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!

summer sandwiches: chorizo verde at bunk bar in portland

 

1028 SE Water Ave, Portland Oregon

http://bunkbar.com/

"chorizo verde with roasted corn, tomatoes, avocado, queso, salsa rojo"

Usually when Portland comes up in conversation, the consensus around these parts generally seems to be "yeah Portland is pretty sweet, you just have to be able to put up with the rainy/miserable weather".  Well I was lucky enough to be able to pay a visit to Portland last weekend, my first in a number of years, and it was hot and sunny there- unlike this foggy stink-town.  It's possible I caught the one sunny weekend a year that they get, but that's still more sun than I've seen here!  Not only was the weather perfect, and not only did I experience the beauty of not having to pay sales tax, but I discovered (with pure, unmitigated joy) that bars in Portland are legally obligated to serve food- an obligation that many bars take up with enthusiasm.  Bunk Bar is a good example of this (although they cheat a little bit by actually being connected to a sandwich shop).  On the recommendation of my old friend and PDX resident Kendall, I made Bunk Bar my first stop after arriving in town and getting settled at my friend Mike's place in the SE part of town.  Bunk Bar turned out to be quite close to where I was staying, located in what seemed to be a formerly industrial part of town but now appeared to be full of restaurants and wine bars.  Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about any of this, Portlanders- I was only in your town for three days and didn't really get too deep an understanding of the town during my short visit.  Anyway, Bunk Bar seemed like a pretty cool spot, open and sunny and with high ceilings.  They had a bunch of great beers on tap (another thing I loved about Portland- tons of local pale ales!), a pinball machine (I want to say... Sopranos?), some cool shows coming up, and rad sandwiches.  Kendall had recommended the Cubano, but unfortunately they weren't serving it the day I came in (the menu, or parts of it, changes daily).  I opted for the chorizo verde sandwich, which I had envisioned as being a sort of Mexican sloppy joe style torta.  To my surprise, the chorizo was actually a firm, grey patty, served on a roll with cheese and avocado and salsa.  The sandwich was drier than I had expected, but that's not to say it was very dry, just that I had expected it to be, well, sloppy.  It was midly spicy and I definitely enjoyed eating it, although $9 seemed slightly steep for a sandwich that was on the smaller side.  That won't stop me from returning to Bunk Bar to get the Cubano next time I'm in town, though.  Not a bad place to start my Portland trip!

summer sandwiches: chicken sandwich at the russian river pub

 

11829 River Rd, Forestville CA

russianriverpub.com

If you are in San Francisco right now, you know that despite being THE MIDDLE OF JULY, the weather is crap.  I love summer more than any other time of the year, and it's killing me that the weather has been so awful this year.  I want HEAT and SUN and BEING OUTSIDE and believing that summer will never end and I'll never have to do anything other than bask in the sun with a cold drink and a delicious sandwich.  As it is, I'm starting to believe that summer is never going to start.  We have had spots of good weather here and there, though, and in those brief windows I've been able to snatch just the barest taste of summer.  Maybe by relieving these moments, I'll forget that it's overcast outside IN THE THE MIDDLE OF JULY.

Here's a sandwich from an excellent outing that Els and I took a few weeks back.  We wanted to spend an evening camping near the Russian River, so we drove up to the Armstrong Redwoods State Park, jamming the very Fleetwood-Mac-esque new Vetiver album on the way.  Of course, this summer being the way it is, we got there only to discover that the campground was closed due to budget cuts (and by the way, to the person who scrawled "we have money to fund wars but not for state parks??" in the bathroom, funds for the military don't come out of the state budget..... but money to clean up graffiti in park bathrooms does.  Nice one dude!).  At any rate, we didn't let the closed campground kill the fun, and went on a nice and fairly short hike instead up a ridge and then down through some giant redwoods (and by the way, not only was the hike nice, but I'm pretty sure the campgrounds have re-opened since Els and I were there).  After our hike we were hungry, and decided to stop at the Russian River Pub on the way home.  

I had been wanting to try this small & rustic roadside pub for a long while, and we had even tried to eat there on the Fourth of July last year- but the wait was too long.  At any rate, it was nice and quiet when we arrived this time.  I ordered one of the daily specials, a chicken sandwich with guacamole, sriracha oil, pickled onions (supposedly- I don't think the sandwich actually had these) and I want to say.... blue cheese?  I could be wrong about that.  At any rate, the sandwich was delicious, an excellent take on a classic that was comforting but slightly adventurous at the same time- exactly what I would ideally want from a roadside pub like this one.  Els confounded my desire for her to order a sandwich for herself (so that I could try that one too) by ordering fish and chips, but it was a good decision because they were some of the best fish and chip's I've ever had (much better than, say, the Fish Market in Palo Alto where I last ate fish and chips).  Even the salad we started our meal displayed thought and care on the part of the kitchen.  Add in the fact that they have Damnation on tap.... and you have a very good reason to spend the day across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Next time I head up there, I'm looking forward to spending some time lounging in the Russian River and then trying some more of the Russian River Pub's sandwiches!

By the way, this place was featured on the show "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" (a fact that is loudly proclaimed in the pub), so if you don't like my review and want Guy Fieri's amped-up obnoxiousness instead, knock yrself out:

the beach hut cafe at crissy field

the beach hut cafe, crissy field center, san francisco

"Park Club - natural turkey breast, ham, bacon, avocado, cheese and greens on whole wheat sourdough with mustard and mayo"
"Honey Dijon Turkey - natural turkey breast, jack cheese, honey spice Dijon and mayo with greens on whole wheat sourdough"

Els and I took advantage of a mid-week day off this week to go for a little bike ride, which was actually my first bike ride in several months. My gears were a little creaky, so were my legs, but we successfully made it from our starting point in the Mission to the buffalo enclosure at Golden Gate Park (despite being a resident of SF for close to a decade, I'd never actually seen the buffalo before!). Since we were so close to the beach, Els suggested that we continue on, and we did; upon arriving there, she mentioned a time that she and a friend had made the same bike ride, only to decide to continue up Ocean Beach and around the point to the Golden Gate Bridge.  So of course then she and I took that route to the bridge, which led to us biking over the bridge and back. Not only is that a significantly longer bike ride than I'd anticipated, but it also included several very steep hills and even a long dirt staircase that we had to carry our bikes up and over. Needless to say I was pretty destroyed by the time we got to Crissy Field. I also hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, which was hours and miles behind me. Els, too, seemed like she was ready to eat anything that stopped long enough for her to catch. Fortunately there was the Beach Hut Cafe waiting for us on the East end of Crissy Field, offering sandwiches, smoothies, and a bunch of really strange gourmet snacks, like fancy marshmallows, steak strips, and wheat-free dog treats. It was a little small inside and the assortment of snacks as well as Alcatraz and Golden Gate Bridge souvenirs made it feel like a museum gift shop inside, but it was sunny and sheltered from the wind that was coming off the bay. We ordered the first two sandwiches on the menu, as well as what we thought was a blood orange and cranberry juice drink but turned out to be a smoothie. The sandwiches were the "Park Club" (pictured at top) and the "Honey Dijon Turkey" (the third and fourth pictures above). Keeping with the museum gift shop vibe of the place (and therefore in line with museum food), the sandwiches were both overpriced yet competently prepared. Neither sandwich was especially interesting or noteworthy, but the "Park Club" edged out the "Honey Dijon Turkey" by offering a more diverse set of ingredients. The whole wheat sourdough was pretty bland and tasted like your standard store-bought bread, and the toppings were somewhat skimpy on both sandwiches in my opinion, but I enjoyed eating them. I wouldn't suggest that anyone go out of their way to find the Beach Hut Cafe, but if you want a picnic lunch at Crissy Field and don't mind paying a little more for somewhat generic sandwiches, this place really isn't a bad option. I would certainly consider returning the next time I'm out there, although I'm hoping that next time I will not have just unexpectedly biked for hours across the city. After devouring our sandwiches, Els and I hopped back on our bikes and headed back home, pausing only for a moment when my legs seized up and I couldn't move them for a few minutes (I have since regained the full use of my legs). When we got home I didn't move from the couch for the rest of the evening, except to go to the front door to get the pizza we had delivered.

PS- the steak strips were pretty good (I got the "Cajun"), the gourmet marshmallows (we tried "Caramel" and "Chocolate") tasted like marshmallows. Go figure. We didn't try the wheat-free dog treats.

andersen's turkey, avocado & swiss

 

andersen's bakery, crocker galleria, market & new montgomery

Due to recent work obligations, I've been spending a fair amount of time in the Crocker Galleria, an exceptionally boring mall in San Francisco- its small size and lack of interesting shops make it more or less a glorified food court.  And being a glorified food court, the options for a good meal are pretty slim.  So when I went to Andersen's Bakery for lunch the other day, my expectations were low.  But there were already a few signs indicating that this might be one of the better lunch options in the mall: for one, they bake their own bread, and two, there were only about five sandwiches offered.  The small size of the sandwich menu gave me hope that there would be a few well thought-out sandwiches, unlike shops that try to offer everything but don't manage to do anything very well.  My hopes turned out to be well founded, because this was a very good sandwich.  It wasn't great by any means, but certainly better than I expected from mall food.  I went with the turkey, avocado & swiss on sourdough, one of the all-time classic sandwiches and fairly easy to do right.  Andersen's version was definitely enjoyable.  Curiously, both halves of the sandwich came individually wrapped- I don't know why, except perhaps because the slices of bread were long enough to make the sandwich too large to fit into the bag as a whole?  As for the bread, the sourdough was soft in the crumb, tough on the crust, and had a pleasant albeit unexceptional sour flavor.   The rest of the ingredients were able to pass muster as well; the turkey was tasty and somewhat dry (and not slimy like you might expect from cheaper sandwiches), the avocado was delicious in spite of it not being avocado season, and the swiss cheese had enough flavor to be noticeable (unlike other sandwiches we've had lately where the cheese was too subtle and got lost in the mix).  One aspect of this sandwich that I liked best was the sweet mayonnaise, a staple of deli sandwiches that is frequently omitted from the high-concept sandwiches I mostly eat these days.  All around, this was a comforting sandwich that definitely defied my low expectations for food from Crocker Galleria.

pommard's chicken sandwich

pommard deli, middlefield & loma verde, palo alto

Pommard's: the best Palo Alto deli that refuses to admit it is a deli and instead tries to convince you it is a pizzeria for some awful reason.  I don't care about their pizza, I don't want their rotisserie chicken, the fries they serve with every sandwich are pretty terrible, but man I do very much enjoy their sandwiches.  This one here was chicken with pepper jack, salsa and avocado.  WAY BETTER THAN PIZZA, POMMARD'S.

RUMBLE AT 24TH AND HAMPSHIRE, PT 1: DAGWOOD'S

Both relative newcomers to the block, Dagwood and Scoops and Pal's Takeaway offer the Eastern edge of 24th street different takes on deli sandwiches. Pal's only exists for part of the week, crammed into a tiny corner of a liquor store during weekday (and now Saturday) lunch hours. Dagwood's, kitty-corner from Pal's, is a full-time sandwich shop, but with some assorted groceries and an ice cream counter awkwardly shoe-horned in. Although we had tried both shops before, the fact that we ate at both this week means that a showdown was inevitable! Kicking off this battle is the Holy Mole sandwich from Dagwood's. This chicken sandwich featured chicken, molé sauce, queso oaxaca, slaw, and avocado. The guy behind the counter asked what kind of bread, and if we wanted it toasted. This is a minus to me, because I think that if they came up with the recipe, they should know which bread is best- or at least make a suggestion. It's not a huge drawback, however. We went with toasted sweet roll, which seemed like the most appropriate choice. The end results, unfortunately, were mixed. The molé sauce was very creamy, almost mayo-like, and had a very subtly sweet flavor. In fact, the taste of the molé was so subdued that it was virtually overpower by the slaw. On top of that, the chicken was not chunks of roasted chicken in molé sauce, but rather deli slices of packaged chicken (like Boar's Head or Primo Taglio). In effect, this was not a chicken molé sandwich, but more accurately a sandwich inspired by chicken molé. It wasn't bad, but it certainly fell short of our expectations, and given the fact that it cost eight dollars, seemed very overpriced. Still, it we both agreed it was better the other sandwich we got from Dagwood's that day...

the valencia

Like I promised, a quicker turn-around on sandwich reviews! This tasty little number is the Valencia from Rhea's, a sandwich best described as "creamy". Turkey, havarti, avocado and mayo get together for a real chill time in your mouth. But then bacon, pickles and pickled onion show up and bring some crunch to the happenings. It works out pretty well I would say. Rhea's is definitely becoming more and more my go-to sandwich shop- they have ordering sorted out in a more organized manner, and the seating makes for some good Valencia people-watching. I felt like I was being adventurous by ordering a Turkey sandwich when there are so many more interesting sandwiches on the menu, but if yr folks are in town and the idea of a spicy korean steak sandwich sounds like too much for them, try suggesting this sandwich. Maybe they will even dig the pickled onions.

Avocado + Tomato @ Langer's Delicatessen

So a friend was visiting me in LA and we were invited to lunch at Langer's Deli. For those unfamiliar, Langer's is often spoken of in the same breath as Canter's, which AW has written about several times. True enough, there were a lot of compare and contrast discussions going on at the table, with this group of people leaning toward Langer's mainly. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to eat an $10 sandwich, and secondly, these places aren't known for their veggie options, but I figured, why not?

There were two veggie options, "Veggie" and "Avocado and Tomato". I picked the latter, and boy they were not kidding, it really was just avocado and tomato with a little lettuce and mayo on top. It was still, like, 5-inches-tall, but there wasn't a lot of sandwich to celebrate. I can't say I was disappointed because I wasn't expecting much, but it was pretty underwhelming for a $10 sandwich. It wasn't even $5 sandwich good. Maybe $2. No hate for the place, just stating facts: This sandwich was bland.

On the flip-side, everyone who ordered meat sandwiches really really liked theirs. I was never the best candidate to review Langer's, but if any other breadxbread contributors want to give it a shot sometime, the pastrami and corned beef come highly recommended. Myself, I actually ended up going to a different sandwich shop later that day to right this wrong. Review for that forthcoming...

Just woke up and I need a sandwich

I woke up very early this morning and I knew just what I was gonna make. The ultimate breakfast sandwich! Ciabatta sandwich round two!

It was rather similar than the last sandwich I made previously but I planned to make it with a bit more care. I put avocado on both sides of the bread (not too much) and a slice of muenster cheese. I put the bread in the oven to get it all nice, warm, and crunchy

Then I sliced up some mushrooms with an egg. (No need to admire my cooking skills, folks)

Then the meat! I was really ready to make the ultimate breakfast sandwich! Too bad when I grabbed the sausage it wasn't there! It was in the freezer and hard as a rock! It would have taken forever to thaw so I had to settle for a less appropriate meat: Salmon. (Again). I put it all together and added a couple slices of tomato, lemon, and dash of salt. Final product: Some sorry mess.

I actually did manage to take a photo before the bite but I think the bite really shows the contents of the sandwich well. It was a really nicely put together sandwich except for the salmon. The taste of egg and salmon kinda grossed me out. I felt like I was guilt tripped into this sandwich. It would have been so much more amazing without the salmon and tomatoes! It should've been Italian sausage! Then it would have been the ultimate, roll out of bed sandwich to enjoy before the sun rises.

Ah, well. It was hearty and it hit a spot but not the spot. Next time...

EAT cafe, North Hollywood

I went up to North Hollywood this morning to visit some friends. They live around the corner from this place, EAT, a pretty good breakfast/brunch diner place. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I just drove 45 min. and walked in the rain to get here so I wasn't feeling very adventurous. I got the standard veggie sandwich, even though there was another, more interesting veggie sandwich option on the specials menu. No shenanigans today.

I forgot to take a photo at the place so this is actually after I got home and it got kinda soggy and deflated. But it hit the spot! It had the standard veggie ingredients but I'm pretty sure they added honey too [add. I was not wrong, I reread the ingredients and they are such: Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber, Avocado, Sprouts, Jack Cheese & Honey Mustard Spread on Whole Grain Bread.]. I ended up taking a nap later and waking up wishing I had a 3rd half of sandwich waiting in the fridge. Would do again!

I'm not proud but I am hungry

I am also impatient. The proof is in the bite I took before taking the photo. Either way, it was around midnight when I made this. I just saw some ciabatta bread, salmon, and avocados and decided to make a sandwich.. There wasn't much thought put into this sandwich. I toasted the bread and prepared an avocado (isn't cutting one open the best thing in the world?), cut several slices of tomato, and put a bit of cream cheese with herbs on one side. I went pretty wild with the avocado, though, and it overwhelmed the sandwich. I couldn't taste the salmon and could only feel the texture of the tomatoes. It could have used a dash of spices and a little bit of lemon but I only realized this after I devoured this. Despite being only able to taste the avocado and ciabatta it was still satisfying even if it was carelessly put together. For a midnight snack this hit the spot.

Roxie Food Center

(second image from yelp)

Roxie Food Center, San Jose Ave & Havelock, San Francisco

Liquor store sandwiches are the new big thing in the Mission, but these guys have been making sandwiches in a little liquor store in the Ingleside/Outer Mission area for over 20 years. I had never heard of them until recently, but after reading their yelp reviews, I wanted to try it out. So today I stopped in on my way home. From the outside, this place looks like any other liquor store in the city, and a pretty small one at that. About a third of the store is given over to the deli. Lots of old 49ers memorabilia, old city college sports stuff, and signed pictures of local celebrities.

Their sandwich selection is classic and huge. Lots of different meat choices, lots of cheeses, and lots of breads, including both regular sourdough and extra sour sourdough (!). The people working there were really friendly, and didn't flinch when I ordered my veggie sandwich without mayo and cheese. There's three sizes of sandwiches here. They aren't as cheap as you might imagine from the humble exterior. The junior size was $6, I think the regular was $8, and the large somewhere around $10. I ordered the junior because I wasn't that hungry. But seriously, calling this thing a junior is kind of a joke. Do you see it? It's fucking huge! I can't imagine how big the large must be.

Anyway, on to the sandwich. Great sandwich. You could put just about anything on toasted extra sour sourdough bread and I'd be happy, but this was a really interesting veggie sandwich, not just a meat sandwich without meat. Mustard, pickles, tomatoes, jalapeño, onions, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, avocado and, most surprisingly, kidney beans! I used to dislike artichoke hearts, but I've been coming around to them lately.  The mushrooms were the briney, canned kind rather than fresh dry mushrooms.  Italian flavors.  Rich and tasty.


This place is definitely out there, but it's worth the trip.  Not much of a place to sit but Balboa Park is down the street.  Excellent. Ahhhhhhhhh I will go back.

veggie torta el primo

tortas el primo, folsom and 21st, san francisco

This veggie torta had lettuce, onions, tomato, guacamole and pickled jalapeño on a nice big soft roll. Normally it comes with queso fresco and mayo, which may have made this sandwich a little tastier (if you eat that stuff), but are by no means necessary, because this was a really nice torta without them. They grill the sandwich after constructing it, enough to warm the bread and crisp up the crust a little bit, but it's not grilled through like a panini. The ingredients were fresh and crisp, and the mellow, cool flavor of the bread and veggies was pleasantly interrupted now and then by nice big pieces of jalapeño. This sandwich was like summer on a bun.

They didn't seem to have a whole lot of other vegan-friendly options, but their menu is pretty big for the meat eaters. I never made it to their second location on 22nd, which recently closed, but their original location on Folsom and 21st is a nice big airy space, with a giant-sized plasma tv and giant-sized mexican sodas.

fried chicken sandwich

fromin's deli, wilshire & 19th, santa monica

Not long after my experience with Sherman's reuben in Palm Springs, JoJoJoJo and I ate at this Santa Monica restaurant. I decided that I needed to explore my options, stretch my wings, and order something than the usual reuben. So I settled on the fried chicken sandwich, having eaten a fair amount of soy "fried chicken" lately, and hungering for the real thing. The chicken portion of the sandwich was great, very flavorful and not too dry. But in addition to the tasty chicken patty, the sandwich came loaded with toppings, including a plentiful helping of avocado. This made the sandwich fairly slippery and hard to contain, but a little bit of a mess is worth it for a good lunch.

los picudos, oh yes

tortas los picudos, 24th & alabama, san francisco

There's not a whole lot I remember about this place in the Mission
except that this sandwich was freakin amazing
and my biggest regret was that I couldn't eat both halves in one sitting.
No problem, I had the second half later that night.

What's in it? I can't recall, although
it looks like breaded chicken or turkey,
that crazy good crumbly mexican cheese
red onion, avocado, jalapeno, tomatoes perhaps?
Who cares! Just look at that thing
and vast in it's holy scrumptious-ness.

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.

first guest reviews!!!!

vegan phil'er up kc bbq

veggie napoleon complex

ike's place, 16th & sanchez, san francisco

first off, let me thank mark and katie roquet for contributing breadxbread's very first guest reviews! thank you both for the contributions. and curse you for thinking to take a shot of the sandwich with the SF skyline in the background, before I thought of it. you bastards. let's get to the reviews!

Vegan Phil'er Up's KC BBQ

I'm not usually big on fake meat vegan sandwiches. There are so many things you can grill or roast or fry or slice and stack that usually taste better between two slices of bread. Also, there is something sad and disingenuous about a bunch of tofu, wheat gluten and chemicals masquerading around as meat and cheese.

On the other hand, you know, all things in moderation. Don't be so uptight. Sometimes you want something that tastes like meat, except for whatever reason you don't eat meat. Fair enough. And you want this meat-like product slathered in barbecue sauce and also, hey, throw on some fake cheese (you don't eat cheese either, see). Is there something wrong with that? No, there is not. When you want these things, go to Ike's. Actually call them first because it takes maybe an hour for them to prepare these things for you. They will reward your patience with a lollipop.

Ike's does the fake meat thing right, because the phony meat and cheese are not the point of this sandwich. Nonetheless, they are both really good. The fake turkey is sliced thin, which gives it a nice texture. I expected a fake cheddar cheese but it is more like fake ricotta or mozzarella and is nicely subtle. Neither the cheese nor meat is starchy and heavy (like some of the fake meat at Love N Haight is) or tastes too much like chemicals and soy (like a lot of retail brands do). Both have great texture, but not a lot of flavor, which is actually ideal for a vegan sandwich, at least when you're going to pour a delicious sauce all over it.

The two heavyweights of this sandwich, awkwardly called the "Vegan Phil'er Up's KC BBQ" (no sandwich should need two apostrophes) are the bread and the barbecue sauce. The just-baked french bread is warm and soft and flavorful. It smells great. I could easily eat it on its own. The sauce is a straightforward, classic barbecue sauce - tangy and sweet, a little more on the sweet side, but with enough flavor you can eat a lot of it. And there is a whole lot of it. Bread and sauce together are delicious. Throw in fake meat and fake cheese and some veggies and it is really really great.

This place also has a great drink selection, including cel-ray and banana soda!

guest review by Mark Roquet

Veggie Napoleon Complex

Mark and I called in orders, scootered around the mission enjoying a break in the rain, picked up the sandwiches about an hour later and took ‘em to Dolores Park.

I ordered the veggie napoleon complex on baked-to-order sourdough. It’s got vegan turkey, honey poppy seed French sauce, avocado, and havarti. I’m not sure what kind of fake meat they use but it’s good, not too soy-ish. The highlight by far is the sauce, it’s fantastic and there’s tons of it. I think that the half sandwich that I saved for later got even better because the sauce soaked through the sourdough making it this delicious crusty sauce sponge.

They also give you lollipops.

guest review by Katie Roquet

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.