Have you seen pictures of these ultimate sandwiches on social media that don’t look like they would fit in your mouth? Let me introduce to you – Wanpaku Sando (わんぱくサンド) or Wanpaku Sandwich, the hottest sandwich trend that has been around in Japan since 2016. The glorious stacks of colorful layers and varying textures from meat, cheese, eggs, and fresh veggies all tucked in the pillowy Japanese bread shokupan waiting for you to take a big bite. These have to be the best-looking sandwiches around.
What is Wanpaku Sandwich (Sando)?
“Wanpaku Sando” or Wanpaku Sandwich became hugely popular around 2016 in Japan. The word Wanpaku is often used to describe an energetic and mischievous or a cheeky person (especially a child), typically used in an affectionate way, like a rascal. I tried to look up on the internet on why this type of sandwiches is called “Wanpaku Sando”; but there weren’t many articles about it. From the look of these bright, colorful, and mouthful sandwiches, no doubt they live up to the description of energetic and mischievous as if they were making cheeky faces. Wanpaku Sando wasn’t the first sandwich that triggered such a craze on social media. A similar thick sandwich had received similar attention on Instagram back in 2015 or even before that. This thick sandwich with shredded cabbage is called Numasan (#沼サン on Instagram). It follows the story of Yuki Onuma, a wife of a potter Michiyuki Onuma (aka Numao called by his wife), who makes the thick sandwich for her husband, which she named Numasan (a part of their last name “Numa” and “San” from sandwich). She had been sharing pictures of her Numasan on Instagram years before Wanpaku Sando became popular. Yuki has been making this sandwich for more than 10 years after she got married to her husband. He was actually the original creator of this sandwich filled with lots of cabbage because he wanted to eat more vegetables and cabbage was available all-year-around, easy to find, and inexpensive. Have you seen or made super thick sandwiches like these?
How to Build A Perfect Wanpaku Sando (Sandwich)
Making sandwiches may seem like the easiest task to tackle, but an artful sandwich like Wanpaku Sandwich does require some skills and practice. Here are some of my tips on how to make the perfect Wanpaku sandwich:
1. Think colors: Choose 4 to 5 ingredients with varied colors
When you make Wanpaku Sandwich, the focus is on the cross-section. When you cut the sandwich in half, the cross section should reveal colorful ingredients filled between the slices of bread. My recommendation is to pick four to five colorful ingredients including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and white! See below for some ingredient ideas.
2. Ingredient composition: Flat ingredients toward the bottom, big ingredients in the middle, and flexible ingredients toward the top
Everyone makes their sandwiches differently, but my trick for a solid sandwich is to start from the flat ingredients – lettuce, tomato slices, cucumber slices, deli meats, cheese, and bacon – so you can level the ingredients easily as you pile them up. When you put a big ingredient such as a boiled egg, put it in the middle of the layers. Then on top of the big ingredient, you will need more flexible ingredients such as shredded cabbage or carrot salad to fill in the gap created by the big ingredient.
3. Color composition: Alternate the bright and the dark-colored ingredients, avoid similar colors next to each other
Just like art-making, color composition also plays a big part in making sandwiches like this. The cross-section of the sandwich should showcase the range of colorful ingredients. If you use a few green or red ingredients, make sure each color alternates, so it will at least look green, red, or some other color, green, red in that order.
4. Visualization: Pay attention to the cross-section before building
It’s important to decide what ingredient is the center of the sandwich. If I use a boiled egg, I make sure to put in the center/middle of the sandwich. If you have some “feature” ingredient, make sure that comes in the middle too! For a sturdy sandwich, you need to pay close attention to the cross-section. Before you start building the sandwich, in which direction are you going to slice the bread? You need to lay down the ingredient based on the orientation of the cross-section. That way, when you slice the bread in half, you will see the avocado nicely stacked up, or the egg yolk of the fried egg is perfectly cut in half.
5. Wrap the sandwich as tightly as possible
It’s so important to wrap this thick sandwich properly; otherwise, the ingredients may slide out while wrapping, or pop out easily when you’re eating the sandwich. In the recipe, I will show you three wrapping methods; plastic wrap (more flexible), parchment paper (pretty), and both (for beginners but want the parchment paper look).
Use of Japanese milk bread (Shokupan)
To make a hefty sandwich like Wanpaku Sandwich, the best choice of bread is thick, soft bread like Japanese milk bread, Shokupan. Shokupan (食パン) is a white and pillowy square-shaped milk bread with a soft crust. The texture is soft yet bouncy, and it’s a common everyday toast for breakfast in Japan. Japanese or Asian (Korean/Chinese) grocery stores sell this type of square-shaped milk bread. For Wanpaku Sandwich, we need shokupan whose thickness is around 1.8 to 2 cm (3/4 inch). In Japan, shokupan is sold in a package of 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10 slices per loaf (with some regional preference on thickness). I’d go with the package with 6 slices. If you can’t find shokupan in your area, you can use bagels or thick slices of bread. One day I’ll share a homemade shokupan recipe!
Various Fillings for Wanpaku Sandwich
Don’t feel limited to the fillings I used in this recipe. You can pretty much fill in anything you like. In Japan, you can even find Kinpira Gobo, a traditional salad being stuffed into the sandwich! Here are some suggestions:
Asparagus Avocado Baby spinach Bacon Cabbage (red or regular) Canned tuna Carrot (Cherry) tomatoes Cucumber Deli meat (ham, turkey, etc) Edamame Egg (boiled/fried) Grilled chicken Kabocha (cooked) Lettuce Okras Tonkatsu/chicken katsu
Dressing/Sauce/Seasonings
BBQ sauce Japanese mayonnaise Mustard Salad dressings Tonkatsu sauce Your favorite spread
No matter how you make these Wanpaku Sandwiches, you know they would be great! Enjoy! Sign up for the free Just One Cookbook newsletter delivered to your inbox! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram for all the latest updates.
