I love how it's positioned on the plate alongside the side salad of arugula, tomatoes, olives, and fennel with a citrus vinaigrette. Also, she notes, "in the background, butter WITH olive oil." Wow.
Got your own surprising sandwich to share? Email your photos to nancy@betweenthebreadblog.com, along with a description of what's on your sandwich.
Thomas admits he's not a foodie and that he's just too lazy to brown bag it. So most days he sits at the counter at Eisenberg's among a few other regulars. His favorite is the tongue, Swiss, and slaw on rye, though he mixes it up with brisket and whitefish sandwiches too. Says Thomas: "Left to my own devices, I would have the tongue, Swiss, and slaw seven days a week, but I recognize that that probably wouldn't be in the best interest of my life expectancy."
No matter where I'm living, I love being a regular. I always have a go-to cafe where they know my order, and I cultivate familiarity at my favorite sandwich shops and bars, too. There's something very comforting about it, especially when you're in a big city. Don't you think?Philadelphia is facing the Yankees in this year's World Series, and these two great baseball cities are also prime sandwich cities. Of course, Philly has the Philadelphia cheesesteak, as well as the hoagie, the roast pork, and the ballpark favorite, the Schmitter. But New York boasts its own Italian great, the hero, plus the Reuben and other NY deli classics. Which city do you think wins the sandwich showdown?
While Playboy's "best of" is full of what my boss calls "big, sweaty sandwiches," New York Magazine's latest sandwich list is fancier, and rich in more ways than one. The nine featured creations range from a $5 banh mi at Baoguette Pho Sure (what a great name!) to a croque monsieur at Le Cirque that I'd happily pay $16 for based on this photo.
Even crazier is the "BLT" at Char No. 4, which piles on pork belly instead of bacon, and a sausage and broccoli rabe grinder with ricotta. If anyone has tried any of these, please, feed me some recommendations! Which one has you guys salivating the most?
I am allergic to peanuts, but that didn't stop me from stopping by Peanut Butter and Co. in New York's Greenwich Village. Even if I can't sample most of the sandwiches, I couldn't pass up visiting this emporium devoted entirely to creative peanut butter combinations.
The menu includes everything from basic PB&Js to Fluffernutters, peanut butter and Nutella, and the Elvis (PB, banana, honey, and, if you choose, bacon). The cafe also makes its own flavored peanut butters for even more interesting sandwiches: the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl sandwich (cinnamon-raisin PB with vanilla cream cheese and sliced apple) and the Heat Is On (spicy peanut butter with grilled chicken). Andrew, my proxy taster, ordered a special with maple peanut butter and bacon, while I opted for a tuna melt. The results lived up to the high concept.
I propose that the BLTAE enter our sandwich lexicon pronounced BLT-tay, or for extra sass, BLT-tay-yay. It refers to a BLT with avocado and egg, which I had the pleasure of tasting at Alias Restaurant on my trip to New York.
We chose this brunch spot based solely on its cuteness: a kitschy vintage exterior that contained a chic and casual Clinton Street interior. In the spirit of the Euro Club, the BLT comes with avocado and, if you choose, fried egg. The avo and egg elevate the whole thing from diner fare to elegant decadence. Oh, and the piece de resistance: the grilled bread, which gives it a nice brunchy texture.
If Manganaro's Hero-Boy is the put-together, friendly, and popular kid on the block, Manganaro Groceria is its somewhat surly (but still worth knowing) older brother. Indeed, this antique Italian market is owned by the older brother of James Dell'Orto, who until he retired ran the flashier hero shop next door.
The brothers haven't spoken in more than 20 years, which made it even sadder to go from bustling Hero-Boy into the spare Manganaro market. But Manganaro Groceria gets points for old-fashioned charm.
Stop number two on my NYC sandwichstravaganza was Hell's Kitchen, on the block that's home to both Manganaro's Hero-Boy and Manganaro's Groceria, two Italian hero shops owned by feuding factions of the same family. Brothers James and Sal Dell'Orto coexisted peacefully, until a disagreement over who could use the Manganaro name to market the 6-foot-long heroes that Manganaro's Hero-Boy became famous for in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Today, James and Sal don't speak, but the restaurants are right next door to each other: the groceria is in its original location, still looking very much like a market serving Italian immigrants in the garment district in 1910. Hero-Boy is brighter and newer, almost like a Potbelly without the colorful signage, and filled with family-size tables. Both joints serve excellent sandwiches. On a recommendation from patriarch James Dell-Orto, I tried the eggplant hero at Hero-Boy. Get a closer look at the eggplant enormity by clicking on each photo.
Though the Reuben is delicious, pastrami is Katz's claim to fame — with good reason. I've always been a lukewarm pastrami fan, finding it tasty but not quite getting all the fuss. Then I picked up a slice from the plate the counterman gives you to sample while waiting for your sandwich, squares of glistening meat laid out like a deck of cards. It was mind-blowingly delicious: salty, bacony, and melt-in-your-mouth tender. See what all the fuss is about.
It's not easy to eat an entire Reuben at Katz's, the legendary New York deli founded in 1888 — especially considering I haven't eaten corned beef or really any red meat in about eight years. But on my recent NYC sandwichstravaganza, I pretty much devoured this baby, except for a hearty overflow of meat that spilled out onto the plate. It was just too good to abandon in the interest of fullness.
Katz's is most famous for its pastrami, and with good reason (more on that in Part II). But the relatively new Reuben, added after the deli stopped keeping Kosher about 20 years ago, is not to be missed. Served on untoasted rye bread, three inches of soft, crumbly corned beef are covered with sauerkraut, a blanket of swiss, and homemade Russian dressing. Click through the gallery and you'll reconsider always ordering pastrami.
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