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If you haven't heard by now, compared to the kinds of sandwiches you'll find in convenience stores in most parts of the world, Japanese convenience store sandwiches are exceptionally good. Made with fluffy white shokupan milk bread, crusts removed and shaped into perfect triangles, they're hard to resist. And while you'll find BLT, tuna salad, and many others in Japanese konbini (convenience stores), there's one golden sandwich that has a special place in the hearts of conbini fare aficionados, and that's the tamago sando, the egg salad sandwich. The late Anthony Bourdain was such a fan that he called the tamago sando at one convenience store chain "unnaturally fluffy, insanely delicious, incongruously addictive." (Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain, Okinawa episode).
FamilyMart's improved tamago sando
As some of our readers may recall, we recently introduced FamilyMart's new sandwich lineup, which features more eco-friendly packaging and improvements in sandwich quality. Among the sandwiches targeted for the upgrade was their tamago sando, now featuring 25% more filling, and an improved egg salad recipe.
Of course, we had to try one for ourselves and see what all the fuss was about.
Indeed, compared to the egg salad sandwiches at some convenience store chains, these sandwiches did look plumper. The egg salad looks creamy and inviting, a deep yellow color, with chunks of cooked egg whites blended into the egg yolks.
Holding the sandwich, the shokupan is fluffy and soft and has a lightly sweet aroma. But how does it taste?
From our experience, when a konbini egg salad sandwich is good, it rarely lasts long once we open the wrapping and take the first bite. In this case, the first bite was so good that we really needed to exercise restraint to eat it slowly for this review!
Some egg salad fillings have a bit too much vinegar for our taste, but this one was delightfully creamy and light, with the perfect amount of mayonnaise and good-quality eggs. The byline on the product name in Japanese says: "You can really appreciate the taste of eggs," and we agree wholeheartedly with that statement. The eggs are of good quality and the taste of egg yolks really does come across. It's not too salty either, which makes it easy to eat. As for the quantity, we could appreciate the additional 25% since any less would have probably left us wanting more.
All in all, this an excellent tamago sando that's definitely worth trying the next time you visit Japan (or stop by your local FamilyMart).
FamilyMart's new and improved egg salad sandwiches (たまごサンド tamago sando) cost 212 yen (228 yen with tax) and are available at approximately 16,200 FamilyMart stores nationwide, excluding Okinawa Prefecture.
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- External Link
- https://grapee.jp/en/
20 Comments
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snowymountainhell
Well worth paying Fami-Ma double the price for a real sandwich versus ripped-off by those ‘kechi’, lunch-paku with only a thin schmear of flavor inside. There is also the option of those overpriced, pre-cut ‘sando’ showing only enough ingredient at the visible edge of the prepackaged slices.
Nippori Nick
I wish they would leave the crust on the bread. Crustless is something that appeals only to a small child or baby
Charlie Sommers
I'm with you Nippori Nick, I love an extra crusty bread.
starpunk
That's like asking why so many dishes in New England is seafood. Or for that matter why so many dishes of Oriental cuisine comes with rice.
You make your food based on the plant and animal resources in your locality and environment, your ecosystem. Simple as that.
mokuyobi
Tamago sando, Kare-pan & coffee is my ultimate power breakfast.
snowymountainhell
Darn @starpunk missed opportunity. Always eggcited you include a song or music reference with your posts on various topics. What’s the best track here? Jacko’s Beat It (1982) with Eddie Van Halen’s pro bono solo?
snowymountainhell
Recall Tony Bourdain’s (RIP) celebrity endorsement of tamago sando, here again mentioned with Okinawa in the first paragraph, sadly to leave it somewhat moot with the disclaimer in the last paragraph:
“available at approximately 16,200 FamilyMart stores nationwide, excluding Okinawa Prefecture”. -snowymountainhell
May start another expat ‘toilet’ debate today but for the Japanophiles here, is it “konbini” or,
as the author(s) write: “conbini” ?
Moderator: Noted. Thank you.
Luddite
The bread is just disgusting, that slightly damp, sweet pap that sticks to the roof of your mouth. Try using some proper bread in the sandwiches.
commanteer
The horror....
englisc aspyrgend
Elvis, not in my salad dressings, I make my own, no MSG needed. Mustard I also make fresh, nothing in it but mustard and a little water!
Pukey2
Antique:
potato salad has mayonnaise which contains oeufs.
starpunk
I wasn't thinking about any lyrical reference whatsoever here. You have your environment, your ecosystem and your culture bases its cuisine on what's around you. And you try your best to make it palatable and fun to eat. Dining should be fun, it's necessary but fun.
>
englisc aspyrgend
Luddite, agree, ordinary bread should only have flour, yeast, water and a little salt to strengthen the gluten, nothing else and most assuredly not sugar!
englisc aspyrgend
MSG’s sole purpose is to make bland or inferior products taste better, it has no nutritional value. No food sold should have the muck in it!
Antiquesaving
Pukey2Today 10:03 am JST
Sorry but ???????
Potato salad, tuna salad, chicken, etc...all without eggs or ham all usually available in most convenience stores.
But then this is JAPAN and go look in the onigiri section and see variety and imagination!
At Lawson's yesterday I counted over 12 different types of onigiri including a very very delicious umeboshi and Shiso one which I enjoyed very much.
Antiquesaving
Sorry if it is like the previous version stuffed with MSG I will pass and stick with 7-eleven egg sandwiches that for some miraculous reason don't contain MSG.
Pukey2
Why on earth does every single sandwich in Japan have to have either eggs or ham? There's a real lack of imagination here.