I am looking for what appears to be a uniquely Hong Kong creation, that has unfortunately remained homebound.
Specifically, I am looking for 蛋牛治烘底, or loosely translated a Beef with Scrambled Egg Sandwich.
The name really belies its magical culinary effect on the palate.
Done right, it’s essentially generous flecks of salted beef (not corned beef, mind you) scrambled into, well, scrambled eggs, and then stuffed between two slices of lightly toasted white bread that each have been kissed gently and massaged with margarine and a sprinkling of salt so that the sandwich is meandering that fine line between flakey and crunchy.
It’s like perfect drunk food. Scratch that. It’s like perfect food.
Yelp menu pictures for Hong Kong cafe (162 W Garvey) lists the HK style beef and egg sandwich for breakfast and a la carte. 烘底 would be telling them to toast the bread and that bit is never mentioned in menus here or in Hong Kong anyway (it’s like asking for a less sweet milk tea or coffee).
The traditional HK style beef egg sandwich is made with what the locals call 鹹牛肉 and while the characters translate to salted beef, in essence it is canned corned beef
This is a typical local Hong Kong brand of canned corned beef and very likely has been used by many restaurants to make this beef egg sandwich.
Though I do stand corrected for one place in Hong Kong that makes this legendary sandwich, which is 新香園 in Sham Shui Po (Hong Kong)…apparently they make their own salted beef and it involves a laborous process of removing the gristle and tendons in the meat. Their signature sandwich is what people flock there for, and it’s open 24 hours. Apparently you must order the egg as runny with the beef. There could be other places in HK that use fresh beef as well.
On a side note, another thing to try in Hong Kong is at Lok Yuen (a food stall in a wet market) in Kowloon City. Imagine the Hong Kong cafe deep fried French Toast, but instead of peanut butter on the inside, it’s savory satay beef. And you still eat it with butter and syrup.
Usually when u order 蛋牛治 (daan ngau ji) in hk, it’s corned beef n eggs. Most of the ones I ate in hk are corned beef… But there may be variations, and some shops make their own type of beef sandwiches. One I like is at 勝香園 (sing heung yuen) in Central across from 九記牛腩 (kau kee) . It wasn’t Corned beef, and is basically a non runny version of 滑蛋牛肉 (waat daan ngau yuk) or scrambled beef n eggs you can order at Cantonese restaurants nearby. Their menu has changed over the years, and now have 2 beef options:
Corned beef scrambled egg sandwich - original / common usage at hk places that serve this type of food
蛋牛治 - daan ngau ji (literally: egg beef sandwich)
Corned beef scrambled egg - newer usage for this shops menu
碎牛炒蛋治 - sui yuk chao dan ji, literally meaning minced meat fried egg sandwich, but for this shops menu, that is Corned beef n eggs
Beef scrambled egg sandwich - newer menu → this may be the type you’re looking for but it’s not as common
鮮牛肉蛋三文治 - sin ngau yuk dan sam mun ji (you usually don’t need to say 三文 sam mun) the word 鮮 (sin) means fresh, it’s how this shop differentiates between the two types. But also at this shop, it’s more like slices of beef, and not flecks like you mentioned. It may be possible, based on the Chinese name you posted, that it’s just one restaurants variation of corned beef sandwiches that does not taste like traditional corned beef.
With all that said, I have not eaten that particular sandwich in the LA area, nor have I made such a specific request. I may try now though
