Fruit Sandwich #3: Wacky Japan

Last month we covered fruit sandwiches, and though I wrote 2 posts about them, I had a third queued up that I just didn’t quite get to during the month.

Well here it is. In a fruit sandwich-related conversation over social media, friend of the site Mike Gebert of Sky Full of Bacon and Fooditor (among others) mentioned that while he was in Tokyo, food stalls everywhere were serving some kind of fruit sandwich–white bread, some type of thick cream or soft cheese, and fruit.

I did some research and learned about Furutsu Sando. Furutsu Sando basically just means “fruit sandwich” in Japanese, and it involves a variety of sliced fruit–strawberry, kiwi, and mango being popular options–and whipped cream between two slices of shokupan, a soft, slightly sweet Japanese sliced white bread. The sandwiches are then sliced, tea-sandwich style, before serving.

Shokupan is available at Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights, but I didn’t have a chance to get up there, so I substituted regular white bread.

First I sliced up some strawberries and kiwis

Sliced strawberry and kiwi

I made homemade whipped cream and cut the crusts off 8 slices. I spread 4 of them with the whipped cream

white bread and homemade whipped cream

Then arranged slices of fruit on the whipped cream.

white bread, homemade whipped cream, sliced strawberry and kiwi

I spread whipped cream on the remaining slices and inverted them over the fruit.

furutsu sando

Finally, I sliced them in half and arranged them on a plate before serving them to my family.

furutsu sando

The bread was a little too salty, and I probably should have made the trip to try the Shokupan, but overall it was quite refreshing. Tart fruits and thick, slightly sweet cream are a great combination, whether in a parfait, or over shortcake, angel food cake, a pie, or just eaten out of a bowl with a spoon. I’d have liked something with a little more texture, but it was satisfying as is.

furutsu sando

Maybe I’ll try it again someday if I ever get my hands on some Shokupan, but I’d rather have shortcake.

In fact, that’s a good idea. I know what’s for dessert tomorrow. June sandwiches coming soon!

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great