Todays mmm-yoso!!! post is being written by Cathy. Kirk is enjoying air conditioned comfort and is too busy to write.
As I was reading Kirk's post about Kumo Japanese Sandos, in early May, I realized that The Mister and I have also been grabbing Japanese supermarket sandwiches for decades but never posting on this ever present inexpensive quick and tasty meal. So, here's a small compendium.
Nijiya Japanese Market is a favorite stop because of the organic Produce section as well as the prepared foods area. I wrote about some 'grab and go' meals in 2010 and 2013. We were here a lot during Covid (yes, "Covid" defines a period of time), when they removed the outdoor tables so we had to eat in the car or at home. A few prepared items, along the back wall, have changed but overall the quality remains. 
There is a two sided refrigerated area near where you stand in line for the cash registers. One section has various sandwich choices.
This is a "Mix Sandwich" ($5.49) on white or wheat. Four different fillings- Tuna Salad, Egg Salad, Ham with butter and a Lettuce and Tomato with cheese and mayonnaise. Each piece of sandwich in this mix is 1/3 of a crustless bread sandwich made with three bread slices and two layers of filling.
The "Fruits Sandwich" varies daily. This one had melon and pear and orange along with whipped cream in between slices of a quality white bread.
Picked up some sushi while I was there and we had a nice meal.
There is a Chicken Cutlet sandwich ($5.99)-breaded deep fried chicken with a house made tonkatsu sauce (A Pork Cutlet sando is $6.99). On this day the Fruits Sandwich was simply strawberries with whipped cream. 
Placed between the three Chicken sando sections were three smaller lettuce/tomato/cucumber/mayonnaise sandwiches. A nice, balanced meal.
Nijiya Market 3860 Convoy Street San Diego 92111 Open daily 9-9 Website (858) 268-3821
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Marukai has two 'grab and go' island refrigerators as well as closed door freezers and a small hot deli counter. There is just so much inside this small yet packed market. 
The egg salad sando ($4.99) as well as the katsu pork sando ($4.99) are exceptionally good here. You can see I also purchased the potato salad and some katsu chicken (which is really tasty from here). {Yes, we use Christmas plates all year.}
Marukai 8151 Balboa Ave San Diego 92111 Open daily 8a.m.-9 p.m. (858) 384-0248 Website
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Located between Marukai and Nijiya is Mitsuwa, which has three small restaurants in the 'Food Court" area as you enter the store and a sushi area as well as plenty more 'Grab and Go' choices along the right wall with two open refrigerated sections across the aisle.
The Mix Sandwich here ($7.99) consists of four sandwiches, each 1/3 of a whole sandwich. Egg Salad, Tuna Salad, Ham with lettuce and a Japanese Potato salad sando. Each sandwich is fresh and flavorful and fancy. Again, katsu chicken was purchased as a 'side'. 
Mitsuwa Marketplace 4240 Kearney Mesa Road San Diego 92111 Mitsuwa website (858) 569-6699
We have so many great choices in San Diego.
First off, the grilled sourdough was fantastic, texturally and in taste. As for the mussels, well the shellfish was tender enough, but the "escabeche" was really weak. I'm used to a good acidic, flavorful escabeche, the addition of paprika for smokiness, more points for garlicky-oniony tones, all of which seemed to be missing here. To be honest, any number of tinned mussels from Tunaville (post upcoming) would be more enjoyable to us then this. But heck, that sourdough was good on its own. On a positive note, this brought back wonderful memories of our lunch 
Neat and clean interior seating. There is also outside seating and a small menu, which is nice. Many items can be ordered vegetarian. Our waiter said that most everything here is made from scratch.
We both wanted the cucumber salad ($6) on this rather warm day. It was *excellent*- cool, refreshing, with just enough salt and sesame oil to compliment the smashed cucumbers.
The Ma Po Tofu with pork and rice ($12.50) (you can also order vegetarian for $2 less) was a shareable portion. The sauce had the brightness of Sichuan peppercorns and the silky tofu was plentiful while the bits of pork complimented the flavors and added texture. A very balanced dish. 
Under "Signature" dishes on the menu were Chilli Wontons (12) ($10.50). We had to try these. Not much chili on top, but there is a great house made chili crisp on the table which enhanced the porky goodness of these large, two-bite wontons in a stretchy, thin wrap. The broth at the bottom of the bowl was wonderful with a rich porkiness and subtle chili heat.
And yes, it was quite full of Cha Lua, Thit Nguoi…… What I think banh mi purists' will appreciate, I'm looking at you "Billy" is that Phoung Nga still includes cucumbers in their banh mi, a rarity these days. The bread, as usual is a bit heavily baked (onsite), making it more hard and crusty than having a nice balance of light, crusty-flaky. But these days, this is almost a blessing, as much of what I've had is soft and doughy. There's a good amount of pickled veggies, the jalapenos were present, but not overly spicy on this visit. This was a nice lunch for me.
Man, this location of Boston Market had been here forever! I decided to walk on over to see what was up….hoping that perhaps an interesting eating establishment was coming to this location. I should have known better. It's a chain swap out. At least it's California Fish Grill which claims serve only "Responsibly Sourced Seafood". You can read about 
I ordered this at a heat level 4 (on the scale of 1-5) and it was adequately spicy. Though I'd return with friends a week later and we ordered heat level 5 and it wasn't as spicy as this. Of course you can instantly see this is missing the salted crab and the tomatoes are just wedges that haven't been poroperly "briused" in the "kruk". This was slightly funky, not a savory as we enjoy and the liquid was kind of watery.
Like before, the sandwich uses a yeasty Telera roll. The pork was more seasoned than I recall, the pork was quite chewy, which is in line with 
I would also vote to have more camote, as it makes little impact on the sandwich.
And just wandered around. I ended up buying more Tarbais beans in the shop/deli above….yep, 35⬠a kilo and I bought another half kilo.
