Sunday, August 22, 2010

Sandwich Roundup

So while it's only been a week since I last posted on this blog, it has been a LONG time since I've posted about sandwiches.  Don't ask me why.  In any event, I've eaten quite a few sandwiches since I last posted about one, and I think it would be better if I just did a quick round-up of each one (with pictures, of course).  Here we go:

#80: Torta Ahogada at La Superior:


La Superior is a tiny Mexican place seemingly in the middle of nowhere in Williamsburg.  While there was some initial attitude from the waiters towards us (my uncle and I) for some unknown reason, things calmed down quickly, and we got a large variety of very tasty food (you can see the most delicious dish, roasted scallions, in the upper left corner).  Except for the torta ahogada, which was definitely the worst dish of the night.  It was fine, don't get me wrong (the meat was quite tasty), but the bread was completely pointless, and it was impossible to eat as a "sandwich," as there was way too much sauce that just made the bread mushy, and the sauce was so mild-tasting  that the bread ended up being just tasteless.  Go to La Superior for everything but this sandwich.  3.3.

#79: Hot Roast Beef with Mutz and Gravy at John's Deli


This is easily the biggest disappointment of this adventure so far.  When I went on food sites about this sandwich, there was nothing but enormous praise for it, and when I asked some local Brooklynites about it, they all proclaimed it as a Brooklyn institution, and a sandwich not to be missed.  It was a long trek to get to this sandwich (John's is only a couple of subway stops from Coney Island), and the atmosphere of the place did not disappoint; tiny, loud, hot, and full of locals, almost all ordering the sandwich.  Imagine my surprise when I dug in and the roast beef was tasteless, the bread was incredibly hard, and the mutz (mozzarella) was barely detectable.  The "midnight gravy" was delicious, but the rest of the sandwich was so tasteless that I needed to order a big side of the gravy to dip the sandwich in so there would be any flavor.  Maybe I went on an off day, maybe this adventure has made me expect more from a sandwich.  But no way can I recommend this sandwich as it stands now.  2.7.

#78, a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, won't be available until next month, as the only Chick-Fil-A in NYC is in a friggin NYU food court, and is closed during the summer.  Sigh.

#77: Brisket Sandwich at Blue Smoke


The picture may not make it look like much, but that's kind of the point; this sandwich was incredibly simple, with just a tasty bun and the brisket; no sauce needed.  And guess what?  It was unbelievably delicious.  I didn't think a sandwich was going to unseat the mighty Roll N Roaster as my favorite so soon, but I think it happened here (they're at least in a tie, with this slightly ahead).  The brisket was absolutely perfectly cooked, with just enough fat to bolster the taste of the meat.  I really didn't want the experience of eating this sandwich to end.  My highest recommendation.  4.8.

#76: Falafel Sandwich at Taim





Again, not the best picture, but oh my goodness, this was fantastic.  The falafel at Taim was voted the best falafel in NYC by Serious Eats, and while I'm no falafel expert, it was indeed outstanding.  But the sandwich as a whole was excellent too; the bread was soft and delicious, the Israeli salad was fresh and had lots of herbs that added greatly to the taste, the sauce inside perfectly complemented the sandwich, and perhaps best of all, there were TONS of falafels in there (seven by my count).  All this for five bucks.  This gets my highest recommendation as well.  Best part of this sandwich?  It's a ten-minute walk from my work.  :)  4.7.

#75: The Scott Baio at Lioni Heroes


Now THIS was a great experience, not to mention sandwich.  In the same general area as John's Deli (Bensonhurst), Lioni Heroes is an old-school Italian deli, complete with weird Mafia guys hanging outside (but being totally non-threatening), guys with thick New York accents behind the counter, and great vintage posters and music.  Oh, and they also have, get ready... over 150 different sandwiches available!  They're all named after Italian icons like Da Vinci and Frank Sinatra (heroes, get it?), and most feature Lioni's famous homemade mozzarella, which just might be the best mozzarella I've ever had.  I went with Jeni and my awesome co-worker Sue, and we had a blast.  The Scott Baio, as you can see from the picture, was a beast; I actually couldn't finish the whole thing in one sitting.  There was just tons of delicious stuff in it, from mozzarella to prosciutto to pesto to my favorite ingredient so far in a sandwich on this adventure: banana peppers stuffed with mozzarella!!!  It was just utterly delicious, and I have to go back to try other sandwiches.  My highest recommendation as well.  4.7.

#74: Cuma at Farinella


Compared to the last three sandwiches, this wasn't exciting at all, but was still quite good.  It was pretty small, and the filling, which was mostly eggplant, was fine but unmemorable.  What was delicious, and this has been too rare in this adventure so far, was the bread.  It was light, perfectly toasted, and tasty enough that I could have eaten it by itself.  Perhaps that's not surprising considering that Farinella is mainly a pizza place.  So in conclusion, solid sandwich, but not the most exciting.  3.8.

#73: Oyster Po' Boy at Cheeky Sandwiches



Cheeky Sandwiches is an utter mystery to me.  It is an unbelievably tiny place (the only seating is one bench against one wall; yes, no real table), and it doesn't even have a door sign; the only way I even figured out where it was was by its doormat!  It also happens to be on a street in Chinatown that, at least when I turned, didn't have a street sign either!  You got me.  The mystery is how the place stays in business; no one I've spoken to has ever heard of it, and believe me, it's not a place you're just going to randomly walk into because you see it on the street.  It took me a while to find it, and I had the exact address!

Anyhow, it's a New Orleans-styled place, and they had a number of po' boys.  This one, the oyster, was great.  The oysters were beautifully deep-fried (and I actually watched them be deep-fried behind the counter), the bread was dry but a perfect complement for the oysters, and the slaw on the sandwich was spicy and provided an excellent kick.  I'm not sure that I would make the difficult trek back there to try other sandwiches, but this was the kind of experience I love on this adventure: trying a place I would have NEVER tried (or in this case heard of) on my own.  4.0.

#72: Fried Chicken Sandwich from Georgia's Eastside BBQ


This is an extremely tiny BBQ place on the Lower East Side, and like Cheeky's, it took me a long time to find it even with the exact address (and strangely, it's on the same street, Orchard Street, that Cheeky's is on!  Hmmmm).  Anyhow, I got a strange vibe from the place when I walked in, and I had an instinct that the sandwich wouldn't be good.  Call it sandwich-sense.  I'll put it this way; I could have walked out of there without paying for the sandwich (when the cashier put my order in, I had put my money down on the counter, and she ignored it; when I tried to pay for it once the order came out, she seemed shocked to see money), and I almost got into an argument about not wanting a refill for my sweet tea (I insisted that I didn't want one, and the waitress kept asking if I wanted one).  Utterly bizarre.

And... the sandwich wasn't very good at all.  The chicken was fine, but there was nothing special about it, and the cheese on top didn't add a thing to the sandwich.  As you can see from the picture, the bun was non-descript.  Just a really lackluster sandwich and bad overall experience.  2.9.


PHEW!  All right, I 'll be going to the next one tomorrow, and hopefully I'll post about it right away.  Thanks for reading!

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