By Keiko Fukuda
The Pacific Square is a shopping mall in Gardena which is a city where many Japanese and Japanese Americans reside. After the recent change of the Japanese grocery store there, which has been reborn as “Tokyo Central & Main”, a small pork buns shop that used to be located at a corner of the food court in the previous market has moved to a new location in the new market. Since the new location is 3 times larger than the previous space, the interior of this shop has been redesigned to provide a red and black color-themed brighter ambience, and a large sign of the menu with photos that are visible from everywhere in the food court has been displayed. A designer/photographer was specifically hired to redesign the shop space for better visibility. The bigger space allowed to expand the menu items such as fried rice and an-kake pan-fried noodles that require larger utensils and space.
The number of customers has been increasing every time I visit this shop. It is like I have been witnessing a great example of a successful case achieved by a small effective change – in this case, a change of location, interior, and addition of an easy-to-read menu sign. Although the taste of the buns has been constantly evolving, the basic concept has been the same – serving of very tasty authentic steamed pork buns, the kind you find in the Tokyo area, which has been the purpose of the owner/chef Kenichi Usui since the opening in 2012. Chef Usui’s career spans 23 years. He worked in a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo for a long time, and then came here 15 years ago. After running a sushi restaurant for a while, he entrusted the shop with the partner and left to start a ramen food truck business.
He said, “I was mainly serving ramen, but the pork buns I tried to add to the menu was such a big hit, and that convinced me to turn it into a pork buns only business.”
First, he started out with an outdoor vendor style shop, and then moved to a small corner shop in the market before turning to Tokyo Central & Main in 2012.
The pork buns are made from scratch by chef Usui with the ingredients procured himself. The size of the buns are overwhelmingly large. You cannot help but smile when tasting its tender voluminous pork and crispy vegetable contents. However, I thought that the price, $3.75, for one pork bun might sound a bit expensive if you have not tasted it yet. I asked him if he ever worried that people may think twice about buying because of the high price. He said, “You pay over 500yen for a good-quality pork bun in Tokyo. My price indicates the kind of quality I am striving for to achieve in my creation.”
For the people who don’t eat pork for religious reasons, and for the many vegans who live in the Los Angeles area, he makes Vegan Yasai Buns. He says, “My wife suddenly became a vegan, which triggered the idea of serving vegan buns. Some customers also asked if I sell vegan buns at the shop.” He told me that there is a regular customer who lives far away who is absolutely hooked on both pork and vegan buns, and buys as many as 30 buns each time to freeze them and defrost one by one to enjoy a few at a time.
Other menu items include meaty cheese buns, crab & pork shumai dumplings, veggie spring rolls, pork & takana dumplings, etc. Besides the pork buns, there are even more items that prove his skills as chef such as grilled gyozas which have been highly recommended by the Los Angeles Times, and chicken wings made by a specially developed recipe by Mr. Usui because it is one of his favorite foods. For the noodle dishes, the House Special An-kake Fried Noodles is sold often.
This pork buns shop has stepped up from an outdoor vendor style shop to a small in-market corner shop, and now to a shop 3 times larger. “People say that I am probably taking too many steps (lol).” Mr. Usui, the fastidious pork bun maker told me his prospect, “I want to come up with a strategy as my next step to have more and more Americans try my pork buns”.
こだわりの手作り肉まん
日系人が多く暮らすガーデナのショッピングモール、パシフィックスクエア。ここにあった日系の食料品マーケットが東京セントラル＆メインという名称で生まれ変わった後、それまでフードコートの片隅で営業していた肉まん屋が同じマーケット内で移転した。店舗面積が３倍になったのを機に、インテリアも赤と黒を基調にした明るい雰囲気に改装し、フードコートからでも見える写真つきの大型のメニューを掲示した。店の改装に関しては、フォトグラファー兼グラフィックデザイナーを雇って視覚的な効果を追求した。メニューにもそれまでは店が狭くて作るのが難しかった鍋を使う、チャーハンやあんかけ焼きそばなどの料理数種を加えた。
それからは、筆者が店を訪れるたびに明らかに顧客の数は増えていった。同じマーケット内でも、店の場所を変えて改装し、注文しやすいメニューを掲げるだけでこんなにもプラスの影響が出るのか、という見本を見ているようだった。味は常に進化させつつも、基本はオーナーの臼井健一さんが2012年のオープン以来こだわり続けた「東京で食べられるような本格的な肉まん」だ。
臼井さんのシェフ歴は23年。東京で中華料理の料理人を長らく務めた後、15年前に渡米。一時は寿司屋を経営していたが、パートナーに店を託し、自身はラーメンのフードトラックビジネスを始めた。
「ラーメンがメインでしたが、試しに出した肉まんが好評で、これは肉まんだけでいけるかもしれない、と思ったのが肉まん専門に転換したきっかけ」と臼井さんは話す。そこでまず、屋台形式で肉まん屋を開店。さらに、2012年に東京セントラル＆メインの前身のマーケット内に店舗を構えた。
食材も臼井さんが調達し、手作りした肉まん。大きさにも圧倒されるが、食べてみれば、たっぷりの豚肉と野菜のシャキシャキ感が相まった、優しい味わいに思わず笑顔になる。しかし、食べたことがない人にとっては、１個３ドル75セントという価格は高過ぎるように感じるに違いない。「価格を高くすることで敬遠されるとは思わなかったか？」と臼井さんに聞くと、「東京で本格的な肉まんを買うと１個500円はします。自分が作る肉まんもそのクオリティーまでもっていきたいという気持ちを込めています」と答えた。
また、豚肉を宗教上の理由で食べない人々や、ロサンゼルスという土地柄、ビーガンが多いことから、野菜まんも売っている。「実は妻が突然ビーガンになったことで、店でもビーガンメニューを出そうと思いつきました。また、店頭でビーガンのものはないか？とお客さんに聞かれたこともきっかけになりました」
この肉まんや野菜まんに病みつきになり、遠方から訪れて一度に30個購入し、冷凍した後に少しずつ解凍して食べるのを楽しみにしているリピーターもいるそうだ。
メニューには他にもチーズ肉まんや蟹シュウマイや野菜春巻き、焼き高菜饅頭が並ぶ。また、ロサンゼルスタイムズに絶賛された焼き餃子、臼井さん自身が好きでレシピにこだわって開発した手羽唐揚げなど、肉まん以外にも実力を証明する商品が揃う。麺類では五目あんかけ焼きそばがよく出る。
屋台、マーケット内の小さい店舗、そして３倍の店舗と段階を踏みながら前進している肉まん屋。「まわりの人には段階を踏みすぎでしょう、と言われますが（笑）、次のステップはもっと多くのアメリカ人のお客さんに食べてもらえるような作戦を考えたいですね」と、こだわりの肉まん職人、臼井さんは抱負を語った。
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Gardena, CA 90247
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