In the span of the video, it isn’t an outstanding moment. The man on camera has armfuls of convenience-store finds: a cup of ramen from a Michelin-starred restaurant, soft-steamed buns with both sweet and savory fillings, fish cakes and tofu wallets pulled from a cooler full of brine.
He’s methodically tasting each one, in a mukbang-cum-product-haul. He’s cooking a barbecue pork bento box to very specific instructions in one of the store’s bay of microwaves.
In 4K detail, watch him walk into the generic storefront in broad daylight. Look at the ecstasy on his face slurping the Michelin-starred broth. A woman, passing briefly in the background, who barely glances at him filming his meal on her way home from shopping. Through the video, you feel like you are participating in daily life on another continent.
Back in Tucson, Rafael de la Cuesta watched the video on YouTube. He has never been to Japan, but the video brought Japan to him.
Here’s the part that changed Rafael’s life. It’s a sandwich vacuum-sealed in plastic, not unlike convenience store sandwiches here. When the man in the video peels the cover open, he reveals an egg salad sandwich between two slices of soft, not-too-sweet white bread. In awe, he touches the bread to show its texture. A cute lump — a halved soft-boiled egg — peeks out between the slices and the uniformly creamy spread.
It’s a Japanese sando — and Rafael is going to bring it to Tucson.
Fatboy Sandos, his food truck, is opening today at the intersection of Broadway and Euclid Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Its menu features Japanese sandwiches that are both painstakingly traditional — egg salad made with Kewpie mayo, pork katsu with dijon — and inventive, like the carne asada sando that reflects Rafael’s own culinary heritage. Vegan options include a mouthwatering eggplant katsu.
The pork katsu sando is made with custom-ordered milk bread and homemade katsu sauce. It costs $13.
“When I started coming up with the food truck, it was hard to find [milk] bread. Milk bread is the main bread in Japan — white, airy fluffy bread. It’s similar to ours but a little sweet. I’d compare it to brioche, but brioche is even sweeter.
“Without that, you can’t really do the Japanese sandwiches at all,” he said.
Japanese sandwiches are aesthetically pleasing, and the bread’s uniformity is a huge part of the image. Whatever the filling, it’s stacked neatly in between those hypnotizingly pale bookends.
Sourcing this ingredient was his greatest challenge — he imported his pans to make the traditional dimensions of the loaf, and is collaborating with both August Rhodes Bakery to make the bread and a cottage-certified home baker to make its vegan variation.
Rafael first tried the Japanese sando at Konbi, a slim restaurant in Echo Park, Los Angeles, whose name is pulled from the Japanese word for “convenience store” and features a menu inspired by the foods you can find at one. Bon Appetit called it the best new restaurant of 2019.
The fruit and cream sando is made with vegan whipped cream and costs $7.
After being inspired by the travelog, Rafael figured this was his best chance at trying the sando. Once he did, he became determined to bring it home to Tucson.
While Rafael grew up a foodie, helping his nana and mom cook in the family home, he didn’t expect to go into the restaurant biz. A few years back, he was incarcerated for over a year. After doing time, his options for employment were limited: working in construction (his day job is building pools) or cooking.
Fatboy Sandos is more than a gourmet sandwich truck, or an act of devotion to the Japanese style — it’s Rafael’s commitment to himself, and his own expression.
Fatboy Sandos
Location: the southeast corner of Broadway and Euclid Avenue
Price: Sandos cost between $7-$14. Small bites are $6 each.
For more information, check out their Instagram.
