Tokyo cafe ditches bread, makes its sandwiches with slices of cake instead

said braka 8:40 AM
TOKYO
When making a sandwich,

creating some sort of harmony between the bread and the filling is critical. Two slices of sourdough, for example, would perfectly compliment a tuna melt, but would create unpalatable discord with peanut butter.
So we were equal parts excited and intimidated when we found out there’s a restaurant in Japan that passes on white, wheat, or rye and instead holds its sandwiches together with slices of cake!
Nenrinya is a confectioner in the Tokyo area that specializes in baumkuchen, a ring-shaped cake originally from Germany that’s become a popular fixture in the Japanese dessert scene. Exclusive to Nenrinya’s Cafe at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (located in the post-security check departure area of Terminal 2) are baumkuchen sandwiches.
To clarify, these aren’t “dessert sandwiches,” filled with cream, chocolate, or other sweet ingredients. The baumkuchen sandwiches are otherwise regular sandwiches, containing meat and seafood, that simply swap bread for cake. They’re sold in a three-variety set for 617 yen, which gets you beef, shrimp with avocado, and egg sandwiches.