Category Archives: Sandwich Reviews

Mushroom Sandwiches – Made at Home

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mushroom1-5The whole reason this blog exists is that sandwiches don’t get the attention or respect that they deserve. Why not, then, turn my attention to ingredients that don’t get the respect or attention they deserve. I’ve featured a number of mushroom sandwiches on this blog, most of them quite delicious, but in my experience when most people go looking for sandwich ideas, mushrooms aren’t the first thing that come to mind. That’s a pity. I recognize that the above mass of sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but in the event that it doesn’t I’d say you’re missing out.

The above is two of the three layers in a grilled cheese sandwich, which feature what I would refer to as Drunken Mushrooms. The final product:

mushroom1That’s a layer of extra sharp cheddar cheese on the bottom, the drunken mushrooms, and a layer of toscano cheese with peppercorns. The mushrooms were sauteed with onion until they were fairly well cooked, to which was added a bit of garlic and some rosemary. Finally, about half a bottle of beer was poured on, and the whole thing reduced until there wasn’t any loose liquid. That last bit is important, because soggy mushrooms are likely to ruin a grilled cheese. The bread involved was a dill rye bread, and I have to say that overall this was quite good. The toscano cheese is nutty and brings a nice depth of flavor, while the mushrooms took on an extraordinarily complex flavor from the reduced beer without losing their own, earthy essence. This was tasty, but making a good grilled cheese is a fairly low degree of difficulty, and in any case it’s more cheese sandwich than mushroom sandwich. I like mushroms a good deal, and they deserve more.

mushroom2That’s a roasted portobello mushroom stuffed with Italian sausage and ricotta cheese, with a layer of red leaf lettuce added into brighten things up a bit. Roasting a portobello is little trouble: Cut a cross-hatch into the bottom, brush a little olive oil on it, put it into a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, flip it and give it another 8-10. Take it out, stuff it with whatever you like, and put it back under the broiler until whatever you’ve got on top is melted or crisp or however it may be to your liking. I used pre-cooked chicken sausage here because I wanted to see how things would come out without going all out, how it might look if this was just something I ended up throwing together. The answer is about what you’d expect: good, but not great.

The portobello is the star of the mushroom sandwich world for a reason, beyond the fact that it stays on the bun much easier than the rest of its fungal brethren, it’s meaty and dense and packs a good deal of the umami flavor that makes mushrooms so good. The scoring and the roasting takes a lot of the moisture out of it, and that’s the key. All in all, I’m a bit disappointed in myself with this one. This could really sing with some pork sausage and some tastier cheese, or some chorizo and potato, or shredded chicken and roasted poblano chilies, or really any number of combinations. Instead I aimed for somewhere in the middle, ended up exactly there, and it was a bit lackluster. Little surprise.

(A note: I sliced the above for the purposes of the photo, but should you try your hand at this one don’t bother. Let the natural bowl of the mushroom work for you, and don’t open yourself to the risk of the whole thing falling apart.)

mushroom3  Back to the smaller crimini mushrooms, this sandwich is something like duxelles on rye. Duxelles is minced onion and mushroom, sauteed with herbs and more butter than is sensible until it’s something like a paste or mash. The incredibly rich, savory end product makes its most notable appearance in beef wellington, and in things like mushroom pithiviers but there’s really no reason it can’t be used to its own end. Here I paired it with red leaf lettuce and red onion, along with a layer of sweet mustard. This was quite tasty, although I would warn you that a light hand with the onion is required.

Ultimately, I’m quite satisfied with two of the sandwiches, and the third could be quite a bit better with a little more effort. That’s a decent outcome, but I know that there are other, greater sandwiches to be had down the road. I can only hope that when I find them I can give mushrooms the treatment they deserve.

Salt and Pepper Chicken Sandwich – Tender Greens, Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA

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tendergreensThe menu at Tender Greens is arranged around a choice of proteins, which you can then get on a plate or as a sandwich. Naturally, I went with the sandwich. The salt and pepper chicken jumped out at me for its simplicity with white and dark meat chicken supplemented with garlic, oregano and thyme. Getting it on a sandwich added roasted red peppers and aioli, but overall I was left with a rather simple sandwich. That presents a higher degree of difficulty, because if you don’t get it right there’s no hiding. And that, it pains me to tell you, is more or less what happened here. This sandwich falls squarely into the wasteland that is “tasty enough,” a kind of gossamer expanse where your mind starts to wonder and you forget you’re eating a sandwich at all. No one eating a sandwich should lose sight of the fact that they’re doing so, and any sandwich that can’t assert itself to the level of consciousness is no sandwich at all. I respect what they went for here, something simple and direct, but it was too subtle for its own good. It could have used the spinach that came on the side, it could have used red onion, it could have used the herbs coming in the form of an almond pesto. It had none of those things, and that left it as a rather unsatisfying sandwich.

Mushroom Pepper Sandwich – Little Chef Counter, San Pedro Square, San Jose, CA

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I had occasion to be in San Jose recently, and that meant another visit to Little Chef Counter. The menu there is constantly rotating, and the upside of this is that there’s always something new to discover. The downside of this is that sometimes something you love is sidelined in favor of something sub-par, as was the case when the mushrooms on toast was phased out and the smoked salmon sandwich appeared. That was a great loss by my estimation, as mushrooms are quite close to being a perfect food and are woefully underrepresented in the sandwich world. And so it was that I was delighted to return in the new year and find the mushroom pepper sandwich on the menu, a simple number consisting of cremini mushrooms, roasted red bell peppers and arugula in a marscapone sauce on a toasted baguette.

In the event that you’re one of the unfortunate souls who doesn’t care for mushrooms, I don’t imagine there’s much I can say to sell you on this sandwich. If you’re an enlightened type, I don’t imagine there’s much I need to say. The mushrooms are the star here, and deservedly so. The sauce could easily have been heavy and out of control, but it’s light and playing carefully in the background with a noticeable bit of spice to it. The peppers are sweet, the lettuce peppery, and the baguette is toasted such that each bite is yielding and there’s little need to go chasing stray mushrooms across your plate. In short, it is a well conceived, well executed sandwich. That’s exactly what I’ve come to expect from Little Chef Counter, and I’m delighted to report that they deliver.

Pork Philly – Simple Things Sandwich & Pie Shop, W. 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA

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porkphillyWhile the previous sandwich from Simplethings had flaws in both concept and execution, it was clear that someone put a lot of thought into it. I’ve long held that I hold nothing against anyone who aims high and misses their mark, and the sweet potato sandwich is a good example of that. When that’s the case, I believe the establishment bears further examination. And so we arrive at the pork philly. The city of Philadelphia may be known for its cheesesteaks, but knowledgeable enthusiasts know that Philly boasts an even better specialty: The roast pork hoagie. Traditionally, this is sliced pork roast, broccoli rabe and aged provolone. It’s a simple lineup that works extremely well together, and each establishment has their own secrets in the roast that makes their sandwich stand out from all the others.

You may have noted that this sandwich is not labeled as a roast pork hoagie, and that’s because it isn’t one. It’s roasted (shredded) pork, manchego, dijon, sautéed broccolini and garlic aioli on a michetti roll. It’s clearly inspired by the Philadelphia standby, but it carves its own path, and I’m happy to say it does to to delicious ends. The pork is juicy and rich, the broccolini crunchy and bright, the dijon and the garlic round things out with a subtlety and prevent the roll from being soaked through. This is a great sandwich, and (combined with comments from associates) it leads me to believe that the sweet potato sandwich is the abberration on the menu. There’s lots more to try at Simpethings, and I look forward to doing so.

Sweet Potato Sandwich – Simple Things Sandwich & Pie Shop, W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA

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The sweet potato sandwich at Simple Things is a pretzel roll holding grilled sweet potato, apples, jammy onions, chevre spread, avocado and cumin coleslaw. That’s a bit of an odd lineup, to my eyes, and I was curious to see if it would work. There’s nothing specifically jarring about it, it just seems a bit jumbled. The apples and the chevre fit well together, but they don’t exactly match the avocado. The avocado seems like it would go well with the cumin coleslaw, but then where does the chevre fit? It’s almost two sandwiches in one.

But enough about concept, sandwiches ultimately matter only in execution. With that in mind, this is a significantly smoother sandwich than it is on paper, but it’s far from perfect. The dominant notes in the flavor profile are the sweet potatoes, the cumin cole slaw, the avocados and the pretzel roll. That’s too bad about the roll, because it’s the breading that ultimately hamstrings the sandwich. With a fairly tough crust, the pretzel roll gave this sandwich an unacceptable level of filling creep, with large chunks of sweet potato diving from the sandwich to the plate. Sliced bread would have been my play here, something soft and yielding.

So what we’re left with is another strong example of the complexity of sandwiches. There are hazards in concept and even more in execution, and it takes a skilled hand to navigate them all and arrive at a truly excellent sandwich.

From the Archives: Little Chef Counter, San Jose, CA

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In the last two weeks of the year, On Sandwiches will be featuring select posts from the archives that you may have missed. We hope that you can forgive us these reruns, as we are hard at work on new, ambitious projects. Today’s selection is the Little Chef Counter in San Jose, California.

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San Jose has a number of really great sandwiches, but they’re nearly all tortas or bánh mì. That’s not intended to be a slam against the city, really great tortas and  bánh mì are both challenging to put together, and it just so happened that the demographics of the city didn’t lend themselves to the standard American sandwich shop or lunch counter.

Little Chef Counter changed that. Opening in late 2011, the place is a revelation. Fine ingredients, prepared with care and vision, with spectacular results. Sandwiches are the focus, but when they appear they are generally divine. The short rib sandwich, the mushrooms on toast, the breakfast sandwich have all been spectacular. The chicken salad sandwich was a winner, and though I was disappointed with the smoked salmon sandwich it’s hard to expect every single sandwich to be a home run. There aren’t many places with which I’ve been as consistently impressed as Little Chef Counter, and if you’re in the Bay Area you owe yourself a visit.

From the Archives: Tortas Boos Voni, San Francisco, CA

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In the last two weeks of the year, On Sandwiches will be featuring select posts from the archives that you may have missed. We hope that you can forgive us these reruns, as we are hard at work on new, ambitious projects. Today’s selection is the Cubana torta from Tortas Boos Voni, in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood of San Francisco.boosvoni-archives

Simply put, this is the best torta I’ve ever had. It’s the size of a small house, well spiced, and perfectly balanced. It’s one thing to balance a ham and cheese, it’s another to balance a sandwich that includes milanesas beef and chicken, plus ham, hot dog, and a braised shredded chicken thigh. This came at the recommendation of a reader and took me far too long to get to, but isn’t that almost inevitable? There’s always another delicious sandwich waiting for you, around the corner, down the coast, two towns over. They’re all out there, just waiting. Do the best you can.

From the Archives: The Cask Republic, New Haven, CT

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In the last two weeks of the year, On Sandwiches will be featuring select posts from the archives that you may have missed. We hope that you can forgive us these reruns, as we are hard at work on new, ambitious projects. Today’s selection is a roast pork and cherry pepper sandwich from New Haven’s Cask Republic.

cask-archivesIn the warm light of hindsight, this is one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. I praised it at the time, but I think about it quite regularly and wish New Haven were not so far out of my way. It’s a perfect mix of savory and spicy with the slightest hint of sweet, and though I’ve tried other roast pork sandwiches humming the same tune, none of them can sing like this one can. And yet it mostly just forgotten, forever pushed farther and farther into the archives. In sandwiches as in life, I suppose, as songs fade, memories gather dust, and amazing sandwiches end up forgotten.

From the Archives: The Peanut Butter Sandwich

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In the last two weeks of the year, On Sandwiches will be featuring select posts from the archives that you may have missed. We hope that you can forgive us these reruns, as we are hard at work on new, ambitious projects. Today’s selection is my favorite sandwich, the humble peanut butter on wheat.

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There’s so much to love; it’s cheap, it’s filling, it’s portable, it can be consumed quickly or slowly savored, the peanut butter is rich and savory, no less nutty for the notable handicap of being a legume.

This was the 200th post at On Sandwiches, and by way of celebration I offered the peanut butter sandwich six ways. With bacon jam, with chocolate, with jelly, fried with banana and honey, with sriracha and green apple, and the old plain standby of just peanut butter on bread. The sriracha and green apple ended up as the clear winner of the bunch, to the surprise of only those who haven’t tried it.

 

From the Archives: The Endless Uncertainties of Love

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In the last two weeks of the year, On Sandwiches will be featuring select posts from the archives that you may have missed. We hope that you can forgive us these reruns, as we are hard at work on new, ambitious projects. Today’s selection is the celebration of the bánh mì that opened the year.

lees-archivesI have long extolled the virtues of the bánh mì, and earlier this year I attempted to explore a wide spectrum of available sandwiches. In 18 sandwiches from four different cities on two coasts I found some things joyous, other things less so, but everything worth considering. The full month can be found via the category designated, and if you prefer there are highlights here.