You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

I had this exact same sandwich 2 years ago at Marco Polo airport in Venice. It's from the gift shop which is basically an over priced Italian deli, but that doesn't stop me from getting dry pasta and oils and a sandwich every time. Even if it's an airport sandwich, it's my last bites of a great Italian sandwich filled with young mozzarella and delicate prosciutto on a fresh crusty roll before I land somewhere in North America where the ingredients will just fall short. This is somewhere in Amsterdam en route to Germany en route to what became the longest train ride of my life. What should have been a simple 2 hour train ride became a hellish 6 + hour journey that led us to the border of Germany and back and then south and then over and then through the German city line where I had to follow a young student who kindly made small talk with me on her way home for a summer break who found America fascinating. Thank goodness I ate this weird tuna melt from Starbucks (w...

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...

Recently I was the backseat passenger on a 4 hour road trip where my only duty was to pick up a few roadside snacks. While I brought a round of custard tarts for the ride along, I also picked up a few sandwiches from Brazil Bakery on Dundas Street, which had the best value for its buck of any sandwich joint I could find in Toronto. Selected from the daily bin was a tuna fish sandwich and a proscuitto and fresh mozzarella number. The tuna was on a more traditional torpedo bun while the meat and cheese on a crusty fatter baguette style bread. While I ate the tuna for breakfast, which was nondescript, but well seasoned and fresh, I saved the meat and cheese for two hours into the ride, which provided the perfect snack post-road trip nap. Next time perhaps I will dine in as the bakery was bustling, but for now, I will salute you, road sandwiches.

  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 little gem comes from the cafeteria at Dawson Creek's Northern Lights College. I had just missed the lunch rush and all that was left were cooler sandwiches. The nice cafeteria lady informed me though that the wrapping only says "tuna," but in fact, the sandwich was made of egg salad.