The Dutch Sandwich

Once again, I have gone absentia from my blog. Unfortunately, the only Sandwich I've really engaged with due to the exam crunch is the old Dutch Sandwich tax evasion shelter.

As well, as a result of a micro-USB crash on my Sandwich Phone, I lost a bunch of Sandwich pics. As such I thought that this would serve as an opportunity to clear out some of my archives for some long overdue Sandwich reviews.

When I found out my dad was driving to Buffalo to pick up my sister, I figured it would be a great opportunity to enjoy near parity exchange rates and pick up a much-lauded Beef on Weck at Schwabl's. The Beef on Weck is a Buffalo super-regional Sandwich featuring thinly hand-carved roast beef on a special caraway seed and coarse pretzel salt bun called a Kummelweck. This joint has been serving for so long that it's entirely possible that William Lyon Mackenzie could have eaten one of these after he fled to Rochester in 1839 (I ain't Lyon!). It

I had to borrow Buffalo Chow's picture to try and make up for my lost pics, all credit due:

I thought the Roll was fantastic but frankly wasn't overly impressed with the Roast Beef. If this was typical Sunday brunch Roast Beef, I'd imagine I would be satisfied but for a place that's supposedly famous for the product I thought rare would be much more tender and flavourful. The Au Jus gave a great chewy soft contrast to the already delicious and very salty roll. The Saltiness also led to 2 very quickly downed Black & Tan's. Also the 1 hour wait kind of killed it.

Overall Impressions 7.5/10 Opas.

Ba Le 2

Ba Le is an unassuming Banh Mi shop on Dundas just West of Spadina.

Banh Mi is by far my favourite culinary by-product of Colonialism (but then again Curry isn't too bad either)
With a crusty baguette and a combination of fresh tastes like cilantro, thai chilis, cucumbers daikon and all sorts of delicious deli meats, pates and roast meat, the Banh Mi can hit just about any taste you want it to.

This time I ordered a Mixed Sub (featuring sliced pork, chicken roll and head cheese

And a classic Roast Pork:


















Overall Impressions:

• Great crusty roll made for excellent even bites throughout. 
• Nice dressing 
• Very fresh ingredients 
• Very tender roast pork. 
• Relatively expensive (but within the extremely cheap and affordable Banh Mi ballbark of under $3.00 after tax)

Overall 8.5/10 Opas and my favourite Banh Mi in downtown China town (stay tuned for a Banh Mi ho-down in Chinatown East)

My final review for the day comes from one of my all time favourite watering holes, the Victory Cafe.  

The Victory has one of the best patios in the summertime, a delicious beer list with a running roster of delicious cask ales and way above average pub food. 

Sometime ago, I went for their Grilled Cheese Sandwich. The Victory's version featured three very convetional ingredients (thick cut French Loaf bread, cheddar and gruyere) and one innovative ingredient (red pesto). 

To me, this sort of felt like reinventing the Sandwich wheel. The Sandwich would have worked perfectly without the pesto, as the cheese was perfectly melted and the Bread was near idyllic for a grilled cheese. However, the red pesto added an almost jarring aftertaste to a hitherto excellent grilled cheese.

Overall Judgment:

Bites that had the pesto: 6/10

Bites without pesto 8.75/10.

That's it for now folks. Stay tuned for the 2nd entry of Lawwiches, a guide to Bay Street's best Sandwich offerings as well as my pictures from this summer's Smoked Meat Battle and the Sandwich Pics that were almost published in Toronto Life.

FA LA LA LA LA LA FA LA LA Great Canadian Sandwich Fraiche!

Sandwich Times - Volume 9 - National Sandwich Day, Sand-tube and A meal to tickle your McRibs

1. Today is National Sandwich Day in the U.S. celebrating the anniversary of the Earl of Sanwich's invention (tho peep my 2nd entry for some commentary on the issue)

I recommend you celebrate that fantastic event with a fantastic Sandwich, an album of Sandwich Show-tunes and maybe even a lengthy reading of Canwiches back posts!


2. In my neverending quest to bring you the world's most heart-stopping Sandwich Catastrophe I bring you this

Two dudes from Montreal teamed up to bring you The Angry French Canadian, featuring:

"20" french toasted Parisian baguette, poutine, a quebecois steamay, bacon sandwich covered in 100% pure maple syrup from the tit of The Mother Maple Tree."




How does this compare to Conan's Version?





2. Celebrity Chef Sandwich Lust over at the Huffington Post

3. From the Wacky Sandwiches in the news pile, a customer at a Connecticut Subway  recently called 911 after not getting justice over some allegedly burnt meatballs.

4. The McRib is Finally Back, and it couldn't be sooner for Jack Osborne (let's hear it for early 2000's reality tv references hoo-wah) .

I recently was able to Sample the McRib at a D.C McDonalds (As part of Rally to Restore Sandwich Sanity/Fear Tour... More Sandwich Details to Follow...).

This was my first ever experience with the McRib. That is not to say the concept was entirely foreign to me. I had an early high school love affair with the Subway BBQ rib. The concept is pretty brilliant. They took a Sandwich that was probably neck-to-neck with the Filet-o-Fish (The Fish Mac for Continental European Canwichites) in sales and turned it into cult figure. It's kinda like the Rocky Horror Picture Show of Sandwiches or the Disney Vault. The 'boneless rib cutlet' is right up there with imitation crab in terms of faux food pyscho-outs.

The Sandwich features a boneless rib cutlet, brought you proudly by The Boneless Pig Farmers Association, smothered in BBQ sauce, and topped with Vidalia Onions and two pickles (as opposed to say Chick-Fil-A were the magic pickle number is 3).

Overall Impressions:
Honestly, I kinda liked it. The tangy bbq sauce worked really well with the sweetness of McDees' pickles and every bite had a nice mix of flavours to it. That is not to say the McRib is necessarily worthy of the having its own Jonestown-style following but if I'm at McDonald's and the mood strikes me just right (I'm thinking at 455 p.m, at Union Station, about to board a train to Ottawa) and it were on offer I would seriously consider out over the McJesse (aka a McDouble w/ Big Mac Sauce.... yeaaah!)


7/10 fast-food scale Opas

5. Yesterday was my birthday. My devoted friend and sometime Sandwich-associate Chris Reineck presented me with  "Great Canadian Sandwich Blanket",a fleece blanket with images from this site:

Here are some other not so subtle suggestions for yours truly from amazon.com: (

















HAPPY SANDWICH DAY ALL!

Grand Slamming the Double Down

Guys honestly I can't hear any more about the Double Down. Since this hype-generating monstristy emerged in the U.S. I have been bombarded with calls, texts, wall posts, smoke signals, smoked meat faxes etc. This Sandwich is famous in a way that Paris Hilton and Snooki have made the norm in the 21st century.


I hereby agree to NEVER review, eat, or otherwise discuss the Double Down on this blog.   


And besides,  if you want a pure monstrosity of artery-clogging Sandwich Hare-Kare, I offer you this recent monstrosity I had at Denny's. Despite the silly political wrangling over the issue, the Double Down seems like lo-cal fair in comparison to  THE GRAND SLAMWICH!!!!.


The Grands Slamwich consists of: 

• Scrambled Eggs
• Sausage
• Bacon 
• Ham (therefore it contains the Pig Trifecta)
• Gobs of Mayonnaise 
• Processed cheese

All between two pieces of maple-glazed thick toast. 

A peek inside the Pork Trifecta 

Here I am  smiling while awaiting the inevitable  Pig-Coma

This thing pretty much equals death weighing it at a COLOSSAL 1230 Calories, with 89!!!!!!! grams of fat. 

vs. the pitiful in comparison Double Down:  

Sandwich	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)
KFC Original Recipe® Double Down	540	32	1380

Impressions :

• Really Pork-y. I'm pretty sure "Babe" spoke to me on the third bite. 
• Due to the varied contents of the Sandwich, each bite offered a different mixture of tastes, textures & salt... lots of salt. 
• Decent maintenance of Sandwich Integrity. 
• Sluggishness began to set in by 2nd half of Sandwich.
• Scrambled eggs reminded me of warming tray eggs at a Holiday Inn Express complimentary breakfast. 
• WAY too much mayo.
• Real cheese would have added a much-needed sharpness to this Sandwich. 

Overall Judgment: 

4.5/10 

Law-Wiches Volume 1

Roughly one year ago I had a discussion with the then Director of Career Services at Osgoode.  I had recently sent her a copy of my Curriculum Vitae and was meeting her for a mock-interview for the O.C.I (On-Campus Interviews) recruitment process. When I got there, the first thing she remarked was:

"I noticed you referenced creator of  'The Great Canadian Sandwich Blog' in your interests section. Is this something you REALLY want to convey to corporate law firms"

I responded
"Well, I'm pretty sure I couldn't work for a law-firm that exhibits an inherent anti-Sandwich bias".

Throughout the recruiting process, my conversations with lawyers were EXTREMELY Sandwich-oriented. One of the most frequent questions was: What's the Best Sandwich near Bay Street. Luckily for me, I managed to snag a job at a terrific firm on Bay Steet. Over the course of the summer I challenged my Sandwich Taste Buds and I now present to you:

LAW-WICHES - A Survey of the Financial District's Tastiest Sandwiches:

Entry #1 - Osgoode Hall Dining Room

Within my first week as a summer student, I was taken on the obligatory tour of Osgoode Hall.

In addition to creating a great deal of location as to the location of the Law School I attend, Osgoode Hall also houses: The Ontario Court of Appeal, the divisional division of the Superiour Court of Justice, the Law Society of Upper Canada and what will be focused on for the purposes of this blog, the Osgoode Hall Dining Room. 

The dining room is run by the Law Society and feels sufficiently lawyerly. Unfortunately, its Sandwiches are more  1st-year associate rather than equity partner.

I ordered a Club Sandwich and was woefully underwhelmed with the result. 

Although the Sandwich was visually appealing, this only contributed to my later disappointment.  The Turkey was dry. The Cheese was underwhelming. The Bread was overly-toasted which gave an extremely unpleasant mouth-scraping sensation. The Bacon was sufficiently smoky but felt overcooked.  The only thing I actually enjoyed about this was the fresh tomatoes.

Also at $16 bucks, I'm pretty sure one needs to bring their Sandwich A-Game to a much higher level than this tepid, uninspired Club. While several of my dining companions thoroughly enjoyed their sweet potato ravioli, clearly the Sandwich did not, on a balance of probabilities, satisfy this court of Sandwich Jurisdiction I feel that this Sandwich could/should be the subject of a complaint under s.23.04 of the L.S.U.C Guidelines - "the prohibition against Sharp Sandwich (bread) Practice".

Overall Judgment: 4/10 Opas.

Entry #2: Petite Thuet 

Petite Thuet is Celebrity Chef Marc Thuet's attempt to bring the patisserie concept to Downtown Toronto. Featuring delicious baked goods such as classic Macrons  (fancy french desert or colourful mini-hamburger... discuss), tasty shots of espresso and of course

SANDWICHES:

The Sandwiches, as seen above, are prepared in a centralized locations, briefly thawed in the microwaved (to bring it to room temperature) and then perfectly grilled on the Panini Press resulting in a criss-crossed of Sandwich near perfect symmetry.

Over the course of the summer I visited Petite Thuet and enjoyed many of their Sandwiches.

My summer selection included but was not limited to

Chicken w/ Provolone, Speck and Pesto (also seen above)




Roast Beef w/ Saurkraut and Swiss on Pretzel Bread:

Comments:

• Although pre-packed, these Sandwiches taste INCREDIBLY fresh
• Fantastic bread
• Great Content/Topping pairings
• Very reasonable price for locale (10 bucks gets you a Sandwich and salad) 
• No ability to customize, for those Sandwich connoisseurs who NEED to have some element of control 

Overall Judgment:
9/10 Opas

I think this place was probably my favorite Sandwich destination within the Financial District. Also there are more locations in Rosedale, Bath & Eg and the St. Lawrence Market District, so you don't need to be on Bay St to eat like you are.

Entry #3 - Pumpernickel's 

Pumpernickel's is primarily known for their deli-ish offerings as well as some decent catering.

While there was a bustling Pumpernickel's in First Canadian Place where my office was located, I preferred the more relaxed location in the TD Centre.

I only went for a Sandwich of theirs once, a VERY serviceable Philly Cheesesteak:

Comments: 

• I was extremely impressed with the crusty roll. It held up PERFECTLY to the cheese-steak. Definetly a better roll than the ones' offered at previously reviewed Reggie's and my cheese-steak goto Great Steak and Potato. 
• The beef was clearly the same beef that was used in the roast beef feature. As a result it was tender but far too thick and chewy for an authentic cheese-steak experience. This was the biggest 
• The cheese, stringy mozzarella, melted perfectly but didn't A) add the flavor of provolone or  B) The Gooey creaminess of Whiz 

Overall Judgment: 7.5/10 Opas 

Canwiches' New York Trip Vol 4(1) - Cleaning out my Sandwich Closet

Sometimes writers block, even for a only quasi-serious Sandwich blogger, requires extreme forces in order to break through.

In this case it took a bad cold, 2 doses of cough syrup and an urge to move on before my memories fade.

So without further delay, I present to you the rest of my NY Sandwich Trip


1) Entry #1 - Second Ave Deli:

The recently re-opening of the 2nd Ave Deli, no longer famously located just off "3rd avenue", led to a major sigh of relief for NYC Deli lovers. While lacking the international clout of Katz's,2nd Ave Deli throws down classic NYC deli meats along with the rest of the Ashkenaz classics that frequent readers will now occupy a special place in my heart (namely one of the already partially clogged arteries).  2nd Ave opened in 54, but closed in 2006 following the tragic murder of Deliman Abe Lebewohl and an unfortunate rent dispute by new proprietor Jack Lebewohl.

2nd Ave Deli represents everything great and classic about NYC deli. Tradition, tasty smoked meats, and all the right fixins, toppings and noshes.










I was joined on this mission by noted Fressers' Lindsay and her surname-as-first-name BF.

We started off with the Chopped Liver as modeled by Barnett above. It was creamy and rich, with a prominent tastes of schmaltz and onions throughout.  They were served with plates of Pickled Peppers, Full Dills, Half-Sours to round the forspeis  selection
















A powerful start indeed.

Next up was the Main Event for me. The Pastrami Sandwich:

The meat featured a nice mild smokiness, fantastic notes of pepper, garlic, salt and even a mild sweetness. The marbling was absolutely fantastic. The rye bread held up very well with very little content push-through.

As well I even enjoyed the portioning of this Pastrami compared to the Herculean offerings at Stage, Carnegies.

As expected, fantastic selections of mustard.

Barnett ordered the Corned Beef, which looked just as tasty. While I only had a small piece it seemed like it had a whole other range of subtle and delightful tastes to pick up on:

Overall Judgment: 9.25/10 Opas

Entry # 2 - The Smile 

At my sister's urging, I visited the coffee shop she works at, the Smile. In what I can only reluctantly describe as a exuding breathlessly Manhattan charm, the Smile serves excellent coffee, formerly housed a Tattoo Parlour, and serves up some extremely tasty food. 

I tried two Sandwiches there:

Thinking outside the usual Sammy template, the Smile's iteration features  Harissa Honey Roasted Breast, Red Peppers, Manchego and is served with Presererved Lemon-Mayo on a fresh Baguette. 

The result is a nice, somewhat gooey, fresh tasting Chicken Sandwich. The flavours worked well, if not mindbogglingly well together and the bread held up well to the condiment. Perhaps it was the Manchego and lemon-mayo but it felt like a very springtime appropriate Sandwich, and one that would be equally good on go. 

The Sandwich I was most interested in at the Smile was their Manouri Cheese & Fig Sandwich. Featuring Manouri, a semi-soft Greek Cheese (think of it as Feta's creamier, less salty cousin), a delicious fig preserve, always deliciously decadent truffle oil, pear & arugla served on toasted Sour Dough. 

The textures of the Fig preserve and the pears matched perfectly with the softness of the Manouri. The cheese velvety texture seemed to push the preserve to every piece of the Sandwiches' surface area (SSA for short).  The whole Sandwich had a very delicate, exquiste taste to it and makes for a perfect lunch IMO. My only complaint was that I found the crust on the sourdough a little tough for my tastes

Overall Judgment: 8/10 Opas

Canwiches' New York Trip Vol 3 - SCHTICKWICHES!

One of the amazing things about New York is its ability to support the one off, flavour-of-the-mouth, sometimes plain cooky restaurants that focus sometimes on only a single menu item:

• S'MAC - A lactaidy tribute to Mac & Cheese in the East Village
• PB&CO - a loving ode to the PB&J 
• Doughnut Plant - a paean to my favorite fried sweet treat, the Donut.

During my pinguefy-ing trip, I decided to visit the latest (at the time of Sandwich consumption) of these offerings.

This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef: 

The owners of This Little Piggy are experienced Schtick-Restaurant proprietors, having previously raised Led Zeppole.

This Little Piggy has but 3 items (they seem to have since added a 4th). Although the Pastrami got some shine, the clear focus on is on that Union Jack Stereotype, the  Roast Beef:

They offer:
This Way (Roast Beef, Cheez Whiz served on a roll),
That Way (Beef, Mozzarella, Dipped in Au Jus - Chicago Style - served on a Hero)
&
The Other Thing (Pastrami and Cole Slaw on Rye)

I decided on This Way for a couple of reasons.
1) I've never eaten Cheez Whiz before and figured when in Processed Cheese Sauce Rome. Also I figured I should prepare myself in case I ever make Cheesesteak Aliyah to Philadelphia.
2) It seemed like an upmarket version of a gross Arby's Beef n Cheddar and I'd figure it would really stick it to those smug Raffell Brothers

The Whiz Worked Wonderfully.  It added a guilty, velvety(or maybe its Velveeta)  texture. The moist, slow roasted beef, the Au Jus and the Cheez Whiz led to a bun that was bursting with flavour. 

The Meat was tender and with strong peppery flavours. The Angus Top Round after hours of slow roasting is kept warm in its juices, is extremely tender.  

And did I mention greasy?!? As Nick Riviera Said  

"And remember, if you're not sure about something, rub it against a piece of paper. If the paper turns clear, it''s your window to weight gain."

Notice the transparency throughout the wrapper.

This is the kind of Sandwich that I could see myself to propose to after a night of libations and instantly seeking an annulment when I woke up the next morning. 

Overall Judgment: 7.75 Opas/10 

Canwiches' New York Trip Vol 2 - Putting the Sang in Italian Sang-wiches

Entry #1: Sal, Kris & Charlie's Deli.

As I have mentioned before, the genesis of this blog consisted of me searching for "giant sandwich pics" on google images during 'downtime' in Law School. A part of me has always yearned for the kind of Sandwich that would simply dominate me (Sandwich Masochism?), where I would be left a smiling, drooling fool left in the mist of Sandwich run-of. 

This was that Sandwich. 

I hit up the self-proclaimed "Sandwich Kings of Astoria" during a visit to my good friend Brian "Wonder Bread" Schwartz's new apartment:

The Sandwich Kings, located in a fairly nondescript deli, are known for their monstrosity known as "The Bomb". 

Containing:  ham, turkey, salami, pepperoni, mortadella, american cheese,swiss, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, roasted peppers, pickles, oil, vinegar, mustard, and mayo, served on an enormous 14" Italian Roll. 

To give you a perspective on the enormity of this Sandwich, here's a 500 ML water bottle comparison shot

Roughly the size of a Rugby Ball, the Bomb is a local legend to Astoria like Christopher Walken or Whitey Ford. 

Unassembled Bomb: 

The Meats and Cheese were similar to what you'd find in any NY neighborhood deli. The signs loudly celebrated their Boar's Head Meats:

But this Sandwich is not about rare imported Iberico Ham,Truffle Oil or Northern Luxembourg Cave Cheese. This Sandwich was all about taking the perfect selection of Sandwich elements, artfully stacking them, balancing the flavours, and cramming as much as into this Hero as that made this Hero stand out.

After 9 bites, the Turkey and Roast Beef make surprise reappearances:

The Sandwich was so delicious and brobdingnagian in proportion that Brian and I were stopped during our Epicurean Sandwich Feast in Ditmars Park to ask what the heck that Sandwich was and were the passerby could get one.

I got through the first half no problem but was able to only polish about 1/3 of the second before throwing in the proverbial Sandwich towel. Brian sped his way though the first half and kept pushing till halfway on the 2nd half before turning green. I hadn't seen Brian eat like this since the Great-Bacon-Egg-Cheese-Sandwich
Triathalon of February 05'.

Impressions:

• Fantastic balancing. Different nuanced tastes at every bite. Felt like three different Sandwiches at once.  
• Possible solution to the elimination of the special food allowance in Ontario by allotting one Bomb per family per week
• Great zingy deli peppers and fresh tomato 
• Bread was  crusty on outside while soft and nurturing on the inside. Surprisingly little Sandwich push- through/under-biting
• Could have used more Mustard

Overall 8.5/10 Opas. 

Notice how the Sandwich has maintained structural integrity.

Entry #2: Torrisi Italian Specialities

Torrisi is a walk-in  kitchen style joint that elevates the Italian deli formula to its most gourmand extreme.  Featuring an extremely casual setting, the restaurant surrounds the customers with cans of pickled peppers .

The menu is simple: a rotating roster of 5 fantastic antipasti, 4 different rolls & heros, and either lasagna or eggplant parm depending on the season.

My sister and I first tucked into the Italian Hero:

Simply put, every single aspect of this hero was perfection. Fantastic assorted meats (Mortadella, Pepperoni, Sopresetta Ham, Genoa Salami) go way beyond your typical NY Boar's Head selection (sorry Sals) and are skillfully balanced with extremely juicy tomatoes, fragrant provolone, the best deli peppers I  have ever eaten, Oil, Vinegar and house made spicy paste (I pried but they wouldn't reveal their secrets)

Even the role served as a perfect Sandwich conduit as the Sandwich maintained form brilliantly and had a nice crust and softy chewy interior.

Overall Impressions:

• Fantastic Meat!
• Perfect balance (lettuce:meat:sauce:pepper ratio was off the charts)
• Could have used a bit more provolone as some bites were absent 
• Excellent Hero bread

Since there was a bit of a holdup with the Sandwiches (which was maybe 10 minutes MAX) , the owners comped us 1) a fantastic Eggplant mix with Raisins, and Artichokes and  2) A Spicy Rabe with a beautiful spiciness to it that paired well with the slight alkaline tastes in Rabe and 3) Extra vinegar Peppers

Next up was another slightly upmarket version of an Italian American classic, the Chicken Parm.

Served on a fresh roll, the Chicken Parm was dressed in its Sunday best with home-rolled and pillowy-soft fresh Mozzarella, crispy breaded white meat stacked two-high, a very zippy homemade Marinara   with Basil leaves arranged delicately throughout:

The Sandwich was perfectly arranged, mouth-sized, and managed to avoid the messiness that I tend to associate with this generally unfastidious Sandwich:

Overall Impressions:

• Juicy and crispy Chicken cutlet
• Fantastic home made Mozzarella 
• Whole basil leaves a great choice
• Marinara was good enough to eat on its own

Overall Judgment: 

9.75/10 Opas

Our next NYC Sandwich trip post will survey the kooky, one-off Sandwich offerings that only NYC can seem to get away with, in an entry entitled Schtickwiches. 

Happy Sandwiching!