Café sandwiches

Method

1. The egg sandwich is usually on soft untoasted bread; the club is usually 烘底, toasted. Toast if that is the order, then butter the bread.
2. Beat the eggs with a teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt. Melt butter in a small frying pan, pour the egg in as one thin round, and fold it to the size of the bread. The café 'egg' is a folded omelette sheet, not scrambled egg and not egg mayonnaise.
3. For 蛋治, lay the egg sheet between the two buttered slices with a pinch of pepper, trim the crusts and cut in two.
4. For 火腿蛋治, fry the ham twenty seconds a side in the same pan and add it beside the egg.
5. For 公司三文治, the two-layer rule is raw below, cooked above: on the first slice lay cheese, ham, lettuce and tomato with a little ketchup and mayonnaise; the second slice; then the fried egg and the fried luncheon meat or bacon; the third slice on top.
6. Press, trim the crusts, pin with two toothpicks and cut diagonally into four; serve with a hot drink.
7. For a lunchbox keep it in the fridge and cold until it is eaten.

Take care

• Contains egg, wheat, milk (butter, cheese) and pork (ham, luncheon meat, bacon); mayonnaise contains egg and soy. A sandwich for a lunchbox must be kept cold.

The story

The sandwich was the 冰室's cheapest 'Western' item and the one office workers took away in a paper bag; 蛋治 is still what a Hong Kong person orders when they want nothing at all except the taste of a café. 公司三文治 is the club sandwich renamed, 公司 for 'company', because it was the sandwich of the business lunch, and it survives in Hong Kong long after the club sandwich faded elsewhere.

Same counter

Hong Kong French toastCondensed-milk and butter toastPineapple bun with butter

Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.