Fall version of pyorin on sale at Nagoya Station.

“Pyorin”, the cutest sweet in Nagoya, is rising in the ranks of local Nagoya specialties.  Take the sound a baby chick makes,  “piiiii piiiii piiiii” , and the word pudding, or purin in Japanese, put them together with a darling baby chick face in the shape of a pudding-like dessert, and you have pyorin!  

Last September, Pyorin won an award for its excellency at Aichi prefecture’s food contest of local specialties.   Since then this treat has been selling like hot cakes while the producers speed up production to meet demands.

Kochin chicken, a species of chicken unique to Aichi prefecture are well-known for the tasty chicken meat they produce.  Pyorin represents the kochin chicken by using the kochin eggs in its production.  This makes Pyorin a specialty unique to Nagoya.  They are created by crumbling soft sponge cake over pudding made from kochin eggs, which is then wrapped in a vanilla mousse and moulded into the shape of fluffy baby chicks.

Tokai Food Services representative revealed that originally each chick was hand-made by one of their female pâtissiers, giving each expression on the face of the chick different variations of an adorable look.  ”You can enjoy their cute appearance along with the smooth sweetness which melts in your mouth with every bite.”

When they first hit the shelves, only around 5000 to 8000 Pyorin were being sold per month.  However, after receiving an award from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ food preparation division, monthly sales soured to 15 thousand to 20 thousand a month.

They continued to do well and reached an all time high in sales of 14 thousand for the month of August, including sales of products on limited time offer.  But according to a Tokai Foods Services spokesperson, the production process took a lot of trial and error to reach that point.

The spokesperson says “It was very difficult to get the right consistency of the vanilla mousse for it to keep it from losing its shape.  We also worked hard on drawing out the flavor of the kochin eggs so we had to make sure the vanilla mousse sweetness  wasn’t too overpowering.  The chocolate shaped wings are hand-made, making mass production impossible.  We can only produce enough for three hours of take home sales a day.  That is why they are only sold at Nagoya Station, making them that much more of a novelty.”

People who have eaten Pyorin talk of how difficult it is to bite into that cute little face.  Most agree that it is best to take the first bite from the back!

Pyorin is popular among older customers who claim their grandchildren love them.  Children can’t help but love the different time limited seasonal Pyorin they have offered.  To present, they have come up with limited-edition Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, and a special green tea version of Pyroin.

From September 14th through October 8th, they will offer the fall version of Pyorin, which will use a sweet potato mousse instead of vanilla, a chocolate covered almond for the comb, and a sugar-glazed sweet
potato slice for a side decoration.

The standard pyorin availabe at Nagoya Station

Pyorin can be eaten out only at the Cafe Janjyanu Rejie at Nagoya Station and sell for 300 yen a piece, about $3.75 US. If you happen to find yourselves in Nagoya Station with a little time on your hands, why not give this special treat a try.  Hopefully they won’t be sold out for the day!

Source: Exite News Bit (Japanese)