Sandwiches! The perfect lunch item. It is just two slices of bread with different ingredients in the middle. Some sandwiches are great and some should have never been made. It had been really hard for me to find good sandwiches in Ibaraki. I am not talking about burgers by the way but a good sandwich. Especially, a grilled cheese sandwich. Then a new bakery opened up near my place which I always drove by but never stopped at. I finally popped in to check out what kind of bread they had and I saw a picture of a grilled cheese looking sandwich on the bakery's menu that captured my heart. The wife and I made plans. "We will have sandwiches for lunch today" we said with conviction. She looked at the same picture I looked at when we arrived at the bakery and nodded in excitement. In we went to Couronne.
Couronne
Couronne isn't only in my town of Tsuchiura. The first Couronne actually opened up in Toride I think. There are other locations in Ryugasaki, Tsukuba and Moriya. I have heard that the other locations are much bigger and have a wider selection of bread. The Ryugasaki Couronne even makes pizza. At the time of writing this post, Ibaraki is currently in a state of emergency which means my travel is extremely limited. So I decided to check out the Couronne in my town. It is smaller than the others but it is closer and brand new. This bakery opened up mid last year.
The Bakery
Every time I have driven by this place or gone inside, it has been busy. I wish I could show you a picture of the bread area and all the delicious bread and pastries you can choose from, but I didn't want to be "that guy" and hold up the line. I can tell you that all the bread, sandwiches and other treats you can pick up with your tongs in the bakery look delicious. I have bought a cheese croissant from this place and it was outstanding. I hope I can go into more detail about the other pastries and bread they have in this bakery at a later date. I will talk about one kind of bread that was very delicious and that is Couronne's curry bread.
The Curry Bread (sorry for the blurry picture)
I don't know how you feel about curry bread but I love it. Curry is awesome, but curry in fried dough is even better. When I first moved to Japan, curry bread was my breakfast food for quite a while. I used to buy it at a convenient store near my place every morning, until I found other curry breads in bakeries. Now, I only get bakery curry bread and Couronne's curry bread is exceptional. I picked up a curry bread with my tongs when I was in the bread area of the bakery. The awesome staff at this bakery told me to return that curry bread and wait a moment. The staff brought me a fresh curry bread from the oven. It was piping hot and crispy. I decided to eat the bread in my car so I could still have it while it was hot. The outside of the bread was the right amount of crispy that you would expect from curry bread. The curry itself was delicious. Not too spicy but it did have a kick to it. The fried dough was so soft and warm, it was bliss. This curry bread really did hit the spot for the drive back home.
Well, I have talked a little about the bakery section, let's get into the sandwiches.
The Menu
There are four types of hot sandwiches in the menu. The A sandwich is a regular old ham and cheese sandwich. The B sandwich is a bacon and egg sandwich. The C sandwich is chicken, bacon, egg, sun dried tomatoes, onion and cheese sandwich. Finally, we have the D sandwich, which is a limited supply sandwich. The bakery only makes a few of these sandwiches a day. This sandwich is a sauerkraut, bacon and mustard sandwich. The wife and I decided to order the A, C and D sandwich. The staff took our order and we waited about 5 minutes until we were given our sandwiches, We got our take out and began our sandwich feast at home.
A Sandwich (Ham and Cheese)
The first sandwich we tried was the A sandwich, a regular old ham and cheese. Except this sandwich was anything but regular. When I bit into that sandwich, I was in cheese heaven. My god that sandwich was good. It was more of a grilled cheese sandwich because of all the gooey melted cheese in it and I have always appreciated melted cheese in my sandwich. The ham was fantastic. There was only a couple of slices of ham in there but I was still extremely happy. The sandwich had that panini press feel to it and the bread had just the right amount of crunch to it when you bit into it. Not too hard and not too soft. I decided that I will definitely get this awesome ham and cheese sandwich next time during my lunch hour.
B Sandwich (Egg and Bacon)
We move on to the B sandwich. Egg and bacon. Sounds like a breakfast sandwich doesn't it? I tried this sandwich recently. This was a few weeks after the wife and I had had the A, C and D sandwiches. I was expecting great things from the B sandwich because all the other sandwiches had been great thus far. When I opened the wrapper there was even a little bit of melted cheese in the middle which was a nice surprise. I bit into my sandwich with anticipation and really liked the melted cheese with the scrambled eggs. But wait a minute, where is the bacon? I took two more bites and still no bacon. It was finally when I was on my fourth bite that I got a slight taste of bacon. I looked in my sandwich and found the thinnest slice of bacon I have ever seen. There were probably three thin slices of bacon in that sea of scrambled eggs. They should just call this an egg sandwich because that is what it was. I was really disappointed in this sandwich and will most likely not be ordering this sandwich again. I will say that the eggs were good so if you are a huge fan of eggs, this might be the sandwich for you.
C Sandwich (Chicken, cheese, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, egg and onion)
This sandwich has way more ingredients then all the other sandwiches on the menu. Egg, cheese, sun dried tomatoes, chicken and that delicious toasted bread. Biting into this sandwich brought a flurry of flavors that were delightful. I am not sure I agree with egg in this sandwich but it does not hamper the sandwich at all. It is a tasty sandwich. The chicken is not thinly sliced but not thick, so it actually goes well with the sandwich. I can never complain about melted cheese and was very happy it was in this sandwich. I have in the past voiced my dislike for tomatoes but I have nothing against sun dried tomatoes. The sun dried tomatoes are a nice little addition to this sandwich which mixes well with the chicken. I really did enjoy this sandwich and the wife liked it as well.
D Sandwich (Sauerkraut, bacon and mustard)
This sandwich is the limited supply sandwich I mentioned when I talked about the menu. I am not sure how many they make a day but once they are gone that's it for that day. The sandwich was good but it was in no way my favorite. Couronne gets an A+ for their sauerkraut. It was really good and sauerkraut is a bit difficult to find in Japan so it was nice to have it. Unfortunately, I don't think it goes well with those big slices of pork. Sauerkraut goes on hotdogs or sausages in my opinion and I am sure a lot of you will agree with me. Don't get me wrong, the pork was great but it just didn't go well with the sauerkraut or the bread. The mustard is a nice little touch to the sandwich but I just don't think it went well with everything else. I believe this sandwich was a nice experiment for Couronne but maybe they should go back to square one.
Bonus Sandwich This sandwich is not on the menu, it is in the bakery section where you pick it up with tongs. This huge sausage with bread was pretty damn good. It is sprinkled with some salt on top and the staff asked if I would like some mustard on the sausage. I have some at home so I declined. I do recommend mustard with this sausage sandwich. The sausage was excellent but you know what would have made this sandwich a little better? Sauerkraut! Couronne has the perfect sandwich for their sauerkraut and they don't even notice. Here is hoping that they look at that sausage sandwich and put two and two together. These sandwiches are the perfect lunch items and I do plan on eating more of Couronne's sandwiches. I am glad I got to try all the sandwiches on the menu but maybe they will have a special spring sandwich in March. I also heard other Couronnes have different sandwiches on their menu so that is something to look forward to. Plus, I still got to try more of the delicious pastries and bread from the bakery section. And once the state of emergency is lifted and the corona virus calms down a bit, I do plan on visiting the other Couronnes in Ibaraki. But for now, I will be going to the Couronne in Tsuchiura for a nice lunch treat. So if you are ever in the mood for a hot delicious sandwich, why not give Currone a shot. Who knows, you might see me there, enjoying my A sandwich while wondering if they put sauerkraut in the sausage sandwich yet. Enjoy! For more information on Couronne, check out their website:
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