Meet EggKing, The Iowa eggs and Asian Cuisine Fusion

EggKing began as a pandemic project. Three Iowans with roots in Des Moines’ south side drew from their distinct Asian food cultures to create their EggKing style, an egg sandwich from the Korean gilgeori toast, which translates as “street toast.”

Brothers Andrew and Art Sayasane’ with Laotian heritage, and Curt Wang whose family is from China and Korea, as many great things do, started pretty small. 

Andrew began creating sandwiches and invited Curt to sample them. Curt added his own flair, such as the bulgogi, a marinated, grilled beef that is his mother’s dish as interpreted by his wife, and is known as “fire beef.”

EggKing’s sandwiches are known for their sweet-savory sauce, as messy as they can be, to meld together the eggs with the cheese or bacon or Bulgogi beef or avocado and the butter-forward toast. 

Every Saturday at The Hall (111 S 11th St.) in West Des Moines, the outcome showcases Iowa bacon, Iowa butter, and Iowa eggs – around 1,800 eggs, 10 cases of 15 dozen.

Andrew and the other egg royalty are ready to keep making those connections through their food. When the farmers market season returns, they hope to operate out of both The Hall and the 1908 Draught House (409 Court Ave.).