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Today’s Nibbles column tracks my trip down the rabbit hole of Japanese-style egg salad sandwiches. I include some high-altitude egg boiling advice. Plus: canned-beer praise for Oskar Blues, and dreams of summer CSA vegetables and this year’s garden.
Send money-saving food tips, comments and information about Boulder County restaurants to nibbles@boulderreportinglab.org.
— John Lehndorff
Trigger warning: This newsletter includes a great deal of mayonnaise. This may cause a reaction in those with a strong aversion to mayo.
For years, friends have returned from trips to Japan raving about the convenience store cuisine available there. They have expressed their love for 7-Eleven’s tamago sandos – Japanese egg salad sandwiches on white bread – with a slightly alarming, cult-like intensity.
I’ve been a fan of affordable egg salad (and its mayo-centric siblings, chicken salad and tuna salad) since I was a kid. Boulder County delis do serve perfectly decent American egg salad sandwiches, but I don’t recall ever being totally ecstatic about any egg salad sandwich. I thought: How good could tamago sandos possibly be?
When I heard that American 7-Eleven stores were stocking the famous Japanese egg salad sandwiches, curiosity dragged me to a 7-Eleven in Boulder.
What I did not know was that it would send me down an improbable egg salad sandwich rabbit hole.
The 7-Eleven egg salad sandwich is simply eggs and Kewpie-brand mayo on thick slices of Japanese milk bread.
One bite and I totally got the charm. Japanese milk bread, or shokupan, is a soft, squishy white bread with a craveable, barely sweet flavor that sits somewhere between challah, brioche and Hawaiian rolls. The egg salad was creamy smooth with minced whites. There were no pickles, celery, tomatoes, onions, lettuce or other seasonings to interfere with the comfy goodness. It tasted purely like eggs … and not deviled eggs, either.
Mayo fans will loudly debate whether Duke’s or Hellmann’s is the ideal spread, but among chefs, the only answer is Japanese Kewpie mayo, which has an eggier and less tart flavor. Note: Miracle Whip is to mayo as Cool Whip is to whipped cream.
As a point of comparison, I decided to grab a prepared egg salad sandwich while shopping at Whole Foods Market in Superior. One bite told the tale. Dry, thin slices of honey wheat bread were filled with tart, mustardy and non-creamy egg salad with chunky whites, onion and celery, plus wilted slivers of tomato and lettuce. Not only didn’t this sandwich taste appealing, but it was also more expensive than the 7-Eleven version.
However, I did discover that the Whole Foods Market does sell loaves of decent Japanese milk bread.
That disappointment sent me scurrying 15 minutes down the highway on the advice of a foodie friend to the Enchanted Oven. The Japanese-style bakery is an island of authenticity surrounded by chain eateries in Broomfield.
Hiroshima-raised owner Maki Stephens uses thick slices of her wonderful house-baked shokupan for tamago sandos that are a clear step up from the convenience store version. The bread is thickly layered with creamy egg salad with finely chopped whites. Once again, no extraneous vegetation interfered with the flavor.
The Enchanted Oven also offers bento lunches, mochi donuts, malasadas, cakes, cinnamon rolls, kouign amann, sweet custard buns, steamed pork buns and fried curry rolls.
I was prepared to end my sandwich search there when the algorithm whispered into my data stream: There’s this place in Longmont called Kawaii Konbini. The Japanese-inspired snack shop and convenience store carries grocery items like miso and quick lunch options like instant ramen varieties, plus made-to-order onigiri – seaweed-wrapped, savory stuffed rice balls.
According to Brooks Steele, co-owner with April Bliss of Kawaii Konbini, the menu item that almost always sells out first every day is his take on Japanese egg salad sandwiches.
It’s easy to understand why. Kawaii Konbini’s version is nearly perfect from the super-silky salad with just the right-sized chopped egg whites to the proportion of salad to moist, sweet bread.
“We use Kewpie mayonnaise imported from Japan. It really tastes different than the American-made Kewpie. It has more umami flavor. I also add a little soy sauce and seven-spice mixture,” Steele says.
The other critical factor is the eggs. Instead of boiling or steaming eggs until they are hard, he cooks them for 10 minutes. “That way the yolks are still a little jammy and creamy when you whip them with the Kewpie,” he says.
Frugal cooking hack: Boiling eggs in Boulder
No matter where you buy them, great egg salad sandwiches are not inexpensive. However, making them at home can be highly affordable if you know how to boil eggs correctly at Boulder’s 5,430-foot elevation.
As the Colorado State University Extension Service notes, water boils at lower temperatures at higher elevations because of decreased atmospheric pressure. For instance, eggs that take 15 minutes to hard-boil in Boulder may require five or more extra cooking minutes in Nederland at 8,235 feet.
CSU offers these tips to hard-cook eggs.
For easier peeling, use large eggs that are 7 to 10 days old.
Make sure eggs are at room temperature. Cold eggs straight from the fridge are more likely to crack when you cook them.
Step 1: Place eggs in a saucepan large enough to hold them in a single layer. Add cold water to cover eggs by 1 inch. Cover pan and heat on high just to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Step 2: Remove pan from burner. Let eggs stand, covered, 15 minutes for large eggs.
Step 3: Drain and cool immediately in a bowl of iced water. Peel when thoroughly chilled. Start peeling at large end, holding the egg under cold running water to help ease the shell off.
Forbes lauds Oskar Blues’ can-do beer attitude
Emily Price wrote in the Dec. 28 issue of Forbes:
“Two decades on, the can is no longer a curiosity. It’s a standard. And while (Lyons-born) Oskar Blues didn’t invent canned beer, it was among the first to prove that aluminum could carry the same craftsmanship, care, and credibility as glass. In doing so, it helped change not just how beer is packaged, but how – and where – Americans drink it.”
The Oskar Blues Brewery is now owned by Monster Beverage Corporation. Oskar Blues restaurants in Lyons, Longmont, Denver and Colorado Springs are operated by original owner Dale Katechis – namesake of Dale’s Pale Ale.
Openings
Head West Subs is open at1600 Broadway, former location of Khow Thai.
Thee Smoothie Kort is open and dishing smoothies at 1920 Arapahoe Ave.
Family-owned Mary’s Mountain Cookies is open and baking at 457 Main St. in Longmont.
Closing
It’s last call for serious baking nerds to stock up on essential ingredients and equipment available only at the King Arthur Baking Company pop-up shop at 638 Pearl St. Open since September, the shop closes on Jan. 18.
Summer dreams include seed swaps, pruning trees, and CSA shares
New and veteran gardeners can pick up seeds and share growing secrets at the Niwot Garden Club’s Jan. 24 Seed Swap. RSVP here.
Boulder’s Benevolence Orchard hosts a Jan. 24 Winter Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop that helps assure a copious crop of apples, pears and peaches next fall. Register here.
Some Boulder County farms are already offering 2026 CSA shares. Many will sell out before the final spring snows.
John Lehndorff welcomes Anne Cure of Cure Organic Farm and representatives of Slow Food Boulder County to talk about local CSAs and answer listeners’ questions, 8:30-9 a.m. Jan. 15 on Radio Nibbles on KGNU, 88.5 FM.
“Americans can eat garbage, provided you sprinkle it liberally with ketchup, mustard, chili sauce, tabasco sauce, cayenne pepper, or any other condiment which destroys the original flavor of the dish.” – Novelist Henry Miller (1891-1980)
Want more Boulder bites?
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From tiki bars to taprooms, non-alcoholic beers, spirits and cocktails are becoming staples rather than afterthoughts. Continue reading…
New Boulder cocktail bar Siren brings a nautical, East Coast tavern vibe to South Boulder
The team behind Jungle has opened a martini-forward neighborhood bar with tinned seafood, vintage-ship decor and a family-friendly feel. Continue reading…
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