Kanadell Japanese Bakery serves up sandos—and nostalgia—on fluffy milk bread
Keiko Nakanishi recently expanded her East Van bakery to include a Japanese food market
Keiko Nakanishi makes melon pan (left) and maple cream loaf (her version of milk bread) at Kanadell Japanese Bakery. Photos via Kanadell Japanese Bakery
THROW A STONE in 2021, and you will hit someone who makes their own bread. Although sourdough rose to the status of darling during the pandemic baking craze, for Keiko Nakanishi, Japanese milk bread has become her bread and butter.
Nakanishi is the owner and head baker at Kanadell Japanese Bakery, where milk bread takes centre-stage. Characterized by its light and fluffy texture and its faintly sweet and buttery taste, it’s used for sweet or savoury sandwiches, or “sandos”.
Staying true to traditional baking methods, Nakanishi aims for authenticity in her version of milk bread, which she calls a maple cream loaf, and in other types of Japanese baked goods. Consider melon pan, a sweet bun shaped to look like a melon or cantaloupe with a crispy crust and fluffy inside. While a sense of nostalgia got Nakanishi started on her business journey, the path to her baking career wasn’t straightforward.
Keiko Nakanishi.
It was a love of the English language that originally brought her to Canada. “I’m a language nerd,” says Nakanishi, who studied linguistics at Aichi University. “I lived in the international dorm, so I had lot of foreigner, English-speaking friends, but I always wanted to live in an English-speaking country.”
Nakanishi came to Vancouver through a working holiday visa program in 2011. Her first job here was at an agency that supports Japanese students in Canada; after sitting at a desk all day, she would bake for friends on the side. They began telling her they were willing to pay for her baked goods—notably her creamy and fanciful cakes—which gave her the nudge in a new direction she needed.
“I’ve always been pretty creative,” says Nakanishi, who loves every kind of DIY project, from wood working to making furniture. “My hobbies have always been a big part of me and my everyday. And another part of myself always wanted to be a business owner, to be in control of my life with myself, by myself.”
Kanadell takes its name from the Japanese word kanadelu (奏でる), which loosely translates as “making great sounds with objects in great harmony”. The way Nakanishi describes it, just as when a “waterfall and birds making great sounds together in the nature”, her wish for Kanadell is “to be a great harmony in between Japanese and Canadian foods and cultures”.
Launching out of Commissary Connect in 2017 as an online bakery, Kanadell quickly gained popularity at Vancouver Farmer’s Markets. In 2018, Nakanishi shifted her focus from cakes to bread—initially because the latter proved to be an easier product to transport. “But then I realized how many people actually wanted Japanese bread….It had lots of potential,” she says. “I try to be traditional as much as possible, as that’s what Japanese people here, including myself, miss the most.”
Although the pandemic has been disastrous for so many food ventures, Kanadell keeps growing. It moved into its own bricks-and-mortar space at 3596 East Hasting Street in December 2020 and recently expanded with Kanadell-Ya Japanese Market. The little shop features some of her products and those by other local artisan makers as well as imported goodies. Think daily bento boxes, Kanadell’s Curry Powder, bottled milk tea, Salty Cabbage Classic Korean Kimchi, Pocky, and more.
Yuzu Matcha Swirl Buns at Kanadell Japanese Bakery. Photo via Kanadell Japanese Bakery
On the bakery’s ever-changing menu are heaps of treats: soft, chewy, and vegan Yuzu Matcha Swirl Buns and Orange Chocolate Swirl Buns, for instance, and her not-too-sweet Black Sesame Nanaimo Bar.
Weekends bring Sando Saturdays. The options stuffed in between two pieces of the fluffy milk bread? Pork Tenderloin Katsu, Ebi (shrimp) Katsu, Yuzu Shichimi Tuna Mayo, Curry Chicken Salad, Japanese Beef Curry, and Egg & Spam, among others. Then there’s a Fruit Sando with Mascarpone cream.
Nakanishi still makes cakes, from the Strawberry Premium Double Cream Roll to a Matcha Chocolate Mousse Mochi Bomb to a Bear Yuzu Meringue Pie.
Her Rooster & Chick are crazily popular animal-shaped breads filled with custard cream; “cute and delicious”, they’re randomly available at the shop and snapped up almost as quickly as she puts them out.
The maple cream loaf, Nakanishi’s milk bread, has become Kanadell’s beloved item—and it’s hers, too.
“It’s totally for myself,” she says. “I love that it’s very soft and moist and slightly sweet so that you can eat it as is.
“I’m proud of my nationality, and the Japanese culture and history…Living in Japan I didn’t realize how much I loved Japanese food,” says Nakanishi. “I can help Japanese people enjoy nostalgic Japanese tastes in Vancouver and educate others on authentic Japanese baking.”
For more information, see Kanadell Japanese Bakery.
“Cute and delicious”: Kanadell’s Roost and Chick buns. Photo via Kanadell Japanese Bakery
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