Black Forest
December 8th, 2007Filed Under: cheese, ham, mustard with 0 Comments
In Europe, “Black Forest ham” is a protected term indicative of a particular geographical origin and method of preparation: the name is applied only to those hams from Germany’s Black Forest region that have been cured and cold smoked with a distinctive flavoring.
In the United States, on the other hand, there are no such restrictions on the use of the term—but it’s still delicious.
Lemon-pepper chicken
December 2nd, 2007Filed Under: provolone, toasted with 1 Comment
Chicken cold-cuts are usually pretty bland. When I saw there was a special on “lemon-pepper” chicken, though, I dared to hope it might be flavorful, on account of the alleged lemon and pepper (have I mentioned that I really like pepper?) and whatnot. And indeed it was.
Salami
October 30th, 2007Filed Under: provolone, salami with 1 Comment
There’s a Polish [1] meat shop at a farmer’s market not far from where I grew up. They have a lot of great products, like “TV stick” and Weisswurst, but as far as I’m concerned their best offering is the imported Hungarian salami, which is delectable beyond compare. And which, it turns out, makes for a nice sandwich as well.
[1] Yes, they’re Polish. Yes, they also sell Bavarian and Hungarian sausages, and as meats from a bunch of other countries as well. And yes, and most important, it’s all delicious.
Scrambled eggs and ham
October 27th, 2007Filed Under: cheddar, ham, swiss, toasted with 0 Comments
Got this at the municipal IHOP, because it was the most sandwichy thing on the menu. It’s quite breakfasty, mostly on account of the scrambled eggs, but it was perfectly fine for dinner as well. That said, my review of the sandwich is decidedly mixed. The combination of scrambled eggs and two kinds of melted cheese gave it a generally very goopy mouthfeel that the ham and bread did little to offset. Even worse, the bottom slice of toast was thoroughly soggy when it arrived, so it had clearly been sitting for a while before being brought out. Some of my complaints are directed towards the abstracted ideal of the sandwich, and some are directed towards the particular IHOP franchisee that served it to me, but it’s hard to tell exactly where to draw the line between them. The onion rings were fantastic, though.
Pepper-ham
October 18th, 2007Filed Under: ham, mustard, provolone with 1 Comment
This is another sandwich precipitated by the purchase of the rye loaf mentioned previously. In this case, the meat was a similar impulse buy. I like ham [1] and I really like pepper [2], so pepper-encrusted ham seemed like a natural choice. Can’t say I regret it in the least.
[1] And who doesn’t like ham? Besides Jains, Jews, Muslims, Seventh-day Adventists and Rastafarians, I mean.
[2] I’ve pissed a lot of people off by indulging in one of my favorite beverages, piprapiim (‘peppermilk’). I came up with it myself, and nobody else likes it. Which is fine, because there’s more for me that way.
Roast beef sandwich
October 13th, 2007Filed Under: beef, mustard, provolone, toasted with 0 Comments
I was at the grocery store when a beautiful loaf of rye bread caught my eye and began begging and pleading for me to make a sandwich with it. I tried to avert my gaze and continue down the aisle, but it was no use—I couldn’t get those shapely slices, those gorgeous caraway seeds, out of my mind. I went back and apologized for even considering being so heartless and cruel, proudly gave the bread the seat of honor in my shopping cart, and made my way over to the deli department to pick up some other ingredients of a similar caliber. No cheap stuff today; both the roast beef and the provolone (sharp, never mild) were Boar’s Head™.
And it was delicious.
A Contradiction in Terms
September 10th, 2007Filed Under: cheddar, vegetables with 1 Comment
An odd paradox of food, I ordered this veggie burger with bacon. It was at a Jimmy Buffett-owned burger restaurant my sister took me to. It’s a fairly standard bacon cheeseburger, featuring lettuce, tomato, onions, cheddar cheese, and so on, except I requested to have a veggie burger patty. You can get any burger there as a veggie burger.
Really, most of the time, I could hardly tell that it wasn’t a real bacon cheeseburger. Sometimes, of course, a bite should’ve been meatier than it was, and I could tell it was a veggie patty. But really, I don’t see THAT big of a difference… I guess I’m not that picky when it comes to food. Oh, also, the sweet potato chips were really good. Mmm.
Funny story, actually, my sister ordered a BBQ veggie burger or something, but wound up getting a mushroom swiss veggie burger by mistake. They prepared her the correct burger, and I got a free bonus burger out of the deal. Plus the restaurant also covered one of her drinks. So a free mixed drink and a free burger! Now THAT’s service! We left a nice tip.
Ira Sandwich, Jackson, NJ
June 4th, 2007Filed Under: mozzarella, onion with 0 Comments
It was either this Ira or the Monte Cristo, and I think I got the better half of that deal, tentacled nature of this sandwich notwithstanding. I can’t seem to find an official list of ingredients, but it looked like onions, tomatoes, a generous mass of mozzarella on rye. I can’t remember if bacon was involved or not.
Mass-produced love
May 31st, 2007Filed Under: ham, lettuce, mayonnaise, onion, provolone, tomato with 0 Comments
A perfectly competent sandwich, if nothing particularly special. Made on an assembly line.
“On the Grill”ed Cheese Sandwich
May 28th, 2007Filed Under: cheddar, mustard, tomato with 0 Comments
Because this is a massive grilling weekend, grilled cheese made on a bbq grill with mustard and tomato.