese Sandwiches You Need to Try

Ever enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Katsutani Pan has the Japanese equivalent: a smear of smooth, sweet, red bean paste and rich margarine on a fluffy, white bread roll. Katsutani Pan specializes in sandwiches served on koppe pan, a soft, mild Japanese bread often used for sandwiches. Katsutani Pan fills their rolls with toppings you won’t easily find in the deli back home, things like okonomiyaki, fried oysters from the waters around Miyajima, or Setouchi lemon bean paste with cream cheese.

The red bean paste, though, is what brought Katsutani Pan to life. The owner, Hideki Hayakawa, received the recipe from his grandfather who made and sold momiji manju in Miyajima under the name “Katsutani” during the Taisho Era until poor health forced him to close the shop.”Every time I’d see my grandfather,” said Hayakawa, “he’d talk nostalgically about the red bean baste and the store. I thought I’d see if I couldn’t make something with that red bean paste recipe while my grandfather was still in good spirits.”

As a result, the new store, specializing in bread rolls, was opened in April 2018 in the same location as the original shop. You can even see the wooden box where his grandfather used to display momiji manju.