summer sandwiches: breakfast at city state in portland

 

 

 

126 Northeast 28th Avenue, Portland, OR

http://citystatediner.com/

I am an idiot.  At this particular moment I'm ruminating on that fact because I believed all day that I was scheduled to work tonight, got all showered and dressed and caffeinated and ready to head out the door only to realize, with the slow burning onset of embarrassment, that I was wrong about today's date and in fact am not scheduled to work.  And I even turned down a coworker's request to cover his shift (which would have paid even better than my regular shift) cuz I thought I was working.  I am a man with some regrets.  Which makes it appropriate that this is the sandwich review I am writing now, because I have some regrets about this sandwich.  See that sandwich up top?  That's the "Cuban", a "flat grilled french baguette with ham, capicola, house pickles, swiss, strawberry jam, and garlic dijon mayo".  Sounds insane and delicious right???  That's not what I ordered.  I ordered the breakfast sausage sandwich, which was "house sausage, egg, muenster".  Don't get me wrong, it was for sure a tasty sandwich.  The house sausage was peppery and not too greasy and the muenster was a great and unexpected choice for a breakfast sandwich.  But for some reason I thought, since it was only breakfast time and I'd surely be eating more epic sandwiches later in the day (in my duties as a Sandwich Journalist of course), that I should take it easy on breakfast.  Get something not too crazy.  Something a little smaller (and this sandwich, served all on its lonesome, was indeed pretty small).  I let the waitress talk me out of getting eggs benedict with "pork belly, apricot jam and arugula".  WTF is wrong with me???  When my reckless devourment of sandwiches finally catches up with me and does me in, it's not the horribly unhealthy feasts that lead to my demise that I'll regret.  I will regret the times I went to an awesome restaurant in a city far away from where I live and ordered something more modest instead of going for the good stuff.  You'd think a dude would Carpe Diem in a place called City State.  Ah, but who ordered the Cuban then, you ask?  Actually in a funny twist of fate, both of my younger brothers happened to be passing through Portland at the same time Els and I were there!  So while I'm bummed that I missed out on the Cuban or Pork Belly Eggs Benedict (or "The Count -  hazelnut challah french toast, smoked turkey, prosciutto, havarti, brie, apricot jam", god why didn't I order that??), I am still gonna have fond memories of getting to have breakfast with my brothers and my special lady friend at a Portland diner with a wide and very appealing menu.  But maybe next time I'll order something as memorable as the occasion.  Maybe if I'm not an IDIOT, jeez.

complimentary fresh cut fruit

Awhile ago I was talking about comfort sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly seems to be the one everyone agrees on.  Now this person I was talking to said that she had gotten one that had strawberries cut up and added on and thought this mind blowing!

Now it's been months... maybe in fact a year since I was told to try this out, yet every time I've made a PB&J  since I have neglected to take the extra step, pretty lame I know. However, today when I returned home from running errands all over the city and was super hungry I  walked into the kitchen to find a bowl of strawberries I had left out to snack on and decided today was the day to do this.

Now I don't know how the rest of you make your PB&J's but I like to lightly toast my bread, that way the peanut butter melts into the warm toast and you get a great texture with the crisped outside and soft inside (the toast, by the way, was made with Semifreddi's sliced sourdough, yum).  And while the bread was toasting I cut up a few strawberries and that addition was just as awesome as I had been promised!  I'm not one for super sweet things and tend to go light on the jelly so the natural sweetness and juices from the berries was a perfect compliment to the entirety of the PB&J.