Althouse: "But at Konbi, a tiny restaurant in Los Angeles that the chefs Akira Akuto and Nick Montgomery run together, the egg salad sandwich is both delicious and alarmingly pretty..."

January 29, 2019

"But at Konbi, a tiny restaurant in Los Angeles that the chefs Akira Akuto and Nick Montgomery run together, the egg salad sandwich is both delicious and alarmingly pretty..."

"... so much so that it’s become a star on Instagram, with its saturated colors and satisfying symmetry. The egg salad is tucked between two slices of super-soft Japanese milk bread, with a snug soft-boiled egg hidden in each piece, revealing the deep orange, jammy yolks like a culinary magic trick. “A lot of times if you get an egg salad sandwich when you’re out, it doesn’t tend to be very good,” said Mr. Montgomery, understating the situation...."

There's an article about a famous egg salad sandwich in the NYT.

Don't get me started on the egg salad sandwich! Click on the "egg salad" links if you want to know more about me and egg salad sandwiches.

66 comments:

J. Farmer said...: Hmm..."alarmingly pretty" is not the first adjective that would have jumped to my mind upon seeing that. I love egg salad sandwiches (the trick is using more white and less yolk), but I don't think I have ever ordered one out and certainly never bough a prefab one.; 1/29/19, 8:43 AM
chillblaine said...: Instagram food status-signaling. While my brothers and sisters sleep in their cars, or on the street, and put their raggedy hands out for scraps, which benighted people train themselves to ignore.; 1/29/19, 8:43 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Egg salad is something old school delis usually excel at. It’s the cafeteria’s and Subways who suck at it.; 1/29/19, 8:45 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: I cannot handle the texture of eggs in any form other than baked goods. Egg salad in particular makes me want to hurl. I don't like to even look at it.

Other things that people seem to like that I also find completely repellent: that weird dessert with sliced bananas, vanilla wafers and pudding; shellfish in any form.; 1/29/19, 8:46 AM
Lucien said...: Can “What’s up Tiger Lily” be re-viewed in the era #MeToo?; 1/29/19, 8:46 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Slimy = gross.; 1/29/19, 8:46 AM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: SNL: Jeannie Darcy

(I couldn't find links to any of the original ones); 1/29/19, 8:47 AM
J. Farmer said...: @I Have Misplaced My Pants:

Other things that people seem to like that I also find completely repellent: that weird dessert with sliced bananas, vanilla wafers and pudding; shellfish in any form.

Banana pudding. And no eggs or shellfish. You would not have survived growing up in my home. But picking up on your theme, as much as I like the flavor, I have never been able to stomach flan due to its texture.; 1/29/19, 8:49 AM
tim maguire said...: I like the egg salad I make. I'm not sure if I've had someone else's and I have the feeling I would not like any that came from a store.; 1/29/19, 8:50 AM
Kevin said...: Don't get me started on the egg salad sandwich! Click on the "egg salad" links if you want to know more about me and egg salad sandwiches.

Look, it's all that's left for these folks. Those who were privileged got to all the good sandwiches first.

Not to immediately recognize and celebrate their achievement marks you as the unwokest of the unwoke.; 1/29/19, 8:51 AM
daskol said...: Egg and mayo go together well, but the words egg salad combine inharmoniously to make an unappetizing sound.; 1/29/19, 8:52 AM
J. Farmer said...: @tim maguire:

I like the egg salad I make. I'm not sure if I've had someone else's and I have the feeling I would not like any that came from a store.

Egg salad does seem to be one of those things, like potato salad or dressing, that has hyperspecificity in how it's made. I can't count the variations on potato salad I have eaten over the years, but still can only seem to enjoy that ones that taste like my mother's.; 1/29/19, 8:54 AM
Lucid-Ideas said...: Egg salad is the ultimate 10,000:1 shot. Usually horrible, risky, sometimes mediocre (this means you should've chosen something else), distinctly ugly, and really quite limited.

Every once in a while someone gets it though. The problem with this is that after having that good egg-salad-experience once, you think you can get it again, do so, and are wildly reminded of your folly. When good egg salad is found, it is to be horded and kept a secret, not loudly proclaimed on insta.

Goodbye good egg salad...we barely knew thee.; 1/29/19, 8:56 AM
Lash LaRue said...: Is tomato aspic next?; 1/29/19, 9:04 AM
Professional lady said...: Runny eggs - yuck!; 1/29/19, 9:04 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Lucid-Ideas:

This is a great article illustrating how positive food press can sometimes be the bane of a restaurant's existence.; 1/29/19, 9:04 AM
MadisonMan said...: 12 years ago! Wow.; 1/29/19, 9:09 AM
Nonapod said...: Makes me wonder if anyone made an "alarmingly pretty" sloppy joe.; 1/29/19, 9:11 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Konbi... Kondo...

What’s next in America’s Kon-mania?

I’m going to trademark Kon-troll.; 1/29/19, 9:11 AM
Basil Duke said...: An egg salad sandwich is basically a deviled egg slurry on toast.; 1/29/19, 9:15 AM
Tank said...: Tank loves egg salad. True that if you don’t make your own it can be anything from great to yecchh.; 1/29/19, 9:18 AM
Ralph L said...: My father must have been traumatized by a cooked egg white and a raw tomato when he was young.

Restaurant mayo triggers my IBS like nobody's business.; 1/29/19, 9:24 AM
fivewheels said...: Egg salad on a salt bagel was my New Jersey deli go-to. It doesn't make any sense, because as soon as you bite into it, it shoots the egg salad right out of the middle and makes a mess, but the flavor combination is still just right.; 1/29/19, 9:25 AM
wildswan said...: By this article I was led to a recipe for egg salad which was all the ingredients for devilled eggs AND for tuna salad except Tabasco, celery, and tuna. Mayo, Dijon mustard, sweet pickles, lemon, smoked paprika, pickle juice, salt, pepper. Lettuce. Chives and red onion on top. This person, I thought, has my stomach. The way to cook with eggs is to bury the taste of eggs. I think the recipe needs Tabasco. If I like it I'll report back.

PS. I will not make a great effort to place an ugly patch of oozing egg slime in the middle of my food. I just hope I can forget the picture.; 1/29/19, 9:27 AM
fivewheels said...: I will say the sandwich pictured is quite attractive, but it looks kind of plain and uninteresting and probably overpriced.; 1/29/19, 9:27 AM
gahrie said...: I'm eating an egg and sausage Mc muffin right now.; 1/29/19, 9:34 AM
Martin said...: Or, as Woody Allen wrote in "What's Up, Tiger Lilly,"

"An egg salad so good you could plotz!"; 1/29/19, 9:35 AM
gahrie said...: I make some pretty killer deviled eggs.; 1/29/19, 9:36 AM
Tank said...: We make deviled eggs every Christmas and Easter. The kids call them Jesus Eggs. They are holy good.; 1/29/19, 9:38 AM
chuck said...: My freshman year in college I lived on egg salad heros, haven't found good ones since.; 1/29/19, 9:41 AM
traditionalguy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/29/19, 9:46 AM
traditionalguy said...: Eggs and all these ingrediant are real big on Keto diets, except the bread needs to be limited to 1 slice. (You only get 2 slices to max out your carbs/day).We make it with 12 eggs at a time and sometimes add albacore white Tuna chunks in the mixing bowl. We use pickle relesh, French's yellow mustard and Dukes Mayo. Adding white albacore tuna chunks ( 2 cans) makes it a meal.

But the recipes now all use sea salt. That is silly. Morton's Iodized works fine, and you don't get a thyroid goiter for being snooty.; 1/29/19, 9:48 AM
Basil Duke said...: I make a damned fine deviled egg, too. Because my best friend has a Mexican wife, I call them "los huevos del diablo" - eggs of the devil. Three keys: go light on the mustard, toss in a handful of sugar and let them age over night, like soup.; 1/29/19, 9:53 AM
Ralph L said...: wildswan, you do realize mayo is egg slime and oil?

The only time I could bear the taste of pickles was when I was on Prednisone steroid, but then, Everything Tasted Fabulous (I'd thought it just made you hungry).; 1/29/19, 9:55 AM
J. Farmer said...: @traditionalguy:

But the recipes now all use sea salt. That is silly. Morton's Iodized works fine, and you don't get a thyroid goiter for being snooty.

Gonna push back a bit here. I agree that with cooking, it makes little difference what variety of salt you use, since it will all simply melt and whatever minor differences in taste profile will be lost. But for finishing (i.e. salting an already prepared food) you do get some subtleties based on whether you use a variety of sea salt, kosher salt, or regular table salt. To simplify things, I just use kosher salt for everything. It has a nice mellow salinity, and the large crystals make it easier to distribute and gauge how much you're using compared to the more powdery table salts.; 1/29/19, 9:58 AM
MayBee said...: This gets my "Althouse needs to go to Japan" tag.; 1/29/19, 9:58 AM
mockturtle said...: 'Alarmingly pretty' is like 'disturbingly pleasant'.; 1/29/19, 10:05 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: The NYT should stick to egg salad sandwiches. It's certainly better than any political reporting it does;)

"All the news that's fit to eat"; 1/29/19, 10:11 AM
Amexpat said...: An egg salad sandwich is something you make at home when you need to use up your eggs.
Who would order one in a restaurant - too much of a risk that the mayo or eggs are old?

It's also too ordinary to order out - sort of like ordering a P&B sandwich in a restaurant.; 1/29/19, 10:12 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: The Egg McMuffin is the greatest fast food item yet invented. It's perfect.

I have a fried egg on toast or English muffin pretty much every morning. I love homemade egg salad, but rarely bother.; 1/29/19, 10:20 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Amexpat:

It's also too ordinary to order out - sort of like ordering a P&B sandwich in a restaurant.

The Le Pavillon in New Orleans used to put out a late night spread of different breads, nut butters, and jams and jellies along with ice cold milk. There are a lot of great dining options in the Quarter, but a PB&J in the Le Pavillon lobby is something to experience.; 1/29/19, 10:26 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: I knew a girl who liked to 'egg salad'.

I am Laslo.; 1/29/19, 10:28 AM
mockturtle said...: Freeman Hunt: I watched Infernal Affairs the other night. Enjoyed it thoroughly [except for the ending, of course].; 1/29/19, 10:28 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: As much as I hate eggs myself, I make a pot of boiled eggs almost every week. My kids like them in their packed lunches and I like bringing deviled eggs (which I don't eat but people tell me the ones I make are delicious) to church coffee hour because the people who don't eat muffins and donuts love me when I do.; 1/29/19, 10:31 AM
jaydub said...: "you do get some subtleties based on whether you use a variety of sea salt, kosher salt, or regular table salt."

Very true. There are some unique salt mines in Europe which produce crystals that have subtle flavors naturally added by the environment. My personal favorite is the mine above Hallstatt, Austria near Salzburg which has been producing a pinkish salt since before the Romans. A close second are the two salt flats near Cadiz, Spain that have been making sea salt the same way since the Phoenicians over three thousand years ago. Good quality salt is probably the most underrated spice.; 1/29/19, 10:33 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Up there roun' Madison, where the lib professors grow so mean
There lived a girl, that I swear to the world
Made the lib professors look tame
Egg salad Annie, egg salad Annie
Everybody said it was a shame
Cause her blog wasn't in the hate Trump gang
(A calm, reasonable woman)

Everyday for supper time, she'd reach into her hoard
And make her a mess of egg salad, and carry it over to her keyboard
Egg salad Annie, the commies want your fanny
Everybody says it was a shame
Cause blog wasn't in the hate Trump gang
(An educated, logical, straight-razor witted woman
Lord have Mercy, make you a mess of it); 1/29/19, 10:33 AM
Amexpat said...: I put eggs back into my food rotation a few years back. Glad I did. It's an incredibly versatile food by itself. There's a big difference between an egg when you hardboil, fry or scramble it (there's also many different ways to scramble). Easy to make omelettes as well or a quiche if you have the time. No other food stable item can do this. Plus there's the use in baking and sauces.; 1/29/19, 10:36 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: So, they make an ordinary egg salad sandwich (chopped hard-boiled egg, mayo, bread), but they place a soft-boiled egg in the middle.

This is pure culinary genius. I wish I had thought of that.

I did invent one dish at our house "Tuna Mexicali." 1 can of tuna, 1 jar of salsa, 1 can of black olives, mix in bowl, serve.

However, no interviews by the NYT so far. Darn.; 1/29/19, 10:37 AM
SDaly said...: I don't find the pictured sandwich pretty at all, and I love egg salad.

In my family, there was a sharp dividing line in food. My father, 2 sisters and 1 brother all vehemently disliked certain textures, like raw shellfish and fat/mayo. My mother, other 2 brothers and I all loved raw shellfish and fat/mayo. I suppose it is genetic.; 1/29/19, 10:39 AM
J. Farmer said...: @amexpat:

It's an incredibly versatile food by itself.

According to legend, the pleats in the chef's toque are said to represent all the various means of preparing an egg. It's a bit of a cliche at this point that a well regarded chef would ask a potential employee to make an omelette as a test. It is very easy to make an okay omelette but rather difficult to make a great omelette.; 1/29/19, 10:45 AM
tcrosse said...: We do a lot of deviled eggs. Thanks to a tip from Cooks Country, they are a lot easier to peel if you steam them for 15 minutes rather than boil them.; 1/29/19, 11:02 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I hate egg salad, but I love deviled eggs. If I want eggs on a sandwich, I just toast the bread and fry the egg while breaking the yolk just before I turn the egg.; 1/29/19, 11:04 AM
Yancey Ward said...: How much does that egg salad sandwich from LA cost? I am guessing they charge at least 15 dollars.; 1/29/19, 11:05 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: "Freeman Hunt: I watched Infernal Affairs the other night. Enjoyed it thoroughly [except for the ending, of course]."

Great! So glad to hear it!; 1/29/19, 11:09 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Yancey Ward:

How much does that egg salad sandwich from LA cost? I am guessing they charge at least 15 dollars.

You can view their menu here. No prices, though. Not a good sign. And the bottom has this message, "Konbi is a cash free restaurant but we accept all credit cards and mobile payments." Geez, I remember when all the great little known places were "cash only" because they didn't want to bother with the fees the card companies charges.; 1/29/19, 11:16 AM
Mike said...: Konbi is Japanese short version of Conve-nient Store, whose egg salad sandwiches have mythical status. Eggs are big in our home, because they're cheap protein. Try curried egg made with halves of hard-boiled eggs with peas in a curry sauce over rice. Brown rice works well in this one. Just got an Instantpot and I'm told it should deliver really great eggs! Trader Joe's out here began selling shelled eggs and moms I know love them as an easy breakfast. Keep warm!; 1/29/19, 11:20 AM
Ralph L said...: I was in my 30's before I found out a pastry blender wasn't solely for chopping eggs.

they are a lot easier to peel under a stream of water.

Has "A Chef's Life" gone national on PBS? I was shocked that she'd never seen someone chop a vegetable in his hand. Vivian is charming otherwise.; 1/29/19, 11:24 AM
CJinPA said...: Click on the "egg salad" links if you want to know more about me and egg salad sandwiches.

God bless the internet!; 1/29/19, 11:38 AM
Darrell said...: Egg Salad Annie.
Tony Joe White would tell you she's better than pokeweed.; 1/29/19, 11:43 AM
Rick.T. said...: "Konbi... Kondo...

What’s next in America’s Kon-mania?"

Konbu! Get it from Amazon through the Althouse portal.

https://www.amazon.com/Wel-pac-Dashi-Kombu-Dried-Seaweed/dp/B00ZB13JHO; 1/29/19, 12:54 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: But is anyone committing armed robbery for these sandwiches? That's the real question.; 1/29/19, 12:55 PM
The Elder said...: Ann, at the risk of being banished forever from commenting on your blog, I just want to say . . . I love egg salad. But your post today made me watch the video of the Egg Salad Sandwich Challenge that you posted twelve years ago. I haven't laughed so hard for a week. "Gelatinous horror?" Hilarious!!

Surely, in the interim your opinion has changed. Meade has undoubtedly changed your opinions about mayonnaise, right?; 1/29/19, 1:55 PM
Eric said...: Egg salad sandwiches were 45 cents at the Student Union; the cheapest thing they had. I ate a lot of those.; 1/29/19, 4:48 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: egg salad sandwich = petri dish between 2 slices of bread.
Ewwww.; 1/29/19, 5:05 PM
Bob Boyd said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/29/19, 7:20 PM
Eddie said...: The egg salad video was better than most porn.; 1/30/19, 7:44 AM