You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

This is why I keep a sandwich blog. This. Right here. Eggplant parm at Nonna's gets your automatic cheese, and I'm pretty sure out of that free cheese guilt I paid extra to get zucchini, which was hella not necessary, but have I mentioned that I'm eating healthy now?

I have to begin by saying that The Early Bird serves a sandwich called "The Fat Elvis" which struck fear in my heart, so I did not order it. I chickened out, and  J.D. Salami may never let me live this down. I generally tend to be the 'safe' veggie-sandwich-ordering pussy here at You Say Sandwich , and sometimes I do have a little shame about that as J.D. waxes eternal on the deliciousness of meat fillings. Note the smoked bacon on this plate. Carrying on. The Toad in a Hole was more like a Toad in a walkup apartment. Huge. Served with a knife stabbed in to help tackle the thing, a very convincing psycho-billy touch for this punk styled diner. Now that I am compiling my impressions on this towering toad palace, I wonder if the avocado tempura is supposed to be the toad, peeking out from under the bread. It sure looks like one! Regardless, there are a lot of mixed metaphors happening on my plate, but the unfortunate thing about the deep-fried avocado conce...

A friend and I agreed the personality of the sandwich changes with each person who prepares it, and today we felt something was a little less than parfait with our Haloum Grille. Folks at Le Pick Up seemed stressed . The longest wait ever, and our lunches sat around too long. Temperature of the cheese is important to experiencing haloumi’s firm the texture and the release of its saltiness, and I prefer when it’s grilled directly before entering the sandwich.  Creamy spicy slaw of red cabbage, carrot, and kale soothes the major crust burn associated with the crispy multigrain toast. Ideally it’s the bread that should be soft and the haloumi that gets to shine as the crispy grilled champ that it is.   Nevertheless, we stayed for hours at the back picnic tables, chatted with the servers, overheard some drama about the evening closing procedure, broke a dish, and spilled a coffee. A good day. 

Yes. Yes. Yes. This is the perfect fried egg sandwich. Six dollars worth of extraordinary pleasure including cheddar, tomato, pancetta, and pepper garlic aioli. Two bread options for your fancy, but the pain de mie is definitely the way to go. Precita Park Cafe has a sister spot just off Delores Park, so it's possible to satisfy the fried egg sandwich cravings in a couple locations. They will come soon, mark my words. If in the Delores location, you could follow your new breakfast obsession with a pint of Salted Caramel ice cream from Bi-Rite. 

While cucumbers make it highly improbable that this is going in the fry pan to become a grilled cheese, the slices of cheese are ridiculously thick for a cold sandwich. Layer of butter protects bread from contact with cucumbers and potential sogg-out. Someone thinks this is a good enough idea to post a high-resolution photo of it on the Wikipedia entry for "Sandwich."

The chief attraction of squeezing some fried egg and cheese between two pieces of bread is to maximize the portability and speed of breakfast. So please give me a breakfast sandwich and I'll run off to where I need to be, okay? Arbor Cafe's decent, but not stellar, breakfast sandwich includes the above along with a side of salad in a large takeout box. The solution is to ask ahead of time to put the whole works into a wax paper bag, but in a pinch, lift the lid on sammie, insert salad, close it up and run to work. The egg appears to be expediently prepped as a half-inch deep sheet, with chives sprinkled on top and then cut into squares. Cheese is generous, there may have also been mayo. Slight crust burn.

Nothing signals gentrification quite like a new cheese shop. Just off of Oakland's popular Telegraph Street on Shattuck Avenue is what appears to be the neighbourhood's first: the Sacred Wheel, established in 2011. Boasting many extremely pricey, locally sourced, and esoteric cheesy treats, the shop also carries all the things you'd want to see on a serious cheese tasting board, little pickles, chutneys, those little wheels of fig pate, olives, and such. I took note of the soft-ripened Bellwether Farms Crescenza, an almond, apricot and fig fruity thing, and a free sample. Just in case a 12-15 dollar hunk of fancy dairy goodness seems steep, thankfully they also have lunch, which is not too pricey at all. For 6 bucks I tried the 1/2 Grilled Cheese Trinity with Tomato and Pabst Blue Ribbon soup. The thinly sliced sourdough and three-cheese sandwich was pretty straight up, but the soup was a heavenly creation indeed. Tangy, lip stinging tomato goodness that balances the grea...