chicken fajita sandwich - the sandwich place

the sandwich place, 16th & mission, san francisco

Wow, I can't believe that I haven't reviewed The Sandwich Place on 16th and Mission before!  I've only been a few times, but I am definitely super impressed by their humble and excellent shop.  I assumed that I had already publicly proclaimed my fondness for this shop, but I guess I hadn't!  Let's fix that.  The first time I went to The Sandwich Shop, I had been bemoaning the fact that quality $5 sandwiches didn't seem to exist in the Mission... so I was stoked to see that the prices at The Sandwich Place were totally reasonable.  If you want just a straight-ahead sandwich, you can get one for $5 bux there!  That being said, I decided to go for one of their (slightly pricier) daily specials- in this case, it was a chicken fajita sandwich.  You can get regular or large sandwiches- I was hungry and went for the large- and it turns out that the large sandwiches are indeed fairly gigantic.  The chicken and roasted veggies were savory and tasted fresh, and the bread was high quality.  I was very satisfied (and FULL) after eating this.  Although it's easy to overlook this tiny shop as you dodge traffic on Mission, its well worth stopping in to try out one of their sandwiches.

buffalo burger

the fix burgers, hyperion & tracy, los angeles

This Silverlake-based burger joint never seems very busy whenever I walk past, but I saw that they offer buffalo and ostrich burgers when I peeked at their menu, and decided that was too interesting to pass up. So JoJoJoJo and I swung by for lunch one day, ending up with the whole place to ourselves. When you order a burger, you have the option of picking out one of their tasty-sounding sauces like "peppercorn ranch", "spicy sour cream" or "dijon bistro sauce". I decided on the "picante hot sauce", and jack cheese, since I thought a stronger tasting cheese would prevent me from being able to taste the buffalo meat, which was the whole purpose of the visit (some may think that the "picante hot sauce" would cover the flavor of the meat, and yeah thats true, but also I love hot sauce). JoJoJoJo and I split some tasty garlic fries which were covered in a sort of roasted-minced-garlic spread, and then I dug into this burger. It was good, but I'm not sure my sense of taste is sophisticated enough to be able to distinguish the differences between buffalo and beef. The patty was dense and the meat had a smokey flavor, and the hot sauce was really good. All around it was a good meal, although perhaps my one gripe would be that the prices were high enough that I wouldn't be able to eat here very often.

torta ahogada

tortas los picudos, 24th & alabama, san francisco

after I ate at La Torta Gorda the other week, the consensus in the comments seemed to be that Los Picudos should be my next torta stop, and so JoJoJoJo and I swung by a few days later. one commenter, Subframe, mentioned that Los Picudos had tortas in "el estilo de DF" (in the style of Mexico City), and I assume that referred to this sandwich- the torta ahogada, which I have previously only encountered in DF. a torta ahogada ("drowned sandwich") is just that- a sandwich covered in a somewhat sweet tomato sauce. the meat inside was carnitas, in this case cooked on the crispier side, rather than moister as some carnitas are. it was pretty messy- I think when I was in Mexico we just went for it with our hands, but this time I decided to make use of the knife and fork provided. the bread pretty quickly soaked up the sauce, and soon I had a mushy pile of bread, carnitas, and an absurd amount of red onions. I could have done with considerably fewer onions, but on the whole this was good torta. and I've never seen this type of sandwich served anywhere else, so Los Picudos seems to be the place to get one.

carnitas torta

la torta gorda, 24th & york, san francisco

the night before eating this sandwich, I had a dream that I met some friends for dinner at a restaurant. I had arrived late, and everyone else had already ordered. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries, and although my friend's food came, mine never did. I tried to flag down waiters, but to no avail. and I woke up knowing that my mission for that day was to get that cheeseburger that had been denied me. well, the waking world proved just as cruel to me as my dream world. after weighing my options (Big Mouth Burgers? nah. Jay's Cheesesteak? no. Whiz Burger? nnnno.) I walked all the way to St Francis, only to discover that they had closed at three because of their "winter hours". fie on that! I don't even eat before three on most days. well, not all was lost, because I had heard good things about La Torta Gorda, practically next door to St Francis. they even had a counter to eat at, which was something I had been looking forward to. I decided to try the carnitas, which is almost always a sure bet in taquerias (chicken can be too dry, carne asada too fatty, but carnitas.... mmmmm). the tortas were available in "junior" and "regular" sizes, so I opted for the regular. I don't regret the decision, but man it was a lot of food! as you can see, they really piled the meat high on this one. some other taquerias, like Farolito or Can Cun tend to use a lot of beans on their tortas, but here, it was a relatively thin spread of refried beans. I didn't mind though, because the carnitas tasted so good that the occasional bursts of beans, or avocado, or jalapeños were welcome but not necessary. also, the red salsa pictured was pretty strange- much sweeter than most salsa. it almost tasted like ketchup with chili flakes in it. I decided to use it sparingly, as it had such an unusual taste that the sandwich was a completely different experience depending on whether the sauce was used or not.

grilled cheese

lord, this sandwich was so much more satisfying than the last one. originally I had planned for this to be grilled turkey and cheese with pesto, but I was still kind of angry at the turkey for letting me down earlier. so instead it was monterey jack on sourdough, with tomato and the last of that really fresh avocado I had started on earlier. a little pepper, splashes of crystal hot sauce and dipped in ketchup. ahhhhh yeah.