Bring the konbini home with you! Japanese egg salad sandos bring the joy of a fluffy egg salad filling pillowed between even fluffier milk bread.

If you've been to Tokyo, you've probably been to a konbini. Between Lawson, Family Mart, and 7-Eleven, you'll find multiple convenience stores on every block, featuring a variety of freshly-made foods that are delivered multiple times a day.

We'll have a full konbini taste test coming soon, but for today, we're going to talk about one of the things they do best: egg salad sandwiches.

Compared with a typical American egg salad, Japanese egg salad sandwich filling is remarkably smooth and fluffy, with very little getting in the way of the eggs themselves: Kewpie mayonnaise, a little mustard, sugar, and salt. There's nothing really tricky about this other than finding the proper bread (shokupan, or Japanese milk bread) but even if you can't, and decent sliced sandwich bread will still work.

If you want perfectly peelable boiled eggs, you can use my thoroughly-tested, fool-resistant method, (though honestly, this is egg salad and the egg is getting mashed and chopped anyway, so who cares if the shells stick?). The only real key is to cook them just to the stage where the yolks are nearly fully opaque but not dry or chalky. It's better to slightly undershoot than overcook them.

The trick to getting that extra-smooth and fluffy texture is to push most of the cooked egg through a fine-mesh strainer rather than simply chopping or mashing it. You end up with something much lighter and silkier, with just enough chopped egg white folded back in for texture.

I also like saving one whole egg to slice and tuck into the center. It’s not strictly necessary—the simplest versions are just bread and egg salad—but it looks nice when you cut into the sandwich, and, more importantly, it means more egg.

Speaking of which, use the best eggs you can find for this. This is when you want to see those golden yolks!

Recipe: Japanese Convenience Store-Style Egg Salad Sando

Every recipe I publish here is personally tested, tasted, and approved.

What I love about this recipe:

Extra-light, fluffy egg salad with just a little texture.

Simple seasoning that keeps the eggs front and center.

A whole sliced egg in the middle makes it extra eggy and extra pretty.

Yield: 1 very large sandwichActive Time: 15 minutesTotal Time: 30 minutesNotes: Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise has a slightly different, richer flavor than the version manufactured in the United States; either will work, but I prefer the Japanese version here. For the easiest peeling, lower the eggs into water that is already boiling rather than starting them in cold water. An ice bath gets them cool enough to peel quickly, but the chilling itself is not what makes them easier to peel.

Ingredients

4 large eggs

3 tablespoons Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise, plus more as needed

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon sugar

Kosher salt, to taste

MSG, to taste, optional

2 thick slices Japanese shokupan or other very soft white sandwich bread

Method

Bring about 1 1/2 inches of water to a boil in a small lidded saucepan. Carefully lower the eggs into the pot, cover, and cook at a gentle boil for 9 1/2 to 10 minutes. Transfer the eggs to an ice bath and let stand until cool enough to handle. Crack them all over, then peel under cool running water, starting at the fat end where the air pocket is.

Set the nicest-looking egg aside. Separate the yolks from 2 of the remaining eggs. Place the yolks and the final whole egg in a fine-mesh strainer set over a medium bowl. Using a flexible spatula, press the eggs through the strainer until you've pushed it all through the other side.

Finely chop 2 egg-white halves and fold them into the strained egg mixture. Reserve any remaining cooked white for snacking or another use. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, a pinch of salt, and MSG, if using. Fold gently to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning and mayonnaise as necessary. The finished salad should be creamy, light, and fluffy.

Spread about half of the egg salad in a thick layer over one slice of bread, leaving a small border around the edges. Slice the reserved egg and arrange the slices across the center of the sandwich. Top with the remaining egg salad, followed by the second slice of bread.

Using a sharp bread knife or chef's knife, trim off the crusts. Slice the sandwich in half diagonally and serve.