You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

Sneaking in shortly before the lunch hour rush, this here is a hot pastrami with coleslaw in Russian style dressing. Sitting on firm chewy slabs of caraway seed bread, the pastrami was melt in your mouth good and some of the finest I have ever enjoyed. With my host picking parts of the meat that fell onto the plate, which can also come just as a deli platter, she missed the best part, which was the genius combination of the creamy pickled coleslaw cutting through the pastrami with the caraway seed flavour. At a fraction of the price of its NY counterparts, and seemingly beloved by locals and visitors alike, I had a taste of my friend's matzoh ball soup, and it's legit. By the time we left, a line up had formed outside, and if I lived there, I would line up, too.

  IT'S-IT is a San Francisco company that has been making hipster ice cream sandwiches long before hipsters or ice cream sandwiches existed. IT'S-IT really is the original ice cream sandwich, and obviously, I must try it.   Nestled between two oatmeal cookie layers and coated in chocolate to seal in the mint ice cream, I devoured two of them, but remember thinking this could be better, but how? I mean, we did buy them at a Target with a view of the Hollywood sign in the near distance. This is not just a dream, but a reality. 

I know this is a hot dog, the famous Pink's Hot Dogs in Hollywood, but as I spent a week down there this late summer, and ate mostly SoCal tacos and tasty tasty food in beautiful al fresco settings, I found this hot dog to be near the equivalent of a certain sandwich aura. To my surprise, I ordered the "Martha Stewart" which is a 9" stretch dog that comes with relish, onions, bacon, chopped tomatoes, sauerkraut and sour cream. The dog had a nice bite to it, though it must have been 9" before cooking. Still, I used every single one of those napkins and could have used a couple more. I sat on their back patio in the sun, watching one of the Pink owners in her hot pink blazer, smoking in the back, waiting for the next photo op to start. It was a good view to eat this dog. I wouldn't order the Martha again, and technically it's not even a sandwich, but maybe it's a mentionable.

The Camden Diner, or more generally known as Avenue Open Kitchen on Camden Street, is a classic greasy spoon near my new work place, and already I'm trying to limit my visits to once a week. This classic breakie sandwich of generous proportions of eggs and bacon on white toast came with a couple packets of ketchup, delivered fresh on morning before an early film screening during TIFF. With few and far between options around that festival, this sandwich was a treat and sustenance to carry me through another long day of sitting in dark, windowless rooms.

Having stayed clear of the infamous chip butty while living in Scotland, I felt somewhat nostalgic, or just hungry after too many pints at The Fat Badger , this somewhat British inspired pub in downtown Vancouver. So, I ordered their chip butty. I also tried their Scotch egg, which didn't feel unhealthy at all in this Vancouver reincarnation, but this, this was definitely something I must have made when I was either very young or very drunk. Thick cut chips, not too fresh, not too soggy, stacked between to slices of miniature plain white bread. I have only ever see it in a soft bun, as covered here by one of our correspondents, which with its overflow of chips, seemed more like the honest representation of why people order it: to soak up the excess alcohol. This wee thing was filling, how could it not be, but seemed a bit too prim and proper for my cravings.

A stray photograph was found in my downloads folders as some necessary Fall clean up was underway, and lo and behold, a random shot of a half assorted deli from Spolumbo' s and a plate of pickles! This was sent in from my friend Sarah, who I shared this sandwich with, and who I gave all the extra pickles to, as I believe I ate my half in the car on the way to the airport. Another Spolumbo's sandwich was eaten, the hot veal parmigiana, on the same trip to Calgary, but that photo along with other delicious sandwich photos was lost when my phone got soaked in Barton Springs this summer. Thanks, Sarah!