The good wich of the East

The hero of modern Japanese cuisine is not sushi, ramen or tempura. It may be the convenience-store sandwich: Cheap, mass produced, high quality and delicious

- VIR SANGHV

In Japan, convenience store sandwiches are a gourmet experience. They use milk bread, mayonnaise and good quality eggs to create sandwiches that are easy to store and transport.

Anyone who has spent some time eating in Japan will tell you about the greatness of Japanese food. For most of us — and for foodies certainly — the cuisine of Japan is characterised by great chefs who pay special attention to their ingredients and make, say, exquisite sashimi from lightly aged fish, or perfect rice pellets for nigiri sushi, or slice the finest wagyu so that each piece is delicately marbled with little veins of fat before it is cooked in a way that makes the melted fat moisten the meat. But there is another side to Japanese food: One that can be just as delicious despite costing say, less than 5% of what a meal at a great Kaiseki restaurant would cost.

Japan is the only country I know of, where you can go to a convenience store ( rather like a neighbor ho d grocer’s shop in India), pick up a packed sandwich and have the meal of your life. The sandwich will have been mass produced, probably in an assembly - line environment. The ingredients will be inexpensive: Industrially produced mayonnaise, for instance. And there will be white bread baked in massive batches. But the sandwich will be amazingly tasty.