The Second Most Delicious Ice Cream Melon Bread in the World [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: The Second Most Delicious Ice Cream Melon Bread in the World (世界で2番めにおいしい焼きたてメロンパンアイス 函館元町店)
Address: 10-7 Motomachi, Hakodate, Hokkaido 
Website: n/a 
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$$

The second longest name for a business in the world? :D Well, at the very least this small shop selling ice cream melon pan along with soft Hokkaido ice cream and hot melon pan (bought using the vending machine with multi-language capabilities) is still partly humble in their aspirations. I'm curious who they think takes top honours....

 I took an ice cream melon pan with matcha ice cream (450 yen); it was my first time trying one. The melon bun is cut in half and nearly toasted; then, the matcha ice cream is scooped inside. The heat from the bun makes the ice cream melt slightly and... let's admit it, the concept is a good one in theory. However, in reality I encountered quite a few pitfalls trying to eat this melon pan:

1. I did like that the bread was warm, but I didn't like it was so toasted; the outside was way too crusty and became so brittle that it just came apart in big shards. 

2. Whether it was positioning of the ice cream or there was simply too much of it, this thing was twice the size of my mouth so eating both ice cream and bread together was so messy and nearly impossible until the end, when the ice cream had completely melted, soaked into the bun and made the dough soggy.

3. The scoopy straw that's provided was very impractical, except perhaps for sucking up the leftover melted ice cream right at the end. A small plastic spoon would have been better. 

4. Because I review baked goods, not ice cream sandwiches, I wasn't the biggest fan of the actual melon pan. One reason was that it was too crusty, especially on the inside. I love when you have that crust on the outside and soft inside, but here it was more crunchy on the inside than along that melon top. In truth, on its own it was nothing special. 

In the end, if this really is the second most delicious ice cream melon pan in the world, I may be curious to try the best ice cream melon pan... but I'm not exactly running to try the third most delicious. ;P 

Rating: **1/2