You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

You try to plan ahead for travel by buying a nice sandwich/salad combo from a fancy place downtown, then arrive at the airport, catch one whiff of thai express and the possibility of enjoying that sandwich evaporates.  Like delays, travel moods and cashew chicken cravings cannot always be anticipated. What I'm doing at the airport with a vegetarian white bean ragout sandwich I can't say. Regardless, today downtown does no better than Pearson's food services, so I'll propose some cranky renovations. First, apply Nigela Lawson's chickpea recipe to the white beans. Delete all the small chunks of filler veggies (carrots? really?) and eliminate or drastically cut the salad greens, then substitute long strips of grilled zucchini seasoned with lemon. Throw in some fresh mint or dill, and feta. Or whateva. Just an ingredient , I don't even care what. Look at what's beside this thing: more salad greens. I want to shout, what's the poi...

While I’ve eaten some noteworthy sandwiches in the past year (gloopy mess from Marius in Montreal, I’m looking at you), none have been really inspiring enough to write about until now. And besides, I’d much rather start things off on a positive note. At first, the “lard bread” description almost scared me off, but the classic tomato, basil, roasted red pepper, mozzarella combo was too much to pass up. In the end, a very good choice, enjoyed while sitting in a rickety chair out front of Mazzola’s, watching Brooklynites walk their myriad dogs and kids on the first sunny day of the season. My sources tell me that the sandwiches are a relatively recent addition to the menu here, and I will definitely be back for more. Whatever lard bread is, it is wonderful. Soft and a little chewy without being at all hard, golden brown almost croissant-like exterior, and not a hint of crust-burn. Okay, okay those might be bits of bacon in there adding a little spice, but I stopped being an...

  I always want to think that radicchio prepared in this way is a high-class Italian thing, but honestly it’s a bit strange tasting. Maybe the magic is in the pairing, and in this instance, the cheese here wasn’t quite right. They seem to have retired this sandwich since I first had it. Lest readers think that I use You Say Sandwich as a platform for complaining, I'm thrilled to report that the PLENTY Nicoise sandwich is so good I’m surprised I haven’t come across it before—my favorite salad in sandwich form! Olive tapenade, tomato, cucumber, hard boiled egg, tuna salad with green onions. This is just such an overdue sandwich concept. I once feared that these loaves would rip up the top of my mouth--the phenomena that J.D. and I tend to call “crust burn”--but they’re surprisingly gentle for the good tooth exhibited.  The roasted shallot salad dressing on the greens that accompany each sandwich is sweetly addictive.

This is round two for Air Canada's veggie option, and it's a much better sandwich this time. Same kinda deal, boring roasted pepper, zucchini, tomato, arugula, and black olive combination, but in equal proportion to one another and more flavourful. The peppers in particular were meaty, not squishy and deflated, and even the arugula looks fresh. I didn't check the best before date, but it seems time was on our side here.

I've ordered this all across Canada, and my data from at least 20 samples confirms that every Tim Horton's outlet makes their veggie bagel sandwich differently. Some places have it on the menu, and some places are veggie bagel deniers, so you have to walk them thru it. In that case, it may take five minutes to order one, because apparently no-one ever does and it's confusing to hear the words “veggie bagel” out of the blue like that. Maybe they are trying to tell me something, and yet I persist in ordering this non-remarkable sandwich at rest stops and airports because it is only $3.50 and often surrounded by equally uninspiring choices.  I tend to opt for a multigrain bagel, toasted, with swiss cheese, mayo, honey mustard, tomato, lettuce and cucumber. When these are fresh, it's quite good. A cautionary note that some locations will give only 1 slice of  tomato, so if that is not acceptable to you, be sure to specify that you want lots of tomatoes. One person...

With every bite, I look at this sandwich deeply, trying to penetrate the meaning of it. I chew mechanically and question whether "Vegetarian" is delicious or just soggy and underwhelming. I probably ask myself this ten times and have no answers. The bread is chewy with cartoon-like grill marks. Fillings appear to be hummus, red pepper, the kind of black olives that come from a can, arugula and possible tomato or zucchini. The canned olives are many. I imagine a huge spoon scooping into an suitcase-sized vat of prepared veggies and coming up with little regard for the olive to tomato ratio in my particular sandwich. So, there are too many olives in this tightly shrink wrapped meal. That's a problem, but I'm a captive audience. Airplanes are confusing. Early morning flights too. I'd eat this again. All bets are off. 7 bucks. Plastic only.

Train travel food is sometimes better than airport food, and this is an example. Zabo's bread basket lured us in one early weekday morning in the hell hole that is Penn Station, and they certainly had an array to choose from. This classic egg sandwich on an everything bagel took the edge off, but I wish I had been more awake as I would have ordered it with bacon. Word of advice: when traveling with vegetarians, specify that you are not them.

I didn't choose the Fake Philly sandwich, nor have I previously experienced a 'real' Philly, but I did eat half of this vegan-ish version from the cute Crossroads Cafe. The shredded seitan, sauteed onion, green pepper and jack cheese combo was pretty good if slightly forgettable amidst the splendour of Joshua Tree. Accompanied by a side of great fries. Other delicious sounding things on the menu, including 6 meatier sandwiches, and grilled cheese too. What I am getting at here is that I'm not sure I'd ever eat a seitan sandwich by choice, but I'll endorse it for what it is.

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.

These guys are such nerds. Sandwich puns, earnest enthusiasm, hand-done signs, lots of thumbs up icons and evocations of good vibes. But, it's all true. The sandwiches themselves are pretty good. There's a certain ambiguously satisfying greatness in a simple toasty, and it seems difficult to say exactly why, but for the sake of accuracy let's start by saying these sandwiches are warm . Maybe that's it. Both the Potbelly Mediterranean and their Turkey had a fair creaminess to them, due to hummus, melty feta and mustard, mayo respectively, which also lent flavour integration to each bite. The bread enclosed the ingredients without bracketing them or being a wrap per se, and the ingredients like cucumbers and tomatoes were sliced thinly enough that their crunch didn't dominate, meaning that no one bite involved too much bread, or individual tastes that popped out above others.

There was a brief period in my early 20s when I seriously considered and attempted vegetarianism. For someone who grew up eating at least three different types of animal protein on any given day, this was a major feat, and I lasted for almost a month. Only, driving along downtown one afternoon, I had a sudden craving for a Vietnamese sandwich, assorted meats, from Van Loc. The warm crusty French bread, cradling pork liver pate, head cheese and other assorted cold cuts, sliced pickled carrots, fresh cilantro, cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, and a butter possibly mayonnaise concoction, made me realize I couldn't give up eating meats! I specify that it's not meat, but meats. This sandwich is the embodiment of everything I love about meats. Van Loc (10648 98 Street, Edmonton)