Kewpie mayonnaise. I had no idea what it was… Until I went to the grocery and spotted these soft bottles of sweetish Japanese mayonnaise, labelled “Kewpie”. See note below. So there you have it. The starting point for a great sandwich I ate for lunch yesterday. I arrived hojme from the grocery and errands at nearly 1pm, and hadn’t started lunch, and it was nearly 7 hours since my measly breakfast of yogurt, homemade granola and a banana, so I was famished. More than famished, I had a serious sugar low, and when I get that way, I go from hungry to cranky to faint-likely. So you will have to forgive the pathetic photos on this post, or the seemingly haphazard assemblage of ingredients for my sandwich, as I was more interested in getting food to my stomach before I blacked out. :)
I started with a piece of whole wheat toast. A generous squiggle of the kewpie mayonnaise… A couple of small romaine or cos lettuce and two small deep-fried and well salted soft-shell crabs, featured here yesterday.
Added some pallid looking slices of tomato, a few pieces of homemade pickled ginger…
…some pickled singkamas (jicama) and bamboo shoots (both also homemade)…
…some wild arugula and another piece of whole wheat toast…
…and LUNCH! I was so dizzy at this point, I couldn’t even get the camera to focus, nor bother to bring the sandwich to a place with better natural light. Suffice it to say it was brilliant. Probably partially due to my extreme state of hunger… but also because the juicy crisp crab oozed together with the tart pickles, the rich mayonnaise, the obligatory greens/veggies and all held together by the bread. Very nice. A good starting point for building better variations on the same theme. I like the idea of a simpler version, maybe with tartar sauce, or even classic red cocktail sauce and a squeeze of lemon, maybe a richer bread like brioche, or harder one like a crusty baguette, the possibilities are endless…
***Note: Kewpie (Q.P., not Que-Pie), is a Japanese brand, said to be made with egg yolks (rather than whole eggs) and some cider and malt vinegar, and possibly some MSG. It is a lighter thinner consistency than western mayonnaise, often a pale yellow, and comes in soft squeeze bottles. I suspect it is also sweeter than western mayonnaise. It is sold by that brand with a Kewpie doll as a logo. Kewpie dolls here, go figure. :)
32 Responses
I’m the first one to comment again!!! Millet was close…she suggested banhmi (I hope I spelled it correctly)…this looks superb and the addition of all those “kewl” ingredients would be another heavenly experience for your tastebuds MM! It’s a miracle the bread was able to stand up with all of those ingredients…. :-)
I love Japanese mayonnaise! I pair them with ham slices on bread or with fish fillet. :)
Looks so yummy!! that’s one tower of a sandwich, lots of flavors and textures. Now I want one! haha
That is one sandwich that you need a whopping mouth!!!!!!!
mmm … love kewpie mayo! i don’t want to use anything else on my sandwiches or anything else that needs mayo since i discovered it :-)
Japanese mayonnaise (the brand escapes me at the moment) is the only type I use for crab/kani salad so I can imagine it paired up nicely with the soft-shelled crab and singkamas. But yes, betty q. is right, how do you bite into this? :)
Yum!!!
this is really a good sandwich. try adding a bit of wasabi in the jap mayo. it will also work as a salad. yum!
Bring to Cebu!!!! :) Especially since I have kewpie mayonnaise brought by a friend who flew in from Narita :)
Kewpie is awesome on just about anything!!! including on top of yakisoba and okonomiyaki… I also am in love with Japanese white bread. Your sammich looks awesome…
i love kewpie mayo because it has a more interesting taste than regular bottled mayo. of course nothing beats homemade mayo. i find that kewpie mayo generally goes well with any deep-fried seafood. ;-) also, recently, i was able to buy kewpie mayo from SM hypermarket that was made in malaysia and (as expected) it was cheaper than the one made in japan.
i make egg salad with kewpie mayo and a bit of wasabi..great on whole wheat toast. If i were that hungry I wouldn’t be able to think of frying crabs. I’d gnaw alternately on bread & cheese!
What endeared Japanese mayonnaise to me was their novel squeeze bottle packaging and for the longest time (close to thirty years) I waited for the North American condiment producers to finally see the light and for once consider consumer convenience by converting to containers that you don’t have to smack around to get the content flowing.
I have been eating in this vietnamese resto that serves special sushi with the japanese mayo, and its delicious.. the chef said the kewpie makes a difference; and so I will have to find this to use at my home.
This reminds me of my last visit to Quezon Province wherein I brought some salmon and planned to make some sandwich with it. With the fresh new baked bread, it could have been a hit, except my sister in law na inutusan kong bumili ng mayo opted to buy a non-labeled one in a huge jar. Naka-mura daw siya, but oh gosh… parang papel ang lasa..nasayang talaga yung mahal na salmon na binili ko, ang dami pa namang sandwich na ginawa namin (for family guests).
I’d risk dislocating my jawbones to bite into a sandwich like that!
MM: Try a healthier homemade olive oil mayo when you are not so famished:
Japanese Mayonnaise (https://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art36096.asp)
1 cup vegetable oil *
2 egg yolks
1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
½ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. karashi hot mustard, optional
pinch of white sugar, optional
*If you are concerned with omega-3 to omega-6 fat ratio and bother to make a conscious effort to reduce the amont of omega 6’s and increase the omega 3’s whenever we can to get the ratio close to the ideal ( ideal supposed to be 1:2 and 1:4 vs 1:50 in a typical American diet) consider light olive oil tho it may give a slightly different flavor.
Still in the subject of mayonnaise-like dressings, a truly interesting development:
https://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2011/08/the-creamy-spread-thats-tearing-marriage-apart
Footloose: Now I will look at mayonnaise with a different perspective. Ha, ha, ha!!!
kewpie mayo + sriracha sauce+ squirt of lemon juice = awesome quickie remoulade!
First time I saw kewpie was back in highschool when my classmates and I were in Japan and a classmate’s relative there made her bring home bottles of kewpie. I thought it was milk because of the baby picture and the cream color.
I love japanese mayo and the commercially available mayo we have here doesn’t hold a candle to it. I usually eat it with breaded fish fillet (in place of tartar sauce).
Mayonaise pizza…only in Japan (so I’ve heard).
you bite into it the same way you bite into an ensaimada… squish it down with your palm and then bite into the flattened sandwich… :)
i use KEWPIE half-sweet mayo for my TAKOYAKI and OKONOMIYAKI….not really a mayo person. for my sandwiches, no mayo but lots of cheese and veggies
We don’t have a real sweet tooth between us in our home but love garlic. Our typical soft-shell crab sandwich is pretty simple–the crunchy fried (sometimes grilled) crab …blue crabs in our case, with the claws of course, a pile of arugula, and a good dollop of home-made aioli, on toasted or grilled ciabatta. On the side–fried capers. When the crabs are small, we make soft-shell sliders in the same way. Fantastic starter served with an off-dry vermouth blanc, chilled, straight up.
hi! been using kewpie mayo eversince, even kids love it! try it with apple, carrot, cucumber, crabstick, lettuce or romaine, ripe mango wrapped in a soft tortilla. its always a hit!
the kewpie sesame seed dressing is also good! great with green veggie salad!
I used Kewpie Mayo for making sushi rolls/maki. Sushi rice + crabsticks + ripe mango slivers + cucumber slivers, wrapped in roasted nori wrapper… then dipped in kikoman + wasabe. or you can do away with the sushi rice… YUM! :)
We use kewpie mayo for kani salad at home
I’m not a mayo sort of person, but the rest of your sandwich looks delish! Maybe I’ll try this kewpie mayo once though.
so hard to look for really good mayonnaise in the local grocery stores. Kewpie is a must have in the pantry :)
The company that makes Kewpie also makes a good sesame oil vinaigrette/salad dressing. I keep that on hand and it’s cheaper than the Japanese stuff that’s 4x the cost!
I LOVE THIS STUFF! MY SISTER INTRODUCED IT TO US AGES AGO FROM JAPAN. SOLD IN JAPANESE STORES (FUJI-MART, HATCHIN(?) IN CARTIMAR AND NOW IN SUPERMARKETS ALL OVER. JAPANESE FOOD ISN’T ‘THAT JAPANESE’ WITHOUT IT! SUSHI, MAKI, KANI-SALAD, ETC… USE IT FOR AIOLI – GREAT, AS WELL.
Hi Sandee, do you mind sharing your kani recipe? Tried using recipes from the internet but they were not something my hubby liked… maybe yours will hit the spot…
Oh, I adore Kewpie. Stir it with some scallions and a dollop of cream cheese in eggs, and that would be my definition of good scrambled eggs.