summer sandwiches: fish sandwich and a scotch egg at horse brass in portland

 

 

4534 Southeast Belmont Street, Portland, OR

http://www.horsebrass.com/

It didn't even dawn on me until just now that this was the second "Brass" place Els and I went to in Portland.  We dropped into this British-styled pub for a late lunch with our hosts Nic and Andrew on Monday afternoon.  Looking now at their website, it seems like Horse Brass Pub takes their authentic presentation pretty seriously, but frankly I really wouldn't even know the difference between real and fake pubs.  This one certainly seemed pretty legit while we were there, and I was impressed with their (weekly?) rotating beer list.  The food wasn't bad either, although I definitely wasn't as blown away as I was at other Portland locales.  Maybe it's because Horse Brass focuses on authenticity and tradition, and so therefore their sandwiches are MEANT to be kinda plain and unadventurous.  At any rate, I didn't really have any problems with my fish sandwich, but I did try adding every sauce on the table to it in order to wrangle a little extra flavor out of my lunch.  And, I will add, that Horse Brass afforded me an opportunity to finally try a scotch egg, which I'd been wanting to try for years- actually the fact that Horse Brass has scotch eggs is the reason we went in the first place!  It was pretty interesting, but somehow drier and colder than I'd imagined scotch eggs would be.

Monday Fish Sandwich at Home

This has been the most delicious sandwich I have made at home. I found a pair of fish patties at while shopping for food on Sunday and just had to try them out. I love fish but have never had fish in patty form. I just took out the garbage so I can't find the package but it had garlic and parsley and not that many more ingredients. (This kind of thing is important to me when buying mystery meat). I knew I would be cooking this for lunch the next day so it got me so excited. The sandwich counter was set!

I got the bread loaded in the toaster and in the oven. I put chedder on the bread in the oven and toasted it slowly. I cooked the fish patties on an iron skillet that I buttered up. I cooked it slow and made sure to not keep my eyes off of it. I flipped it when it was ready and even held them on their side to make sure everything was cooked just right. I like keeping my patties neat. If you cook it too long it can get dry and unpleasant and become have a messy clean up. I did add some lemon juice to make sure they weren't too fishy. I only had to do one taste test before it was ready.

I set out some basic mayo, dijon mustard, capers, and TS cut up a fresh avocado (YES!), and tomatoes. I don't have any excuse for using Texas Toast when I live so close to a Boudin but It's a nice oversized bread that is up for whatever. I love capers and, as of now, there are no pickles in my fridge. I poured out some (original) sunchips on my plate.

I piled everything on, poured myself a tall glass of lemonade, got my napkin ready, and luckily remembered to take a photo of it. I paired this sandwich with an episode of The A-Team and it was the perfect Monday sandwich. The fish was cooked just right and the flavors knocked my socks off. I didn't want to overdo anything with this sandwich and, aside from the patties, didn't use anything I didn't already have at home.

I was about to write that it felt amazing instead of tasted but it really did feel amazing. I love fish because it's light but very hearty without being heavy. I can't wait to make this sandwich again with different bread and fish!

RUMBLE AT 24TH AND HAMPSHIRE, PT 3: PAL'S

...And here's the first contender from Pal's! This was not one of the sandwiches that was advertised on the menu online, making this the second time I've gone to Pal's only to descover they weren't serving the sandwich I wanted- only this time, the necessary ingredients hadn't yet arrived, whereas last time they had sold out. I guess, even given Pal's already limited hours, it's best not to show up too early or too late if you have your heart set on a particular sandwich. So, instead of a shrimp sandwich, this was local (?) albacore, with olives, capers, parsely, compound butter, tomato and cucumber. The guy behind the counter said there was no mayo, but you'd never know it because it tasted quite a bit like tuna salad. That's not such a bad thing though, because it did taste really good- although I wish the flavor of the olives and capers had been stronger. Also, seven dollars seems like a lot for such a small tuna fish sandwich. But then, Pal's takes a lot of pride in telling you where their ingredients come from, so you know what you are paying for- so this seven dollar sandwich didn't seem like as much as a rip-off as our seven dollar sandwich from Dagwood's. Next up is the last sandwich in this face-off: Pal's pulled pork!

hellcat

bender's, 19th & south van ness, san francisco

Speaking of hangovers, Bender's is the perfect place to fight off today's hangover, while ensuring tomorrow's. JoJoJoJo and I were rolling deep when we went to Bender's this time- there were seven of us in all, including breadxbread writers Mark, Katie and JP- and I think at least four of us ended up ordering this sandwich. But how can you resist fried fish and buffalo sauce? Last time we went to Bender's, if you'll recall, I ate the BBQ pork sandwich, which was incredibly filling and delicious. This sandwich didn't quite match that one, but that has more to do with how amazing the BBQ pork sandwich was. The Hellcat is definitely a great sandwich, a perfect match of spiciness and, um, friedness. But afterwards I was still hungry. I think I pretty easily could have eaten two of these (and I almost did, but thought better of it). But its still a good, lighter alternative to some of the heavier fare on Bender's menu.