About Egg Sandwiches

I wonder when it was that I realized the egg sandwiches my mother made were different from others. It was probably an incident during a school field trip lunch. I must have been in the middle grades of elementary school.

I thought about that while eating a mixed sandwich containing an egg sandwich for lunch.

The egg sandwiches my mother made contained a thick, Japanese-style omelet. It was a thick omelet with soy sauce, not too sweet. Since I loved my mother's tamagoyaki, I was very happy with that sandwich.

When I requested sandwiches for my field trip lunch.

At lunchtime, I spread out my lunch with my friends. There were several other children who had sandwiches too. Ham, cucumber, tuna. But the egg sandwiches were different. Mine had a thick omelet, but my friends' had boiled eggs mixed with mayonnaise.

Only mine was different.

When I got home, I asked my mother.

"My egg sandwich was different from my friends'."

My mother said that there are two types of egg sandwiches.

My mother was from the Kansai region. It seems that in Kansai, egg sandwiches with thick omelets are the mainstream. That is why the egg sandwiches my mother made contained thick omelets.

Having learned of the existence of the other type of egg sandwich, I begged my mother to make it for me. It was decided that she would make it for me soon.

After a while, that time arrived.

She made me an egg sandwich with boiled eggs for lunch.

"Itadakimasu (Let's eat)."

Chomp...

I was a little bad with boiled eggs, but because it was mixed with mayonnaise, it was mellow and delicious. I was satisfied with my first boiled egg sandwich.

From then on, my mother's egg sandwiches were sometimes thick omelets and sometimes boiled eggs.

When I became a middle school student, I started cooking, and sometimes I would make sandwiches myself. I made boiled egg sandwiches. It was fun to experiment with how to crush the eggs and adjust the seasonings.

Even so, I didn't make thick omelet egg sandwiches. Somehow, I felt that was something only my mother should make for me.

Eventually, I got married and had children.

I used to make sandwiches for my children. Back then, I usually made them with boiled eggs, but sometimes I made them with thick omelets.

"Hey, Mom. Why is there an omelet in here?"

When my child asked me that, I would say this with a knowing look.

"You know, in the Kansai region, egg sandwiches are made with omelets."

I don't think my young child understood what I meant by talking about the Kansai region. When my child grew up and saw a Kansai-style egg sandwich on a TV show, I said it again. This time, I added that it was because their grandmother was also from Kansai.

I make thick-omelet egg sandwiches myself, but I feel like something is still different. I feel like the egg sandwiches my mother made when I was a child were more delicious. Is it nostalgia, or my mother's love? Probably both.

But maybe that doesn't really matter. After all, it is a happy memory from my childhood.