A Sandwich to Remember

A SANDWICH TO REMEMBER

Who knew that one of the best culinary moments in Japan - an egg mayonnaise sandwich of all things - is to be found in a convenience store?

The Japanese have an unearthly knack for elevating the most mundane of life’s experiences into the sublime. Only they, for instance, could have turned the quotidian toilet bowl into a fully immersive, addictive ritual of automatically lifted lids, ozone spritzes, warm water bidet, and blow dryer. Who ever knew, either, that a piece of square paper could be folded into the most intricate insect or animal?

And only in Japan is the combini - the local equivalent of the 7-11 convenience store, of which Lawson is the most ubiquitous - a must-visit culinary destination in its own right.

Most visitors to Japan in search of the fabled local cuisine are apt to turn their collective noses up at the very idea of dining in a convenience store. But here, more than anywhere else, it pays dividends to remember the country’s unofficial travel slogan, “Japan does everything better."

For all kinds of gastronomic pleasures are to be found in a combini, especially in the hot food section. The crispiest chicken karaage, for starters, alongside moist flavour-packed onigiri rice pyramids, delicate skewers of fried fish balls, and instant noodles par excellence.

While other travellers make a beeline for the sushi, soba and izakaya joints, in my book, unless you’ve bitten into a tamago sando - an egg mayonnaise sandwich, but specifically, the version from Lawson - you’ve neither lived, nor been to Japan.

There are just three ingredients to this life-changing, gourmet marvel. The first is the soft, yet firm crustless white bread that miraculously never gets squishy or damp. The second is a pale creamy mayonnaise that uses only egg yolks with a splash of rice vinegar for that underlying hit of sweetness. And the third is a touch of milk to add an ethereal volume to the egg mixture.

So simple and yet so profoundly moving in its blend of carbs and protein, where the whole is greater and more delicious than the sum of its parts. And in the case of Lawson’s tamago sando, this is life-affirming sustenance that deserves its own special Michelin ranking - sweet and savoury notes, firm and yielding textures, white and sunshine yellow hues.

Yes, it’s that good.

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