If You Like Nikuman Buns, You’ll Love Nagano’s Oyaki
A popular local food in Nagano Japan is a scrumptious meal in a bun
Whenever I arrive in Japan, for my first meal do I go to a fancy sushi joint? A Michelin 3-star restaurant? An izakaya? Nope.
As soon as I get off the Narita Express in Shinjuku or the Limousine Bus to Kobe, I head straight for the nearest conbini (Japanese convenience store) and grab a butaman (what you Tokyo folk insist on calling a nikuman even though it’s made with pork.) Barbeque pork in a savory sauce inside a fluffy steamed bun — it melts in your mouth and fills your stomach with a warm glow.
The best nikuman in all of Japan can be found in Yokohama’s Chinatown. Fresh out of the steamer, big, fluffy, and juicy inside, these nikuman can’t be beat. But the ones sold in conbini throughout Japan are pretty damn good, too. A nikuman, an onigiri, and a beer make the simple, perfect meal. (My wife declines to agree.)
So when we recently traveled to Nagano for a tour of sake breweries, I was intrigued to find that one of the most popular local foods (other than basashi raw horsemeat and a variety of bugs) was something called oyaki おやき.
Despite years of living in Japan, I’d never heard of oyaki. My wife, who’s Japanese, had never heard of it…
