You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

Nowhere else in the world have I visited where the slab of breaded chicken or veal sits soaked in marinara on a round crusty bun. Usually hot or sweet peppers accompanies, with additional options of mushrooms, cheese, and onions. I have tried as many of these sandwiches as possible in the city, but more of them keep cropping up. Here is the latest batch, with some additional thoughts on their origins and varieties: Pictured above is a chicken sandwich from Bitundo's, located in Little Italy, Toronto, on a side street near the Monarch Tavern. I got mushrooms and cheese as my extras, and ate it on a frosty night in mere seconds. Lots of walk in pick ups for pizza were happening, which is pretty good business considering it sits directly across from another pizza + sandwich joint, San Francesco's. And while Bitundo's is more modest in appearance, their breaded meat offering was far more appetizing than the disaster I once had at SF's. While pizza seems be their big bu...

Someone would say, Never, and I would often always agree, yet, look upon this beast of coleslaw in a bun. A wee dog hangs out on either end, but once you are in the middle of this dog, where you suddenly have to two hand it and squish everything back inside the bun, the moment sure felt like a sandwich, that I cannot deny.

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.

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. 

I've been to Winnipeg twice and I've stopped into the White Star Diner twice. Nestled within the Exchange District, White Star Diner serves up a pulled pork sandwich that satisfies. The key to their success may be in their coleslaw, that goes RIGHT INTO THE SANDWICH, which as both texture, temperature, and flavour, provides a great balance to the meaty bites of pulled pork heaped onto a fresh bun. Going for the double oink, the slices of thick cut bacon on the mounds of sweet and savoury pork was absolutely heavenly. I thought it would be too much, but of course excess has never stopped me, and yet, it wasn't too much. Scaling back the pork for the other pork, the double oink gets my vote! The nice couple next to me, who I actually knew from another town, were mauwing down the hamburgers, which is something I will have to try next time, because their recommendation, or rather, their insistence that I visit the Manitoba Museum was solid gold, and if the museum is even a frac...

Sandwiches at BUNK are announced by a long, hand-scrawled chalkboard menu, and an even longer lineup outside the door. During lunch-hour, it stretches down the block. The place is loud, crowded, air almost thick with the grease of frying meat, and the sandwiches are messy. Good thing they come on trays lined with butcher paper to catch all the fillings dripping, falling and squishing out the sides of the overstuffed snacks. 621 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR At BUNK I give the thumbs up while Mack MacFarland of PNCA tries to get out of the shot, the Italian cured meats sandwich, the roast poblano chile and pinto bean sandwich and mini Mexico flag with a side of apple coleslaw that did me in at BUNK. -Young Elvis