am a breakfast sandwich snob. I also love rules, which is why there’s rigorous criteria a sandwich needs to meet for me to even consider ordering it.
Is it served on brioche, a bread that is entirely too soft for a greasy sandwich? Hard pass.
Is there one of those dreaded rectangular egg patties, which are somehow always dry and a little cold in the center? Don’t even send it my way.
Does it lack whimsy? Unless there’s some sort of intrigue — a fun condiment, fresh-baked bread, a flavor combo that gives a sense of perspective — I’ll just have eggs with a side of bacon and home fries, please.
A lot of Philly’s breakfast sammies make the grade, but I’ve only ever fixated on one: the Chino at Chibanos, Washington Square West’s recently opened Chinese-Cuban sandwich shop at 1127 Pine St.
The tight menu — eight sandwiches plus a handful of snacks — is an ode to owner Evan Fong Jaroff’s mother, Ana, a Chinese Cuban who immigrated to the U.S. from the island in the 1960s. Jaroff grew up watching her command their home kitchen in Lansdowne, where she’d serve traditional Southeast Chinese fish dishes alongside staple Cuban dishes like fried yucca, beef picadillo, and lechón (aka shredded and slow-roasted pork).
“I don’t think of us as a Cuban restaurant. I don’t think of us as a Chinese restaurant,” Jaroff told me in July. “We’re our own thing.”
Chibanos’ menu pulses with nostalgia. That’s especially true of the Chino, which packs fluffy eggs, melted Swiss cheese, and a sticky-sweet char siu-style sausage patty between a crackle-crusted bolo bao bun smeared with garlicky scallion mayo.
The sandwich is an adult version of Jaroff’s favorite childhood breakfast: a steamed, custard-filled bao from pretty much any bakery in Chinatown.
Developed in partnership with executive chef Aya Iwatani (formerly of Honeysuckle Provisions), the Chino is the perfect combo of sweet and savory. It conjured up my own memories of using sausages to sop up the leftover syrup from diner pancakes. The lightly sweet bao from Dodo Bakery — a Cantonese bread and sweets specialist in South Philly — is equally transportive. It reminds me of the oversized conchas that lined the pastry cases of the panaderias in the tiny Hudson River town I lived in as a teen.
It’s funny how a single sandwich can take me to so many places. Perhaps I should add another question to my breakfast sandwich checklist: Does it make me feel warm and fuzzy?
The Chino most certainly does.
