Eating Four ANTICO CAFFÈ Panini and Recreating the Viral "Spinach" with a Frying Pan and Sandwich Bread

What Ryuji had seen on social media was a sandwich called the "Spinach," packed full of spinach. According to the staff member who bought the panini, a store employee told them that "they taste great if you heat them in a frying pan." There was apparently also talk that the store toasts them once before serving to crisp up the surface, and even sears them with a torch. On the torch, Ryuji laughed: "It probably tastes great because you get that gassy aroma, but nobody has a torch at home."

When a staff member asked about the difference between panini and sandwiches, Ryuji answered, "Sandwiches aren't toasted, but panini are lightly toasted," explaining that panini are probably something like a hot sandwich. Ryuji added, however, that it's apparently best to eat them without heating them all the way through. The filling reportedly includes spinach, ham, and mushrooms, along with butter and cheese.

The item itself seems to have been around for a while, but Ryuji thinks it isn't available nationwide since Antico Caffè doesn't have many locations. Ryuji also suggests it may have originally been popular around Osaka, though Ryuji didn't seem sure. Saying, "Every once in a while I need to eat something stylish like this. I can't just be eating ramen all the time," Ryuji moves on to the tasting.

After crisping both sides in a frying pan and taking a bite, Ryuji found it packed with creamed spinach and could tell there was cream cheese in it. Even though it's mostly vegetables, it has quite a punch, and Ryuji says it's a flavor that would likely appeal to women. Because the filling is stuffed in "to an absurd degree," Ryuji points out that how you cut it matters if you want to share the best parts. The staff were so surprised by the amount of filling that one said, "Convenience stores should take a lesson from this."

The bread has sesame seeds in it, which Ryuji compared to a sesame bun. Ryuji analyzes that the generous amount of spinach, the punch, and the way the cream coats everything are probably what make it good. The rating: "S." Ryuji also said that, as a panini you can eat crispy, it's a complete dish. The staff also rated it S. The price is 590 yen, and the other items are mostly in the 500 to 600 yen range. It's a little pricey, but with that much spinach in it, Ryuji took it as understandable.

The second item, the Pesce Spada, sandwiches fried swordfish with aurora sauce and costs 640 yen. Ryuji notes that the bun is thick and the whole thing is pretty heavy, joking that "it's no different from Burger King or something." When Ryuji asked the staff, "You want to eat stuff like this too?" the answer was, "We do."

It got a little burnt during toasting, but Ryuji demonstrated a fix: "In cases like this, scraping it with a knife makes the burnt taste less noticeable." On tasting, it was "like McDonald's," with the sauce and swordfish pairing well and the lettuce making a difference. Ryuji's impression was that they had imagined something a bit more refined, but it tastes like a burger, and that people who go to cafés probably want to eat things like this too. The intensity of flavor is on par with a hamburger, and saying, "I get why it's popular. It's because it's delicious," Ryuji gave this one an S as well. One staff member said, "I wish every fish sandwich in the country was like this."

The third item, the Cavolo, is generously filled with coleslaw mixed with plump, bouncy shrimp, and costs 590 yen. It looks similar to a Filet-O-Shrimp, but Ryuji corrected that it isn't one since the shrimp isn't fried. According to the staff, it was the last one left when they went to the store.

Ryuji emphasizes that the toasted, crispy texture is exactly what makes panini good, because you can't toast a hamburger. The bread itself is tasty, and there's plenty of sauce. At the same time, Ryuji described it as "a hamburger that's been given a pass because it's from a café," laughing that calling it a panini makes it sound a little healthy, but the filling is the same as a hamburger, so you can't eat it if you're worried about calories. Ryuji's guess was that the Pesce Spada, loaded with fried fish and aurora sauce, is probably the highest in calories.

As for the Cavolo, Ryuji praised it for having a good amount of shrimp, delicious coleslaw, and being relatively healthy. The seasoning is still bold, though. The vegetables are cut large, so it feels like you're eating vegetables. The rating was a B (it is somewhat hard to make out in the subtitles and could also be read as B+), a bit more reserved than the previous two items. The staff described it as "kind of a veggie sandwich" and "the image of a café."

The last item, the Prosciutto, is a simple sandwich of cured ham and cheese and costs 490 yen. The bread seems like a baguette, but Ryuji sees it as a slightly soft baguette that suits Japanese tastes rather than a hard, crackly one. Ryuji says it's better crispy on the outside and a little fluffy and cool on the inside, and points out that this panini's flavor will likely change depending on how it's served. Ryuji's assessment: if a café can achieve this flavor, that's quite good.

Ryuji's impression after eating: "It's cured ham and cheese, so of course it's delicious." On top of the ham's saltiness, the cheese is salty too, and that saltiness works well. Saying it's a flavor Ryuji personally loves, Ryuji gave it an S.

After the tasting, Ryuji says the one most worth trying to make is the Spinach, and moves on to recreating it. Since Antico Caffè isn't everywhere in the country, Ryuji wondered whether the same thing could be made with sandwich bread. This time, only a frying pan is used.

First, Ryuji fills the frying pan with plenty of water and brings it to a boil. You could make it by sautéing all the spinach, but since the spinach in the original was crisp, Ryuji concluded that briefly blanching it must be the right approach. Ryuji says this kind of spinach is what you get as a side with steak at places like Wolfgang's. Ryuji explains that the salt in the water is there not only for seasoning but also to make the spinach a vivid green. When making it at home, Ryuji says it's better to use plenty of spinach, so Ryuji uses a whole bunch. The idea is that it can also be eaten as a spinach salad, so you might as well make extra.

The bacon can be thin, and the ordinary kind sold at the supermarket is fine. Since the item sells for 500 to 600 yen, Ryuji guesses the store isn't using particularly expensive bacon.

For the mushrooms, the original may have used shimeji or something similar, but Ryuji chooses oyster mushrooms because their texture is better and they taste great, calling this one of the advantages of recreating it at home. Ryuji usually tears oyster mushrooms by hand, but because the original had them finely broken down like a concassé (which Ryuji says means "crushed"), this time Ryuji minces them with a knife. If a knife is too much trouble, a Bunbun Chopper works too, and Ryuji guesses the store probably uses a blender. Even if it looks like a lot, it shrinks to about half once cooked.

The reason for boiling in a frying pan instead of a pot is that getting out a pot is a hassle. Once you pour out the water after boiling, you can sauté right away in the same frying pan. The staff reacted with, "I never would have thought of that."

The spinach goes in stem-first and is gradually submerged. It wilts, so all of it fits. The boiling time is about a minute, give or take, and two minutes at most, which Ryuji says strikes the right balance with the crisp texture of the original. After boiling, Ryuji chills it in water and squeezes it well, because if it isn't squeezed thoroughly it will turn watery later.

In the frying pan, with the water poured out, Ryuji adds just a little oil, puts in the minced bacon and oyster mushrooms, seasons lightly with salt and pepper, and stir-fries over high heat to drive off the moisture. The bacon in the original wasn't crispy but had a more salad-like finish, so there's no need to make it crispy. What's been sautéed shrinks considerably, and Ryuji says cooking off this much moisture is the key point.

The squeezed spinach is chopped finely with a knife, using the knife's weight. The root ends can be used as is, and Ryuji says they're the tastiest part. A staff member confessed to throwing them away, which led to an exchange along the lines of, "Buzz Recipe viewers are going to get mad at you, because everyone uses them." Since the spinach should stay crisp, it isn't sautéed but tossed in a bowl with the sautéed bacon and oyster mushrooms. There's a bit too much mushroom, but Ryuji says that's fine when making it at home.

This is where Ryuji identifies what's at the core of the original's flavor: cream cheese. Some recipes use heavy cream, but Ryuji says heavy cream doesn't easily give it richness, so cream cheese goes in (at one point the subtitles sound like 1 tablespoon, while the recipe in the video description says 2 tablespoons). This alone adds considerable richness, Ryuji says. It melts from the residual heat of the sautéed bacon and oyster mushrooms.

Ryuji thinks the original must have had something creamy in it, and probably mayonnaise too, but that cream cheese is the main component. Many people say it's mayonnaise, but the original's flavor wasn't very heavy or greasy, so Ryuji feels it's cream cheese. When a staff member looked it up, it apparently said that mayonnaise is also used, and Ryuji said, "My guess was right."

Next, Ryuji adds about 5 g of garlic and a very small amount of mayonnaise, about 2 teaspoons. The cream cheese remains the star. Salt is about two three-finger pinches.

On umami seasoning, Ryuji admits it might be closer to the original without it, but adds it anyway because Ryuji can't help thinking it tastes better with it. Joking that the people at Antico Caffè might get angry if they saw this, Ryuji says, "Delicious is justice," and that it will probably taste better than the original. Lastly, Ryuji adds black pepper, but keeps it restrained, since too much would take away what makes the original good. Ryuji's position is that umami seasoning is optional either way, but it definitely tastes better with it.

The filling makes about two sandwiches' worth. When a staff member asked whether to spread butter on the bread, Ryuji said it isn't necessary. Butter is spread to keep moisture from the filling from soaking into the bread and making it soggy, but this time the sandwich will be toasted, and the mayonnaise and cream cheese already provide fat. The filling is piled on generously.

After that, just as during the tasting, you press it down in the frying pan to get some browning, and it's done. Someone also asked about toasting the bread in a toaster first and then filling it, and Ryuji answered, "It's fine, in a sense, but you should be careful because it'll warm up all the way through." That's because the spinach shouldn't be cooked. Ryuji also said that toasting both sides of the bread first makes the whole thing too crispy.

The second sandwich was overcooked and started to burn, but since only the surface was burnt, Ryuji scraped it off, using the same trick as before. Some people think it's ruined once they mess up, but Ryuji says it's totally fine.

During filming, Ryuji also mentioned that a staff member with a sore throat had shown up to appear even though they could have taken the day off, joking, "I'm going to end up being someone who violates labor laws." Because the air conditioning would get picked up on the audio, they couldn't turn it on, and it was apparently quite hot on set. A staff member also looked up that Antico Caffè serves alcohol like beer and wine, and Ryuji was delighted: "They're totally on our side, then."

Between steps, a staff member asked why Ryuji is so good at recreations. Ryuji answered that, having originally wanted to run a restaurant, Ryuji did a lot of imitating other people's dishes, and after keeping at it for a long time, at some point became able to do it. Ryuji's recent approach is to first eat the trending original dish and then make it, which improves how closely it can be reproduced.

Ryuji further explained having around 5,000 recipes, and that within this huge library there are similar flavors that can be pulled out. In fact, Ryuji had previously made this Spinach as a "Spinach-Style Salad," and adjusted the saltiness and the balance of ingredients based on the original that Ryuji had eaten. It wasn't made from scratch; all that was needed was to put it in a sandwich.

After tasting the finished sandwich, Ryuji described it as "insanely delicious." The cheesiness makes it good, the generous amount of mushrooms works well, and you get lots of vegetables. Ryuji sums up that cream cheese is a must, the small amount of mayonnaise ties everything together, and the light touch of garlic also makes a difference.

A staff member who hadn't tried the original (Takao) also said it was "delicious," and another staff member said, "I like this one better." Ryuji took that to mean it's probably because the seasoning is in Ryuji's own style.

According to Ryuji, there's an existing dish called "creamed spinach," in which spinach is sautéed with heavy cream and eaten with meat and the like. The explanation is that using it in a sandwich is what became the Spinach. This time, the crisp texture of the spinach is what matters, and cooking it any further would make it limp. For the same reason, Ryuji says frozen spinach can't be used because it gets waterlogged. Ryuji also said the result is clearly different from toasting both sides of the bread first and then filling it, giving a texture that's crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Finally, Ryuji said again that they don't know whether the original contains umami seasoning, but that it tastes great with it. Ryuji then closed the video by saying that this Spinach sandwich, made with respect for Antico Caffè, is easy to make, and encouraged viewers to give it a try for lunch.