You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

Surprised by a generous flood of bagels, cream cheese, hummus, olives, sour cream, and of course, latkes and apple sauce, the office crew had a feast that sent some of us into a deep carb coma for the rest of the work day. I opted to make a latke bagel sandwich (of course) and napped/worked away the day until another nearby holiday party in the evening, where with some fresh smoked mackerel and smoked salmon and a special helper (who some of you may recognize from many a Winnipeg sandwich post) transformed the left overs into bite size platters that barely made it out of the office at all. Accompanied by a good dose of Bison grass vodka, them smoked fish sandwiches and carb overloads make winter worthwhile. 

  Famous for its cheese spread, the 401 Richmond Party also had a nice little surprise in the form of a pulled pork slider, presented half way through the early night when round 1 and 2 of the smoked salmon platter vanished into thin, insatiable air. Coming on a solid little roll with a generous serving of seasoned coleslaw, it may have tipped the scales that evening from gluttonous to insanity.

I was told to order the breakfast sandwich on a bagel, not the bun, but this bagel was dry as a cracker so I wonder how bad the bun must have been. But the cook and a civil servant (I can't remember if it was transit, postal, or maybe she just had a blue navy coat on) had a great conversation, and it made this greasy and expensive bacon and egger feel like I was paying for my role in the gentrification of South Brooklyn. En route one morning to a studio visit in Prospect Point, I stopped at this corner bodega for a sausage and egg on a bun. A row of cops was waiting for the same and I drank a shitty berry tea and waited with them. It was definitely not great, not even close to the eggy cheesy goodness from just a year ago, and it is with a heavy cholesterol laden heart that the era of the good and cheap bodega sandwich in Brooklyn is over.

Walking by countless times, Jason's Coffee Shop on the corner of Queen West and Macdonnell is almost always busy with regulars and fogged up windows. Finally heading in for a better look into its deli counter, I order up a sausage roll and a banh mi sandwich, all together for a handful of change. As a snack for later while painting my apartment, the sausage roll was legit, heavy dough with spicy sausage, and the banh mi was a pleasant surprise with its fresh medley. The bun was the right amount of crusty fresh, the assorted meats were a bit thick in slice, but consistent. Being right up the street, I had thoughts about heading in there in the morning to pick up my lunch, and perhaps I will just have to start doing that, as downtown is a dead zone for the fresh and easy and meaty.

Rock Lobster is hilariously bad in a way that I recognized all of the 90s music playing and wondered if they bought their decor at a Hard Rock Cafe closing out auction. Still, one night a group of loosely assembled friends and strangers wandered into one of Toronto's Rock Lobsters for a drink, and I ordered a lobster roll. A mess of cold mayonnaise and colder lobster meat, I was hoping for something more warm and buttery. I can't believe the guest of the evening agreed to come here as she doesn't even like seafood, but maybe she knew that this place wasn't about the seafood. Banh Mi Boys is continually disappointing for its bread. If they had even a little bit better of a bun, these concoctions would be ace. But here you can see the bread can't even hold up to it five spice pork belly, and that is a shame. I have yet to try their baos, but I may have to go into burgerland along Queen Street West as I am feeling dismayed. Le Gourmand's savoury treats...

Curbing the line ups by going on a cold Fall evening, this half a ice cream cookie sandwich was worth all the hype. Stepping inside to a warm cookie coven, the array of ice cream flavours borders on traditional hipster, which is in fact just yuppie. But damn this mint chocolate is fresh. More mint than chocolate, sweet without saccharine, the generous proportion of ice cream to fresh cookie makes both ice cream and cookie all the better, which in the assemblage of most ice cream cookies, is a rare, rare feat.

This was my first time in St. Lawrence Market, and an echo in my mind told me there had good hot veal sandwiches up in that place. I walked around and around, and I am guessing I should have gone for the Carousel Bakery's tried and true pea meal bacon sandwich, but I'm not that Toronto yet. This hot veal sandwich came with more hot peppers than veal, but it had heat and I needed it after a boring art talk. The bun had a nice crust to it, but not as soft as I would have liked as the spice and crust burn ratio was high. Eating it outside on a shared picnic table, the East side is a foreign city compared to the West in conversation and dress, and in sandwich, too.