Tag Archives: sandwich

If this is bad, I don’t want to be good.

Sometimes, the universe is subtle and coy. And other days, it literally hits you over the head and asks why you have your eyes closed.

I was walking home last night and had an insatiable craving for a grilled cheese sandwich. Now, I went on a grilled cheese kick about a month ago, where I couldn’t get enough of artisan sourdough, whole-grain mustard and a delicious mixture of Gruyere, Emmenthal and caraway Havarti.

Well.

Last night, I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich made of Wonderbread and Kraft Singles. Thankfully, the grocery store was closed. Another disaster averted.

And this afternoon on Ye Olde Twitter? @fizzpoptweet asked people to name their top guilty pleasures. Okay, universe, I get it. Guilty pleasures.

Read more about it in my post for Foodists.

‘Wichcraft is a lifesaver

The thing with travelling is that sometimes you can’t be picky. Sometimes you’re surrounded by tourist traps and fast food, and you just want something good. Not fancy, not expensive, just good.

Well, if you’re in New York City, you can rely on ‘Wichcraft. I thank my stars that Tom Colicchio started this chain of shops that serves fresh, tasty soups and sandwiches at a great price point.

When I was there, I ordered the tuna sandwich on baguette. They manage to toast the baguette without making it all crunchy and painful to eat. The tuna was nicely accented with thinly sliced fennel and lemon, which made the whole thing fresh and bright. I also had a cauliflower soup with parsley oil. The taste and texture were exactly what they should have been.

They serve bread sticks on the side, which is cute. The walls are covered in giant food photography (can you say food porn?), and there’s a great selection of pop culture, fashion and food magazines to read while you’re munching away.

I wish I had tried the grilled fontina with morels and truffles, but oh well.

Note that the location at 60 E. 8th Street is dangerously close to Broadway Panhandler. Broadway Panhandler (65 E. 8th Street) is a fantastic kitchen store – one that I could easily spend hours in.

‘Wichcraft
various locations
New York, NY (also San Francisco and Las Vegas)
'Wichcraft on Urbanspoon

An anti-So.cial sandwich

For months, I’ve been meaning to go to Social at Le Magasin.  It’s a two-part restaurant, with a little bistro on Water Street and a butchershop/deli facing West Cordova.  I keep walking by the bistro and seeing signs for oysters and cheap martinis.  I haven’t even been in there, and they already know what I like!

I’ve heard great things about their sandwiches, so it was about time that I tried one.  They’re good value – I got a small sandwich for $6.75 and only managed to eat half of it.  Each sandwich also comes with a bag of homemade potato chips, which are delightfully salty and ever-so-slightly burnt.  It’s a daring but tasty move.

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Burgoo: there’s lots of cheese

If I were to open a restaurant, I would have opened Burgoo.  It’s comfort food from all over the world, but done properly and with a gourmet twist.  The presentation is beautiful but not pretentious, the food is simple but well executed, and the prices are excellent.  Best of all, the menu changes seasonally to reflect what’s available, and what people normally crave in certain seasons.

Their current menu has a heavy emphasis on cheese.  Their grilled cheese sandwich is no ordinary grilled cheese.  Rather, it’s four giant slabs of bread sandwiching four kinds of cheese, and the whole thing is grilled to perfection.  It’s ever-so-slightly greasy, and your cholesterol will probably be through the roof for the next few days, but it’s worth it.  I suggest splitting the order with a friend so that you can also try something else – eating both sandwiches would probably be overkill.

They also make a mean macaroni and cheese.  It’s even better than mine, and it takes a lot for me to admit that. 

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The world’s best sandwich

I had the world’s best sandwich (no joke) while in New Orleans, at this hole in the wall restaurant called Pascal Manale’s. It was a barbecued shrimp sandwich, served in the requisite squishy bread. New Orleanians really have it figured out: the bread is soft enough to absorb any juices from the filling without falling apart, and the crust doesn’t hurt the roof of your mouth. It’s brilliant.

Back to the sandwich: this was shrimp, perfectly barbecued, sitting in shrimp juices and clarified butter with lots of cracked black pepper. The bun was hollowed out and then stuffed full of shrimp, and that’s why it’s the world’s best sandwich. See, nothing falls out. You take a bite, and anything – shrimp, shrimp juice or butter – that didn’t make it in your mouth just falls further into the sandwich. By the time you’re at the end of the sandwich, it’s completely saturated with shrimp and butter goodness.

I ate this with two other foodies, and the three of us went dead silent after the first bite. We could only stare at each other over our sandwich, eyes wide open in amazement.

Pascal Manale’s
1838 Napoleon Ave
New Orleans, LA
(504) 895-4877

Pascal's Manale on Urbanspoon