We tried the Japan-inspired 7-Eleven egg sandwich. Here's what we thought
Eggs, mayo and two slices of white bread.
By any standard, the primary ingredients of the new 7-Eleven Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich are simple. And that’s just as it’s supposed to be.
Inspired by the popular tamago sando available at the convenience store chain in Japan, the Canadian version features cage-free hard-boiled eggs, authentic Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise and milk bread (shokupan) sourced from a Vancouver bakery.
At first glance, the sandwiches look somewhat unremarkable thanks to the utilitarian packaging. Food fans who may be familiar with the branding of the Japanese iteration may be disappointed to find the 7-Eleven Canada egg salad sandwiches come in a clear plastic container with simple black-and-white labelling.
Above the “Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich” declaration, your eye quickly catches a Health Canada warning that flags that this simple sandwich is high in both saturated fat and sodium. A reluctant glimpse at the nutrition facts on the back provided the information that it harbours 18 g of fat (4 g saturated), 350 calories and 510 mg of sodium.
Certainly not a health food, and in no way marketed as such, the Canadian take on the tamago sando is designed instead to dupe a favourite grab-and-go snack.
“It took over a year to source out all of the ingredients,” said 7-Eleven Canada executive chef Benny Cheng, when the news broke about the sandwich launch last month.
Read more about the chef’s story behind the sandwiches HERE.
The sandwiches are made daily at one of the company’s partner commissaries across Canada, which means the sandwiches aren’t soggy.
Launching in 7-Eleven locations across Canada on March 4, the sandwich will be priced at $5.95. In advance of the launch, we had a chance to try the trendy combination of bread and egg mixture.
“These are tasty,” city editor Doug Quan said after trying one for himself. “(It) reminds me so much of the egg sandwiches my mom used to make me using fluffy white bread with the crust removed.”
Noting he liked the “nice mix of tangy and savoury” provided by the egg salad recipe, Quan, who has himself tried the tamago sando while travelling in Asia, remarked on the texture of the egg.
Finely chopped, the eggs have a super smooth feel. And there’s a definite tang to the filling that comes from the Kewpie mayonnaise.
The authentic version uses only egg yolks, not the whole eggs used in North American mayonnaise, to deliver a richer flavour with a deeper umami taste. While some egg salad sandwiches can be rather bland or flat — chef Cheng’s take on the viral 7-Eleven treat comes alive with a more complex-seeming mix.
Having also enjoyed the authentic tamago sando in Tokyo, I found the ratio of bread to egg salad filling to be just a bit off. The milk bread boasts a good chew (the kind of bread that’s perfect for what a foodie friend of mine calls #breadtear videos, to showcase the internal texture of a baked loaf or bun), but the layer of egg salad on the Canadian take seemed a bit thinner than I remembered.
Rather than squishing out in escape from between the two bread slices due to the tension of a big bite, the layer of egg salad stayed in place. Perhaps it’s a testament to the strength of the egg-to-mayonnaise ratio more than the exact filling amount that explains the sandwich’s ability to hold it all together.
Overall, a soft sandwich on pillowy bread, the 7-Eleven Japanese Style Egg Salad Sandwich would be a perfect pairing for a crisp, salty bag of chips and an ice-cold carbonated beverage. You know, if you really wanted to go all in.
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Source: vancouversun.com