– You guys and gals seem to commisserate with Alex’s five stages of a bad meal. Lora:
Totally cracking up over this. I have a similar post (still unposted!) about the incredibly frustrating process of making French Macaroons. Great minds think alike
Yes! Let us know when that’s up, Lora. Have we started a new food meme? Five Stages of…
– Thanks everyone for EVEN MORE suggestions on America’s best new sandwiches. Heather:
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Last month ES brought you our list of America’s top 10 new sandwiches. But blogga always said that reader knows best.
Many of you commented on our original story to tell us which of your favorite innovative sandwich should have been included. We chose the ten tastiest suggestions and now present an encore list: America’s Top 10 New Sandwiches, as selected by Endless Simmer readers.
What could be better than poutine, Montreal’s signature street food? How about throwing that poutine — cheese curds, fries and gravy included — on a pita, so you can actually eat it while walking down the street? Add some steak and you’ve got yourself one helluva sandwich. And yes, for the sake of U Needa Pita, we’re including Canada as part of America this one time only.
We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: there’s no food so good that it can’t be made better by a trip to the deep fryer. Kudos to Melt for being brave enough to test this theory out on the monte cristo breakfast sandwich — honey ham, smoked turkey, Swiss and American cheese — all battered in beer and deep fried.
We’re officially placing money on Chile’s signature sandwich — the chacarero — to become the next bahn mi, and La Sombra‘s version is the most sumptuous one we’ve seen yet. Shiner Bock marinated sliced hangar steak topped with green beans, avocado, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers and spicy mayo, all on a thin, toasty bolillo.
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– To be filed under Endless Simmer changes the world, we hear D.C. restaurant ChurchKey can barely keep up with the increased demand for its version of the Luther, ever since ES crowned it the best new sandwich in America. As We Love DC reports:
The Luther’s new-found fame, however, may be its undoing. By the time we ordered our second one (ed. note: bravo), around 1:30pm, the kitchen had already run out of donuts and was scrambling to make more. The manager assured us that we would get our second sandwich, but hinted that we were lucky, since they might not be able to serve them much further into the afternoon. Although reportedly served during an eight hour window on Sundays, the time frame for sampling this creation might be more like three or four hours. Go early to sample, but be prepared to hit the gym on Monday extra hard to work it off.
ChurchKey owners, just let us know what our percentage is for all these extra sandwiches you’re selling. By the way, I’m happy to report We Love DC backs up our adulation of the New Luther:
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– Everyone has their own addition to America’s best new sandwiches. Mike:
All these look great, but nothing beats the Steak Poutine Pita from U-Need-A-Pita in St. Catharines ON. Steak, Cheese, Fries, and Gravy all in one pita.
Canada:
If you’re ever in Orlando, FL you’ve gotta check out Pom Pom’s teahouse and sandwicheria. The Mama Ling Ling’s thanksgiving dinner sandwich is absolutely phenomenal
What’s yours? Keep the great sandwich list going, and we may have to publish a sequel post. On another note, TimD stands up for the meat-or-die crowd:
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Forget who piles pastrami highest or fits the most varieties of cold cuts onto one hero roll. A great sandwich has come to mean more than just bigger, better and meatier. Across the country, a new breed of sandwich artisans are taking lunchtime to a whole ‘nother level. From California to New England, here are Endless Simmer’s top ten favorite new sandwiches.
Spuckie is a term used by old-school Bostonians to identify any sub sandwich, but it’s increasingly associated with this year-old Brookline shop. It’s also probably the one sandwich that most successfully merges the old-school method of overdoing it on Italian meats with the new world of artisan, veggie-centric goodness. Super-thin slices of fennel salami, hot capicola and mortadella are layered on an oversize ciabatta, then topped with gooey, hand-pulled mozzarella and a fresh olive-carrot salad. For even less traditional sandwich-lovers, there’s also an eggplant spuckie available.
At the risk of outraging an entire city, we’re going to say it: the Philly cheesesteak is boring. With no disrespect meant to the age-old art of slathering fake cheese on top of a mound of meat, we just think this is one classic sandwich that is ready for a creative update. Enter University City sandwich truck Koja, where the chewy cheesesteak meat is replaced with bulgogi, Korea’s signature thinly-sliced, spicy BBQ beef. It’s served on a hoagie roll that’s coated in sweet chili oil and accented by sauteed peppers and onions. Koja also offers bulgogi pork and bulgogi chicken variations, but the best part is the unbelievable price — $3. Read more about this amazing sandwich at My Inner Fatty.
Have you ever dug into a steamy styrofoam container of General Tso’s chicken and thought, “this is delicious, but it would be even tastier on a bun?” Of course you haven’t, that’s the most insane thing we’ve ever heard. But crazy is sometimes genius, as is proven at this tiny Seattle sandwich shop, where hunks of tender chicken are deep-fried and glazed in a tangy brown sauce, then served on a crispy baguette with caramelized onions and cilantro. The result is a supremely sticky, but utterly satisfying sandwich. (Photo: Sevius)
Another new West Coast outpost that achieves genius results by thinking outside the bun, LA’s great cheese-on-wheels purveyor offers several list-worthy grilled sandwiches, but none is more awe-inspiring than this. Sharp cheddar mac-and-cheese, strands of sweet BBQ pork and caramelized onions are all stuffed into two perfectly buttered-and-fried slices of white bread. Yes, it sounds like the horrifying 3 a.m. creation of a stoned college student. Yes, it actually works.
(Photo: Grilled Cheese Truck)
Upgrading Mexican street food has suddenly become a hot task of haute chefs around the nation, although the results often have us pining for the real thing. Not so at Rick Bayless’ Chicago sandwich shop, where tortas baked in the wood-burning oven take Mexican to levels we didn’t know existed. In this sandwich, silky strands of roasted suckling pig are served on crusty bread spread with black beans and achiote paste, then finished with a layer of pickled onions and habanero salsa. The Pibil may be one extra ingredient away from being a Top Chef disaster story, but as is, it’s perfection on bread.
Exhibit A: Fried egg and provolone cheese hoagie with tomato, onions and…iceberg lettuce from Atlantic City’s White House Sub Shop.
Hot sandwiches should contain only ingredients that can taste good while hot or when turning limp from the warmth. I think spinach, arugula or a mesclun mix works well in warm sandwiches because they maintain their dignity when wilted. Iceberg lettuce, however, just turns soggy and gross. Iceberg lettuce is used for crunch and crunch alone.
There’s no real flavor living in those leaves, so when you put iceberg lettuce in a warm sandwich that dissolves its crunch, it leaves the lettuce totally useless. Iceberg then only takes up space which could otherwise be filled with warm sandwich-friendly ingredients, such as roasted red peppers, mushrooms and pickles.
