Skip to main content

Rose's Vietnamese Sandwiches, Toronto


I keep passing this place on Gerrard Street in East Chinatown, but I'm always en route to a lunch or dinner, if not a second dinner, so I have never had the stomach time to try out one of Rose's Vietnamese sandwiches. While it's more common now than ever to call these sandwiches banh mi's, this linguistic disparity made me realize that this place has been around for a long time. At last, I had an hour between meetings one day, and even though I was downtown in the central Chinatown, I hopped onto the streetcar and went over the DVP for this guy.

Rose's also offers lots of other treats, but I stuck to the the game plan and just got the assorted and a juice box to go. Even wrapped in plastic, the scent was incredibly overpowering, as I could smell it the entire way back downtown even if in my bag. This is quite a feat coming from a cold sandwich! Chomping it down outside before a screening, I also couldn't bare to eat this inside as there's no way this could have been a discrete meal. I don't know what about it made it so strongly scented, but I will gladly go back to find out. 
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Monty’s Bakehouse wrap, Air Canada

I’d rate this wrap as strange. Its packaging created expectations of a more appetizing experience, which it was not. After a vastly superior egg salad sandwich from London Heathrow, I could not greet this airplane freebie with serious interest, but at least it was hot, and  at least I could review it for this blog. Steaming contents were oozy and largely undistinguishable, but suggested some kind of red pepper or sundried tomato origins.

Specialty Sandwich, Amtrak train dining car

Advertised as the "Specialty Sandwich" on board the Oakland to Los Angeles Amtrak train, this $9.75 grilled cheese seems a safe vegetarian bet, just as a bagel and cream cheese does when faced with weird processed meat choices aboard the VIA Rail in Canada. The specialty allegedly features gruyere and smoked cheddar, however each cheese was tasteless, plastic, and greasy, cooling to reveal six slices of highly processed cheese product. The crisp, somewhat grainy bread absorbed cheese sweat from inside, completely obliterating any relief that the mustard or tomato could have provided, and was thoroughly saturated in a meaty residue from the grill on the outside. This sandwich leaves the kind of mouthfeel that a glass of water cannot wash away. Note: pack toothbrush in carry-on.

Kim Anh Subs, Calgary

It's no secret I'm a fan of the Vietnamese sub. Hell, they've prevented my vegetarianism . But I do enjoy the vegetarian option now and again, especially when it's warm marinated soft tofu rather than the shredded fake meat variety. In Calgary one weekend, a friend and I found ourselves stranded in the city due to a snow storm, so lounging around 17th Avenue, cold, tired, hungry, and near broke, we popped our heads into Kim Anh Subs where he had ventured once before. Offering a whole wheat sub bun option, Kim Anh's subs were a bit more expensive than what I'm used to for a sub of this style ($3.50 is my price range), but it's Calgary, so what can you expect.