Convenience stores in the United States don’t have a particularly good reputation (for the most part) when it comes to culinary offerings, unless high cuisine for you consists of Doritos, Gatorade and a hot dog that has been sitting in a warming case for hours.
But in Japan, convenience stores (known as konbini) are entirely different, offering a wide variety of fresh foods to go, including modern staples like onigiri rice balls and sandoitchi, or sandos, which come on shokupan, a sliced milk bread.
Sandos have become a bit of a cultural phenomenon — and even a tourist must-do — over the past decade as people mix in quick and flavorful to-go meals with high-end sushi or soba noodles. The most common sandos are egg salad, but there are also fruit-and-cream, chicken katsu and other variations. They’re typically served with the crusts cut off.
“This is a best-in-the-universe treat, and you can eat it at a 7-Eleven,” said Gil Asakawa, a longtime Denver journalist, author and food historian who has visited Japan regularly and eaten his share of sandwiches there. “I actively crave the egg salad sandos.”
But the key is the bread. “It’s soft and pillowy and sweet, but not too sweet,” said Asakawa, who moved to the U.S. with his family as a child. “It’s the bread I grew up eating in Japan.”
The Portuguese introduced bread to Japan in the 16th century. But like many Asian cultures, the Japanese relied on rice, not just for sustenance but as a source of pride and community. So bread stayed in the background. But after World War II, the U.S. government, which occupied Japan, imported vast amounts of wheat, both as a way to ease the hunger crisis in the post-war country and to help U.S. farmers sell surplus crops. At the same time, the U.S. mandated a system of school lunches for children — one that relied heavily on bread.
Standard American white bread didn’t suit the palates of many Japanese people, so bakers there “tweaked it,” Asakawa explained, by adding dairy — milk, cream or butter — along with eggs and even sugar to make it sweeter and fluffier. The result was shokupan, a rich, soft bread with a golden exterior that is often sliced thick. It rapidly became a staple. In fact, people in Japan today spend more money on bread than on rice, according to recent reports.
While Americans who have been to Japan may have tried sandos on shokupan, they haven’t jumped across the Pacific Ocean with the same urgency as ramen or sushi. But that may change soon, especially since 7-Eleven, which sells sandos in Japan, acknowledged in July that it plans to bring rice balls, ramen, sandos and other Japanese offerings to some stores in the United States. (Egg salad sandos have recently been spotted in some 7-Elevens in California.)
In Denver, they’ve been rare — with the biggest splash made when the Austin-based popup Sandoitchi comes to town to sell its highly photogenic and cheffed-up versions of sandos for a few weeks at a time at The Source Hotel & Market Hall.
There also have been some local versions, including those at Tokyo Premium Bakery in Denver and The Enchanted Oven in Broomfield, both of which make shokupan as well.
The Enchanted Oven only makes sandos occasionally since it isn’t located in a busy lunch area, but owner Maki Fairbanks, who founded the bakery in 2020 with her husband, Rod Stephens, bakes shokupan every morning. The process takes two days.
“First, we make a starter with just yeast, bread flour and water and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight. During this time, water absorption develops gluten. In the morning, we add other ingredients and knead the dough in a planetary mixer, which creates more gluten. We then proof the dough, divide it, let it rest, shape, proof and finally bake,” Fairbanks explained in an email.
Currently, The Enchanted Oven bakes 25-40 long loaves per week. Some of them go to sandwich shops, while others are divided into regular-sized loaves for retail customers.
The process is “tedious,” however, “so we have to charge more than some of the other bakeries and Asian supermarkets. But our shokupan is very special,” Fairbanks added.
When the store does make sandos, they’re usually egg salad, pork cutlet and fruit. “My recommendation is our fruit salad sandwich, which uses my secret Chantilly cream recipe,” Fairbanks said, rather than the heavy whipped cream used by other Japanese bakers.
“We know [Japanese-style sandos] are growing increasingly popular because of the number of inquiries we get from sandwich shops and Japanese restaurants,” she added.
Backing that up: Some newer cafes, food trucks, pop-ups and restaurants have added sandos to the menu as well, either as permanent fixtures or as specials.
At Kumoya, an 11-month-old restaurant in Denver’s Lower Highland neighborhood, the eclectic menu highlights both traditional sushi and more modern, izakaya-style dishes. But it also features a rotating, seasonal sando served on house-made shokupan.
Most of the guests let the chefs do the ordering, in what Kumoya chef Corey Baker calls “true omakase fashion,” while others prefer to take on the ordering themselves. “We love to cater to every dining experience and push culinary boundaries within those experiences.” That said, Baker doesn’t want anyone to break the bank in order to fill up. “I personally have had many omakase dinners around the world in which I am left hungry afterward, and grab a burger or something more substantial on the way home. The sando is my way of leaving the customer satiated.”
Here are some of the places in metro Denver where you can find Japanese-style sandos.
Krav Cafe: Newly opened in July, Krav Cafe is capitalizing on the trend toward high-end matcha drinks, tea, ice cream and desserts. Located on Platte Street and overlooking the city, Krav is also focused on what looks good aesthetically, and that includes its sandos, each neatly wrapped in a plastic container and tied off with a string. You’ll find egg salad and strawberry sandos behind the case, with more varieties coming in the future. 1671 Central St., Denver; kravlohi.com
Tokyo Premium Bakery: Busy most mornings, and busier on the weekends, this hidden gem sells Japanese-style baked goods and pastries. As for sandos, the store has ham and egg salad or tuna-egg, and strawberry or fruit. Each is $5 (a bargain) and cut into triangles like at Japanese convenience stores.
But the bigger draw is the fresh loaves of Shokupan bread — thick, sweet and ready for you to experiment on with your own sando fixins. 1540 S. Pearl St., Denver; tokyopremiumbakery.com
The Enchanted Oven: This Broomfield bakery specializes in making beautiful cakes, buns, sweets and treats. But it also has some Japanese specialties since co-owner Maki Fairbanks was born in Japan. They include shokupan bread and sandos (call ahead, though, since they aren’t an every-day offering) with egg salad, ham, pork cutlet and fruit. 520 Zang St., Broomfield; theenchantedoven.cafe
Kicnic Time: One of 10 Korean food stalls inside Coark Collective, an Asian-themed food court, Kicnic Time offers three kinds of fruit sandos: strawberry, banana chocolate and mixed fruit, which can be ordered alongside kimbop (Korean-style sushi) and other kinds of sandwiches. 15775 E. Arapahoe Road, Centennial; coarkcollective.com
Congress Park Market: This deli and market is part of the Spinelli’s group of businesses, and it’s the only one that offers sandos (subject to availability) on house-made Shokupan bread. In the past, the market has offered both egg salad with kewpie mayo and double-fried Korean-style chicken with gochujang and honey. 2620 E. 12th Ave., Denver; spinellismarket.com
Kumoya: This Japanese restaurant serves a seasonal sando on house-made shokupan. Right now, it’s a panko-fried chicken thigh cutlet with Napa cabbage slaw, curry aioli, and tonkatsu sauce topped with a Jidori egg salad. There is also the option of adding trout roe. Chef Baker said aesthetics and functionality both come into play when it comes to eating a sando. “Typically, Japanese sandos are cut at diagonals from a square because of the consistency of products used inside the sandwich. However, at Kumoya, we cut our sandos into quarters because of the components used” and because that makes the sandwiches easier to eat. 2400 W. 32nd Ave., Denver; kumoyadenver.com
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