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This is how one of Japan's most popular steam buns are made in Japan
Intro Music
so today we are in Osaka Japan
I'm excited for this one because I get to
take you inside of a factory and show
you how one of Japan's most popular
steam buns are made in Japan
The awesome folks at Go Go Ichi Horai have given me
access to take you on this adventure today
But like always if you guys want
to see what I'm doing on the daily
check out my Instagram account if you guys
want to help support the channel check
out the Japan merch and if you have any
questions about Japan or Japan travel
check out my discord community
Alright let me take you on this factory tour
Go Go Ichi Horai craft ultra popular
handwrapped bhutaman aka pork buns
In Japan selling 170,000 pork buns each and everyday
In 1945 they established their
first restaurant in Namba Osaka
birth its steamed pork buns the following year
and has since grown to 58 stores located
only in Japan's Kansai region
It now employs 1500 staff working hard every
day to craft their delicious pork buns
as well as other popular chinese food
Yup !! You heard me right I'm gonna also
show you how chinese food is made in Japan
so I made it in the factory
it's time to change
and there you go all changed
now we gotta find someone to help me get inside
Hi ! Can I go inside with you ?
Go Go Ichi steam pork buns
are known by many Japanese as an Osaka
signature souvenir
But it's more than just
Damn !! I can't wait to take you
on this factory tour and show you how
it's all made
so this is where they make
all the dough all of the ingredients
come down from the ceiling and go into this mixer
so this is where it all begins
Wether Neta
In english, dough
The dough used to create their steamed buns is made every
day and shipped out four separate times
on that day to ensure the freshest dough
possible is used in their shops
In fact the central kitchen never carries stock
but always prepares only as much as each store requires
one of their secrets to making the
perfectly sweet and sticky buns is in
their maturing process
delivery distances and times for each shop is
carefully calculated and used as a base
to mature their dough as it starts
rising immediately after it's kneeded
taken one step further their dough is
crafted to have three different maturing
times by varying the temperature of
water used for each
shops order a specific dough so that when it's used
it's always perfectly matured
a reason why all 58 of their stores are within
150 minute distance from their central kitchen
[Music]
Hi, Can i ask you a question?
what up dough ?
What do you like about the dough?
Do you make any adjustments by hand ?
What's the most challenging part of the job ?
Music Playing
Okay, let's get to the center of this bun
all the meat for the steam buns are
delivered to this loading dock and also
weighed here to ensure deliveries are accurate
after the deliveries are confirmed
all the frozen meat is hand inspected to
ensure quality and safety depending on
the time the factory can receive up to
five tons of meat in one day
That's a lot of meat to thoroughly inspect
his hands must get really cold
Hi, Can I ask what you are doing now ?
What do you check for?
so what happens if it doesn't pass the inspection ?
all right so we're on a different floor
now let's see what's happening over here
so in this room right here they cut all
the onions and you can really feel it
and my eyes are tearing right now
WOW That's a lot of onions
I guess it makes sense though when you're making 170,000 pork buns a day
The onions arrive
already peeled so they're simply washed
in the pool by this machine
In fact the main two ingredients for the steam buns
are pork and onions which may surprise
many who've tasted it as Go Go Ichi's
pork buns give off a distinctive and
strong appetizing aroma without using
ingredients such as garlic
and finally diced to perfection
but into relatively larger pieces to enhance the
taste and aroma appeal of their pork
buns ultimately helping to create their
signature flavor once chopped the onions
are transported to the second floor of
the factory via this elevator to be
mixed with the pork but before we go
there let's chop it up with this guy
Excuse me, What are you doing ?
Won't you eyes hurt?
What's the most challenging part of the job ?
Oh, he has to detect the outer skin as
well as a transparent inner skin
How long have you been working here ?
This place is so big I'm getting kind of lost
but let's see what's behind this door
so in this section just behind me
It looks like they minced the meat
if it's not clear already Go Go Ichi filled their
buns with pork which is why they
distinctively call their steamed buns Butaman
Buta meaning pork instead of
the more general term in Japan,Nikuman
nico meaning meat their pork is made
from a blend of thigh arm belly and back fat
The meat itself is purposely cut
when frozen to prevent oxidation and
similar to the onions the machines dice
their pork into large pieces to help
accentuate the taste overall producing a
meatier texture and a juicier umami
[Music]
now all the ingredients for the filling
are combined mixed and seasoned
[Music]
three giant vat's of meat are seasoned
with soy sauce and their special spice mixture
consisting of simple ingredients
such as sugar,salt and pepper but the
true secret is in the ratio in fact
their pork bun recipe hasn't changed
since it was first created over 75 years ago
so to this day the factory strictly
adheres to the original recipe
let's see what this guy is doing
Hi nice to meet you , what are you doing ?
What's the most challenging part of the job ?
Is there anything you really need to watch out for ?
So how long do you need to mix ?
Oh there's the vat of freshly diced onions from earlier
it gets mixed in with a seasoned pork
starch is then added to help bind them together
[Music]
one of the keys to this recipe is to
maintain the filling's meaty texture
by not over mixing so it's critical for the
workers to precisely stop the machine
each time
[Music]
after the ingredients are completely
mixed the filling is fed into trays on a
conveyor there's enough filling in each
tray to make 200 steamed pork buns
[Music]
at the end of the line each tray is
weighed and adjusted by hand
to ensure that each and every single tray has the
exact amount of pork filling
from here it's ready for shipment to the stores
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alright let's continue on with this video
check out this machine right here I think it's making Shumai
[Music]
as mentioned earlier the central kitchen
factory doesn't just make pork buns but
other delectable chinese food as well
so let me show you one of my personal
favorites their Shumai
which by no surprise is also one of their more
popular items selling about a hundred
thousand pieces each and every day
[Music]
oh and the yellow wrap ones are the
shrimp shumai and their white ones are
their standard pork shumai
let's just take a moment of silence to watch these
lovely beauties come to life
[Music]
after the Shumai are laid into trays
workers at the end of the line
visually inspect every shumai
if any of the shumai are missized or visually
unappealing it's hand replaced by a
perfectly formed one
[Music]
in this area all the shumai get trayed up
and then sent to the refrigerator
[Music]
once each and every shumai in a tray
clears inspection the tray is
automatically wrapped and barcoded by
the machine to specify its final
destination then the trays are stacked
and ushered further down the line to the
loading dock
[Music]
on the same factory floor Gyoza are made
on a different line the factory must
produce about 88,000 gyoza a day
to meet their store's sales demand
[Music]
oh she's installing a new roll of gyoza wrapping
interestingly the cutout
remains are automatically recycled by
the machine and re-rolled to make new
wrappers in order to minimize waste
[Music]
similar to the shumai and other
foods produced every single piece of
gyoza must pass a visual inspection in
order to make it out of the factory
huh I wonder what's behind that door over there
[Music]
Go Go Ichi's pork buns and shumai are
often eaten with their signature mustard sauce
and provided to customers in small
packets at each order amazingly the
factory produced their own mustard
in-house unlike most mustard it's made
extremely fresh with no additives or
preservatives meaning it's to be eaten
right away along with the pork buns and shumai
[Music]
so i've made it into the office area
let me see what's going on over here
Okay guy in an apron standing alone in an empty room
What's up ?
how often do you test ?
So what do you look for ?
Does the food every fail ?
Do you get tired of eating the same thing every day?
he's one of five team members in the
factory's food assurance team who test
their food before shipment each and
every day to ensure consistent quality
is delivered to their customers
[Music]
so this is where all the deliveries get picked up
time to get loaded so all of
the various food trays that were just
made pork filling, dough, shumai, gyoza and
other chinese foods are conveyored to this loading area
the conveyor line area itself is refrigerated and extremely
cold to keep the food as fresh as possible
each tray is taken off the line
loaded onto carts and sorted by hand
the delivery workers review their order sheets
and load trays into the trucks accordingly
to ensure each shop gets the correct order
even the delivery trucks
are refrigerated to keep the food trays
fresh while on its way to the stores
[Music]
and there we are all packed up and good to go
Now let's go into the restaurant
and see what they're making
[Music]
Oh the delivery truck has arrived
as I mentioned at the beginning
each store receives four deliveries every day
the amount for the first shipment of the day is pre-determined
the other three
deliveries are placed in the central
kitchen throughout the day one hour before the truck leaves
this means that the central kitchen must constantly and
quickly adapt their daily production
quantities to meet the demand for all of
its 58 stores
[Music]
now that the newly ordered dough has arrived at the store
the shop workers must cut the mature dough into smaller
pieces so it can be used to wrap the pork filling
even at this point time is
critical as the dough still continues to rise
so to offset the maturing
Its either placed in the refrigerator or at room temperature
[Music]
it looks like this dough has to sit out
just a bit longer before the wrapping
process can commence
it really takes a trained and skilled wrapper to know when
the dough has fully matured
so this is where the steam ones are
wrapped inside of the store right in
front of the customers
cool now the wrapping process starts
first the worker places down wooden sheets called Zabuton
where each steam bun will rest
Zabuton are made mostly from thinly sliced pine trees
which when steamed gives off a
nice but subtle scent
a majority of the shop workers are trained to wrap pork buns
making up to a thousand buns per day
They're so fast that on a busy day
they can wrap one complete pork bun in
10 seconds
[Music]
Hello
Can I ask you what you are doing ?
What do you need to be careful upon preparing the dough ?
so what's the most important thing when wrapping the pork bun ?
and how long did it take you to master this ?
their pork buns are steamed for about 20 minutes
to ensure that the steam buns
are fully cooked the workers also check
the center temperature
[Music]
apparently the staff refer to pork buns as Kao
face in english and well-shaped
buns are referred to as beautiful ladies
if that's the case then i've seen a lot
of beautiful ladies today
now all that's left is to serve it to their customers
so that's how steam buns are made in Japan
let me know what you thought in the comments
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