{"id":2637,"date":"2025-10-20T22:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2637"},"modified":"2025-10-20T22:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:00:44","slug":"beyond-fruit-sandwiches-japan-has-cake-sandwiches-too%e3%80%90taste-test%e3%80%91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=2637","title":{"rendered":"Beyond fruit sandwiches \u2014 Japan has cake sandwiches too!\u3010Taste test\u3011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

A regional treat opens our eyes and mouths to a new dimension of baked goods<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the last few years, foodies from around the world have fallen in love with Japan\u2019s fruit sandwiches<\/a>, enchanted by the idea of swapping out savory fillings for sweet ones. However, putting pieces of fruit and cream between slices of bread causes one to eventually start asking questions on a conceptual level, to wonder at what point a sandwich ceases to become a sandwich and becomes a cake instead.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s something contemporary philosophers have yet to settle on a consensus regarding, but even as that debate continues, we\u2019ve now discovered something that blurs the cake\/sandwich line even further: Japan\u2019s cake sandwiches<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u25bc The castella sandwich (\u30ab\u30b9\u30c6\u30e9\u30b5\u30f3\u30c9)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering why you haven\u2019t heard about these before, they\u2019re not a Japanese bakery staple like melon bread or curry bread. Instead, they\u2019re primarily a Niigata Prefecture<\/strong> thing, and even there they\u2019re not always easy to find. As a matter of fact, our Japanese-language reporter Udonko<\/strong>, who\u2019s a Niigata native, had never heard of the Castella Sandwich<\/strong>, as the cake sandwich is more properly called, until just a few days ago when she popped into The Niigata<\/strong>, a store in Tokyo\u2019s Ginza neighborhood that stocks a rolling inventory of Niigata regional products.<\/p>\n

Startled that she hadn\u2019t been aware of the existence of cake sandwiches in Niigata until now, Udonko checked the package and saw that the Castella Sandwich is produced by Nakagawa Bakery<\/strong>. It\u2019s unclear how long they\u2019ve been baking cake sandwiches for, but the company itself has been around since 1952. However, the company is headquartered in the town of Sado<\/strong>, on Sadogashima Island, and this remote location has probably been a limiting factor for distribution for much of its history.<\/p>\n

\u25bc Sado<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And no, there\u2019s no clever wordplay going on with the Castella Sandwich name, as it really and truly is two slices of bread with a slice of castella sponge cake in between<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Opening up the wrapper and going in for a closer look, Udonko was happy to see that this isn\u2019t one of those paper-tiger sandwiches<\/a> where the filling is much skimpier than it looks from the outside. The slice of castella goes all the way from one end of the sandwich to the other, and there are even layers of cream between it and each of the slices of bread<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Udonko expected the flavor to be sweet, and upon taking her first bite she immediately found out that it\u2019s even sweeter than she\u2019d initially imagined<\/strong>. The cake is rich and moist<\/strong>, and the combination of its soft, fluffy texture with a custard-like flavor is an extremely enjoyable combination.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Having experienced the revelation of cake sandwiches, Udonko found it even more regrettable that she\u2019d never known that these things were available in her home prefecture. As if to drive home the point of how she could have been enjoying these treats for years, not long after stumbling across the Nakagawa Castella Sandwich Udonko was back in Niigata and doing a regular neighborhood supermarket run when she walked past the bread aisle and saw\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026another brand of Castella Sandwich!?!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25bc Though the label says \u201ccastilla\u201d in Latin letters, \u30ab\u30b9\u30c6\u30e9 is how \u201ccastella\u201d is written in Japanese.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This Castella Sandwich is made by Yamazaki<\/strong>, one of Japan\u2019s biggest bread makers with a highly developed nationwide distribution network. However, their Castella Sandwich appears to be a regional offering, with no mention of the product on the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Obviously, Udonko needed to buy one for comparative taste-testing purposes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In terms of appearance, it\u2019s very similar to Nakagawa\u2019s version and the baseline flavor is close too. If pressed for a difference between the two, though, Udonko would say that the texture of the bread Yamazaki uses is lighter and airier than Nagagawa\u2019s, so much so that when eating the Yamazaki Castella Sandwich, the cake and bread have the exact same consistency<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Oh, and Castella Sandwiches are easy on the wallet, too. The Nakagawa version cost Udonko 346 yen (US$2.30), and the Yamazaki one was even cheaper, at just 149 yen.<\/p>\n

So, is there anything not<\/em> to love about these cake sandwiches, in Udonko\u2019s opinion? Well, they\u2019re both pretty high in calories. The Nakagawa Castella Sandwich has 667 calories, about as much as an entire restaurant-size beef bowl, and the Yamazaki one has 523, so these aren\u2019t exactly diet-friendly snacks\u2026but that\u2019s probably to be expected with a concept like cake sandwiches.<\/p>\n

The other issue, of course, is their limited availability, especially if you don\u2019t happen to be in Niigata Prefecture or a specialty shop like the one in Ginza. That\u2019s suddenly become much less of a problem, though, as just this week Nakagawa has decided to open an online store where you can buy Castella Sandwiches!<\/strong> They\u2019re currently available only in a pack of 12 for 3,980 yen here<\/a>, which means you\u2019ll have to order a dozen at a time, but that sounds like a pretty sweet obligation to us.<\/p>\n

Related: Nakagawa Bakery online shop<\/a>, The Niigata<\/a><\/em>
\nPhotos \u00a9SoraNews24<\/em>
\n\u25cf Want to hear about SoraNews24\u2019s latest articles as soon as they\u2019re published? Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A regional treat opens our eyes and mouths to a new dimension of baked goods. Over the last few years, foodies from around the world have fallen in love with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}