THE DELI
grandpa_shig
5,799 Posts
that's right childrens come one come all to the deli. only that serious sammich knowledge here take that other shit to cratedigging revealed.com.LE CROQUE MONSIEUR[/b]i know what youre thinking. that's just some fany grill cheese sammich. mais au contraire mon frere. this is a french grill cheese sammich. and by french i mean BUTTER. that's right, mes enfants, them frenchies be slappin that shit with butter. oh first off, they use good slice bread. that is key. none of this wonder bread bullshit. then some butter, then a some slices of hammy then some cheese butter mixture. then some more butter. then you pop that sucker in the oven for a few minutes et voila! un croque monsieur. im telling you these things are the fucken goods. there was this spot on the frou frou side of fillmore [in sf] that sold them. good shit mane. boulangerie on fillmore and pine. bomb shit dudes. anyways, im sure they can be found here in LA definately in like eastern canada and new york. i may be mistaken but im gonna go out on a limb and say theyre fairly cheap. like a poorman's sammich. id set the market value at $2.50usd and i wouldnt pay over $4 for one of these raer pieces. but there you go.bon apetit!next time...the cuban
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If you are in OC (god forbid) there is THEEE BOMB Cuban place in Orange, in the antique circle (records too) It's one of the like 3 things I miss about OC. They have awesome sandwiches. the best rice pudding I'e ever had too.
Ham, pork, swiss cheese, pickels, and mustard will satisfy the most demanding latin pregnant woman. Trust me I know. Grill it on the plancha, cabezas verdaderas saben! No es un chiste, and on pan sobao' (no italiano hero)! Que, Que! I get it around the way with soda, chips, and guacamole for $6, lunch special como woah! Aqui en Nueva Yor' hay saboooooooooooooooooooooooor!
When I was a bike messenger in downtown Boston, I was addicted to the greatest export from Chile: the Chacarero sandwich. I was not alone in this addiction. From 11:30AM to 2:00PM M-F the walk-up window facing the sidewalk along the outside of a department store would have a line that stretched a full city block. So worth the wait. Sometimes twice a day, one at noon, another at 4. Delicious fresh-baked flatbread with chicken breast, ripe tomatoes, green beans, and a green paste of a sauce that tasted like a hybrid of pepper & avocado and would bring tears to my eyes. I started scheming on bringing like 4 of them home in my bag and refrigerating them for home eating, but I realized so much of the joy was how freshly prepared they are, with the bread having just been baked and the green beans crisp. Oh my god writing about this has made me so hungry...Chacarero!!!
excellent! senor bega knows the time. just had one of these cubano's up in glendale. suprisingly, there's a damn good cuban joint up that away called la cubana. i was told it dont compare to the real miami versions but tis not a bad try. anyways, its basically ham, pull pork [carnitas], pickle, mustard pressed in a hero type roll on one of them george foreman grill thingies. good shit i tell you. its basically a pound of hogg on a bun...with a pickle. delicioso!
and what's this about a chacacero? never heard of that but it looks pretty damn good. id like to get educated on this sammich if anyone can help.
i knew real knowledge would be dropped here.
i found a whole narrative of shots from the one and only Langer's Deli[/b] who coincidentally makes THEE BEST PASTRAMI in the world.
im serious. i got new yorkers that concede. i challenge any of you east coast hatter's. best pastrami world wide is here in LA. fuck a katz, a 2nd st. deli. carnegie's alladat.
PASTRAMI[/b]
my homey claims they steam the meat and the bread for that extra tenderness. and he's always harping on how delicious the bread is and how its equally as important as the pastrami. hand cut pastrami no less. OG style. shit is so rich tho. its like eating a whole cheesecake by yourself. i got a pastrami reuben once and damn near killed myself. anyways, there you go kids!
No jpeg could do this masterpiece justice, but the Downtown Bakery II on 1rst Ave between 4th and 5th Streets es la verdad, por favor believe it.
Oh yeah, NY pastrami isn't all that unfadable, but real deli headz know the corned beef is where its at.
TORTA[/b]
and i aint talking bout no fat chicks dammit. im talking about them real deal mexican sammiches.
see, i was fuckin with them bertos tortas for a while. theyre good, but nothing could prepare me for the pambaso. im talking that chilango DF shit. with the stale bilillos dipped in some sort of chili sauce and slapped with some refried beans avocado, asada milanesa, cotija, crema fresa, salsa, papas, you name it. there's was this joint on e14th and like fruitvale in oakland. la torta loca or something like that. its damn good and they made pambasos and all sorts of other tortas with weird shit like cactus and shit in it.
anyways, the key to making good tortas is, you guessed it, the pan. if you get a torta looking like some french bread baguette hero shit, know for sure that you eating some bullshit. you gotta fillet the bread. so its all big and shit. then you gotta grill it in some oily fat sauce shit. dont press it like george foreman. there's a place here in north hollywood that has the good bread but no pambaso.
aside from that, make sure your local taqueria uses fresh ingredients and youre set. i know there's a spot down here in LA, but ive yet to find it. and one of my food headz reckons the torta loca bread is not stale enough and is too spongy and "freshbread-like". but theirs is the only pambaso ive had and i cant complain.
anyways, there you go bitches, eat your sammich!
coincidentally, I just had one of those Croque Monsiour deals at Cafe Claude... I think that shit was more than $10 w/ fries.
it was a'ight.
is this one of them downtown french alley joints? im telling you dude. boulangerie on pine at fillmore. cant be more than $4. no fries though.
I don't usually go to those places for lunch, but this was with people from work. Someone had mussels that were on point though.
There's a web site I signed up on where you can give reviews of restaurants in SF (sfsurvey.com), maybe there's one in LA too??... They tempt you to give a lot of reviews by giving out gift certificates to restaurants, so I've written a few...
harrison and 13th, their al pastor is champ too
tortas are my jump off, fucking broadway between 27th and 33rd in south phoenix. On a saturday you'll see a blue chevy berreta stopping at all the junkyards serving some of the meanest tortas you've ever had out of the trunk. That was my shit right there. If he was out don't sweat it, dude would be back in 10 minutes with some realness
My fav sandwhich? The Vietnamese. Cheap and tasty. Shig, weigh in on the Vietnamese jump-off.
BAN(H)
yeah, this thread is NICE! btw, Shig, did you shoot those pastrami photos? - they're awesome.
I'm also looking forward to the Viet Sandwich installment. What's the best place in SF? I used to go to a coffeeshop on Kearny / Sacramanto, but haven't been there in months. I was addicted about 3-4 days/week for a while.
There's a Viet/Chinese French bakery style cafe on Stockton, near the tunnel, but something's wrong with their meat... it's not quite right. I guess the best spots are in the TL, but I'm looking for spots close to financial/chinatown.
young phonics, in due time. banh mi's are a favorite of mine's too and i hear the one's they got in like garden grove and westminster down here kick ass over TLz fare. but i cant really say. someone tried to get me to go into a vietnamese sammich shop in silverlake of all places which is kinda like trying to get tacos in the marina but i was willing to try. except they charge like $6 for them shits and i was completely taken aback by this blatant price gouge in current market prices.
edub, i did not take them pastrami shots. in fact i didnt take any of the pictures here. i took them from google. them pictures are from egullet or chowhound or somewheres where some dude did a pretty good writeup on langers going into the history of the establishment.
anyways, today is a very special day in my world of good sammiches. im rolling out my most favorite of breaded delights. deep fried and dusted with powdered sugar. served with a side of jelly. that's right my pretties, im talking bout the
MONTE CRISTO[/b]
*sorry for the shitty picture.
but you see, there have been so many variations on this brilliant blend of and marrying of flavors, that the innernet is cluttered with bullshit baked versions, and low fat turkey concoctions, served with coleslaw shits or soup or something. i mean, most the monte cristos youll run into today arent even deep fried but rather pan fried with some butter.
well, rest assured, i did some research into the subject as the game has apparently been stepped up.
anyways, my undying love for the monte cristo sammich began in the early 80s on one of my manny excursions to reno with my gambling grandma. see, usually my grandma would give me some scratch to play shoot the balloon at circus circus. but this one time she won like a million trillion dollars at keno. (it seemed like a million trillion at the time.) so we balled out and got our rooms comped at the hilton and grandma hipped me to my first ever monte cristo.
some say the monte cristo is cousin to the french croque monsieur[/b]. both have hammy and gruyere cheese [or a similar softcheese]. gruyere is almost kin to butter in its texture and richness. but sammich historians claim that the monte cristo was most probably invented in the mid 1950s by entrepreneurial southern california restauranteers. some outlaw historians cite san francisco as the origin. others say san diego coronado hotel. but most americans have come to know of the monte cristo sammich through none other than walt disney's disneyland. The Blue Bayou in New Orlean's Square at disneyland to be exact.
anyways, most monte cristo's will have their crusts removed. it is good, as always, to start with fresh bread. a thicker french cut would be preferrable . you basically go about making a ham sammich. throw in some slices of cheese, some bacon, grilled chicken, whatever. after your sandwich is assembled, you take that fucker and dip it in an egg/milk concoction and then straight to the deep fryer. now, dont cut corners on the deep frying. youre gonna die sooner or later so make that shit right. once you feel your sammich has been thoroughly deep fried, take that bad boy out the oil and let it rest for a minute. then dust it with powder sugar and serve with a fresh jelly or jam. in a pinch ive used maple syrup with is also good. what you will experience is the sweet and the salt. the crisp fry and the gooey inside. a myriad of textures and flavors the whole world would be better off experiencing. end the war people...
so it's a deep-fried ham& cheese w/ jam???.. wtf?, sounds pretty good, actually - kinda like putting black currant jam on brie cheese... flavor combinations... yo, I'm feelin that.
Next to bestbuy yes but it's on harrison. I usually get a burrito or a couple tacos there but the other day I decided to try the sandwich considering dudes cuban and that's probably his specialty. Shit was pretty champ although the tip was lagging some meat but after a bite or two I got to the realness and it was great. I haven't tried their pupusa yet.
oh and I know it's a chain and all but man schlotzsky's original is my shit. I haven't hit them up in years. SF needs to get their franchise game up because I miss the fuck out of those sandwiches
1. philly cheesesteak [philly native]
2. muffuletta [nola native]
3. horseshoe sammich [ILL native]
4. beef on wick [ NY native]
5. pull pork [south native]
until next monday!!! BANH MI[/b]
http://www.wqed.org/tv/natl/sandwiches/
Not a NOLA native, so I'll just post a pic of a muffuletta that I ate.
BANH MI[/b]
alrighty then. i know, this picture is kinda small and doesnt do justice to the delicious banh mi sammiches. but fuck you cuz that right there is oakland chinatown. my spot. cam huong. now, its no secret to oaklanders that this is the joint. everybody goes here. everybody. there's an even bigger one down intl blvd on the "asian" part of intl. id have to say its a toss up between cam huong and ba le on intl as far as best store bought banh mi ive had. i usually go for the bbq pork variety but both shops make a variety of sammiches including the OG cold cuts version with like 5 different textures of pig in it.
for the uninitiated, banh mi is a vietnamese sammich made from a vietnamese baguette [made with both wheat flour and rice flour which makes it a lighter bread]. there is usually some fresh coriander [cilantro], pickled radish and carrots, a lil slap of mayo, and some fresh jalapeno. your choice of meats. usually pig based which is alright by me. i love me some hogg. what makes it good is the amount of meat they stuff into that sucker. i think westerners usually opt for the hot sammich. they just pop that sucker in the oven for a few minutes, then take it out and add the veggies. i have to admit, i like it this way. but i aint no punk bitch. ive tried the pate, brine pork, vn bologna cold sammich and it was fine. but i still love me some bbq pork.
best spot across the bridge has to be saigon in the Lz. now, im not really sure if this is actually the best, but i used to tag along with my boss after meetings at city hall and he's like OG pinoy pride soma raised old man and he swears by saigon so i just went along. not bad, though, i like cam huong better.
but thee 2 best banh mi's ive ever had were crafted from the hands of my old roommate, phuong, and one of my kidsisis mommie's out in deep east oakland.
phuong was the BOMB cook. she used to make this catfish soup stuff that was like liquid mariah. one time she made me and my ex-lady some banh mi's that was fantastic. i think she or her mom or someone pickled their own vegetables and salted their own pork. or maybe its cuz im a sucker for homemade anything. but that shit, on like the one warm day out of the year in SF was magical.
the other fabulous banh mi i had out in dimond park in oakland. it was my first job as a youth worker so i was still green. loved working with these kids. man, oakland kids are the awesomest. but even better than oakland kids are oakland parents. we had a park clean up day at dimond park and afterwards all the kids parents were gonna show up with eats and we were gonna pig the fuck out. good god almighty ive never had a finer sampling of food. let me explain something. oakland has one of the most ethnically diverse populations. which means a young shig was in heaven. homemade fried chicken, homemade empanadas, homemade cambodian curry, homemade lumpia, homemade tamales, homemade hawaiian style potato salad, homemade banh mi, some weird fruit thing, homemade asada, homemade pinapple/mango fried rice. i mean, look, this was simply one of the greatest days of my life. fucken kids were cool as fuck, i had me a mountainous paper plate of food, played some tug-o-war with the kids, and did some light landscaping at the public park.
ah the good ol days. anyways, ive yet to have great banh mi out here in LA/OC as of yet. but i have a feeling LA/OC banh mi will king the bay shit. im sorry, i love the bay, but food down here is nuts. of course, nothing beats home cooking, but you catch my drift...
ps
dont forget to fuck with these desserts. theyre good, but i dont know what they are.
THE "HAMDOG"[/b]
As the name suggests this is a cross-breed of a hotdog and a hamburger - a beast of mythical proportions.
A hot dog wrapped by a beef patty that's deep fried, covered with chili, cheese and onions and served on a hoagie bun. Oh yeah, it's also topped with a fried egg and two fistfuls of fries.
The "Hamdog" is a specialty of "Mulligan's" in Decatur, GA which also serves the "Luther Burger", a bacon-cheeseburger served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut bun.
I've never had any of these, but I'd be willing to try the Hamdog, despite the obvious health risks. I can imagine the flavor bursting from all that deep fried fat.
web page
i actually thought the chacarero was nothing THAT great... i worked around the corner from there for about a year and had it maybe 10 times...
as for pastrami, please, best pastrami in the world is Schwartz's in Montreal...
this reminds me of the burgers from corner stores in salvador, brasil. maaaaan, we're talking double patty, ham, bacon, egg, cheese, peas, plus the regular fixin's if you prefer. all for 50 cents (US) or less. i never saw one deep-fried though.
goes great with the similarly priced 2 joints for 50 cents.