The Best Bacon Sandwich I Ever Made

And just like that, Chinese New Year (CNY) was over.....it came and went without much fanfare as I had expected.  There were no invites for makan gatherings (at home or otherwise), so no sit-down multiple-course dinners nor yee sang tossing (it's no fun tossing alone or in small numbers).  It was a rather quiet affair all by ourselves really (other than a meet-up meal with my mom).  Even she didn't want to dine out due to the increasing number of cases, so I brought a yong tau foo meal to her home instead.  This has to be the quietest CNY I've had in recent years...with lots of time to do what else but cooking.  So.

I've made a lot of bacon sandwiches in my life.....and I mean a lot!  But they were usually made with fried streaky bacon stuffed between two slices of bread (usually Gardenia).  So, on a Sunday afternoon, I thought I'd make them again for our light lunch...but make it a little bit more special-lah since it was still Chinese New Year.....and it turned out to be the best bacon sandwich I've ever made! :P

For my special-a-bit-lah bacon sandwich, you first start with store-bought butter buns from a bakery (instead of the usual mundane Gardenia bread...lol).  These were from Ficelli (formerly known as Fougasse) and they were shaped like a croissant (RM3.30 for 3).  I'll tell you why this is a better choice in a little bit.

And what's better than a butter bun....even more butter on the bun, of course (as Paula Deen says "mo-butter-mo-betta" coz there's no such thing as too much butter)! :D  So, I sliced it open but not all the way through as I wanted it to maintain the croissant look and so that the fillings won't fall out during the eating process.

Talking about cutting, I don't have a proper bread knife + the bun was so soft it was difficult to slice through (I ended up tearing it apart with my fingers, so the first one looks a bit cacat with jagged edges).  That was before I realised that I could cut it open with my kitchen scissors.  Because they weren't cut all the way through, the inside of the bun could not open up to get charred marks.  So, if you like your bun more toasted, by all means, cut it all the way through so that it can lie flat in your toaster oven.

Second, you need good tasting bacon and this time I tried something new...I got this premium wood smoked streaky bacon from another pork specialist shop in my neighbourhood (RM22.50 for 500g, not too much more expensive than the usual ones I always get).  And, no, back bacon that's drier and chewier won't work for me either, it has to be streaky bacon. ;P

Can't say I detected any extra smoky taste in the bacon but I did notice that the slices were much thinner and, because of this, they crisped up even more when fried.  Can you see just how paper-thin they are until they're almost see-through? ^_~

They're so thin that they take on this wavy shape when fried.  Now this looks more like a piece of bacon I see actors biting into on TV....wakakakaka! :D  And when it's thin like this, you know it'll be super crispy but not hard (like some of the previous ones I've bought can be).

Now to assemble my best bacon sandwich.  After the bun has been buttered and toasted, it's a few layers of Japanese cucumber (I like to use a peeler to slice them into thin ribbons, that way it can cover the whole bun and the slices won't fall of when you bite into them like the thicker slices of cucumber tend to) followed by a piece of omelette and a layer of crispy bacon (stuff as many pieces as it can hold or as you like).

This became a light lunch for three.  My son commented that it was the best bacon sandwich I've ever made because of one, the type of bun used and two, the super thin bacon.  Because it's a butter bun, the butter (on the whole bun) will help char and crisp up the outside of the bun as well when toasted making it all glossy and buttery.  That's why I think a butter bun is ideal.

So, guess which two my son chose.....the two most charred ones, of course, but he said he was being thoughtful so that his parents won't have to eat the overly charred ones (so considerate of him...lol).  The bun is crisp on the outside but remains soft and fluffy inside.  It's just different from using two slices of toasted white (or wholemeal) bread. ;P

Since this bacon was extra thin and crispy (without being hard), it had a nice crunch with just the right amount of savouriness.  What can I say, it was super delicious in our books! ^o^

Actually, besides butter buns, it works just as well with raisin buns.  I would get the raisin buns (RM4.50 for 3) instead if they run out of butter buns.

The studded raisins add sweetness to a bacon bun.  Thought I'd show you these two rather pretty-looking angpows that I received (I understand that these were just two of 8 designs from Citi).

I used one-half of the 500g pack bacon to make the bacon sandwiches and the other half for our not-so-big breakfast....simple but good.

On a little side note, I must have been living under a rock or something that I wasn't aware McD had started using soft buns for their breakfast meals until I chanced upon them recently via ShopeeFood (you see, I've stopped having McD's breakfast meals for quite a while already as I didn't like the dense and chewy texture of their McMuffins).  Well, it looks like I've not eaten their breakfast for at least 3 years since these buns were introduced way back in 2019! :O

My favourite is their Sausage & Scrambled Egg Sandwich Breakfast Meal (RM12 with hash brown & coffee) and I've had this quite a few mornings already.  I like the soft buns and the scrambled egg is quite fluffy (but can differ from branch to branch...I've ordered from 4 different McD's and obviously some do the scrambled egg better than others).  It comes with cheese and mayo (sometimes I even forget to request for no cheese but nothing a squeeze of chilli sauce can't fix + luckily, this cheese isn't too pungent anyway + chilli mixed with mayo tastes almost like Thousand Island...haha).

Oops, sorry for the little digression....back to the bacon sandwich I made over CNY...which incidentally happens to be the best bacon sandwich I've ever made (even my son concur).  And for that you need 1) a toasted soft butter bun (with more butter in between) and 2) paper-thin wood-smoked bacon to make it work wonders.

I guess that's how I will be having my bacon sandwich from now on! ^_~  But if you're like my blogger-friend, phonghongbakes, you'll probably make sandwiches with atas-punya sourdough bagels that I reckon is just as good.  She's done it before with bak kwa, ham and (I'm sure) bacon too at some point.....hehehe! ;P