You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

  A rare sandwich meeting between Young Elvis and J.D. Salami. Meeting at Forno to sample their treats, this is JD's version of the story. Having previously sampled the ham on fresh foccacia already with thin slices of lemon (that was a full on flavour pool party in my mouth), I went back to the classic porchetta on dark bread sweetened with morsels of chocolate. While both sandwiches are cut in half, we did not share. We had a long overdue catch up, facing each other straddling the bench of treats, and cruised people coming east and west on King Street, contemplating how our tastes in sandwiches, in people, have slowly overlapped over the years, and how they have also remained distinct.

On this day, I fancied rich chocolate ice cream with a spicy ginger cookie, but the possible combinations of cookie, ice cream, or sorbet are numerous. Served in wax paper and cute mini French fry baskets to catch the chocolatey drips, these sammies look nostalgic and taste divine. 

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. 

I can recommend  Nick's Wheely Good Breakfast  on the basis of the fantastic Chicken Apple  Cheddar Biscuit Sandwich served up at NOLOSE this weekend, and the loooong lineup of discerning ladies and fellas waiting alongside the foodtruck for their breakfast... for dinner! As the sun was setting on another day of Oakland's annual body-positive fat activist conference, Nick kept the ingenious breakfast inspired combos rolling out, including Maple Glazed Pork Belly Sandwiches, and Steak and Eggs, also packaged in a convenient sandwich form, perfect for standing around and chatting about the day's events!  I added a smashed fried egg onto  Chicken Apple Sausage with Pickled Apples, Aioli, and Arugula on a Homemade Cheddar Biscuit and ran around flirting with cute folks, sandwich in hand. 

True to culinary fashion in queer circles, the grilled cheese sandwich at Montreal's Cagibi was accompanied by a mini salad with grated beet and pumpkin seeds. The soggy appearance of the side pickle, perhaps not so much, but a sign of things to come: from wholesome lesbionic salad to  crispy grilled  seedy bread, that bracketed an also soggy marriage of cheddar and mozza cheese, pesto and tomato. By soggy marriage don't mean to evoke anti-assimiliationist critiques of the institution, but I do mean complete integration into a unified and undistiguishable new flavour. This is probably satisfying, like porridge, or baby food, but not particularly refined or exciting. It does in a pinch, but other cooks, like my new fuck buddy, have revived this old standby far beyond the pleasure of easy and comforting.