Tag Archives: sandwich

Paris Sandwich

My wife and I stopped in this little joint to sample some sandwiches. Over the last week I’ve put away six or seven different banh mi sandwiches, and this place served up the best of the lot.

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We went with the classic bologna and pate banh mi, as well as the grilled pork. The bread was softer and less flakey than most baguettes, but it was still crisp and delicious.

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The meats were delicious, and packed well with abundance. The grilled pork had hints of lemongrass, and the pork roll and pate sandwich had great texture. At $5 each, this place is a steal.

PARIS SANDWICH
213 Grand St
New York, NY 10013

Banh Mi Saigon

This no-frills Vietnamese sandwich joint is pretty legit.

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They even have the jewelry case in the front of the restaurant as you walk in, which seems to be a somewhat common occurrence in NYC Vietnamese sub shops.

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The banh mi were packed with meat. We tried both the classic bologna pate and the chicken. Of the two, my favorite was the chicken. It was nicely marinated in herbs and spices like lemongrass, and the meat was soft and flavorful. The pickled veggies were shredded and remained crunchy, though the cucumbers should have been cut down a bit thinner, with the skin removed.

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The bread was super crispy, tearing the roof of my mouth up, but such is the life of a banh mi fanatic.

BANH MI SAIGON
198 Grand St
New York, NY 10013

Sau Voi Corp

NOTE: THIS PLACE IS NOW CLOSED

This little corner Vietnamese bodega was a staple spot for me and my wife when we lived nearby.

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They sell everything from Vietnamese variety show VCDs to music CDs, over the counter meds to dry goods and trinkets.

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But they also sell banh mi sandwiches.

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I grabbed two on my way home from jury duty, which brought me back into my old stomping grounds.

The classic: ham, pate and slices of pork roll with pickled veggies, cilantro, mayo and sri racha.

The spicy BBQ pork: BBQ pork with pickled veggies, cilantro, mayo, BBQ sauce and sri racha.

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Both were really tasty and flavorful. The bread here is likely made early in the morning. When I arrived it was still being kept warm in a toaster oven type thing, but it may have dried out a bit in the hours it was there. The French bread was crispy and flaky, so much so that the roof of your mouth gets raped pretty hard, but the sandwich flavors make it worth the pain. These sandwiches are pretty solid for a cheap Chinatown deli shop. Stop in if you’re nearby.

SAU VOI CORP.
101 Lafayette St #3
New York, NY 10013

Chick-Fil-A

NYC has gone bonkers with the opening of its first official Chick-Fil-A restaurant (not counting the small, kiosk shop in an NYU cafeteria downtown, of course).

Amid equal parts protest and jubilation, the joint seems to be off and running to a great start. If you’re living under a rock and don’t know, Chick-Fil-A is all about the “traditional marriage” (knee slap) of fried chicken and sandwich bread to form the holy and spiritual union of said ingredients into one righteous chicken sandwich.

Needless to say, lines have been out the door since said doors have been open.

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I ran down at noon on a Saturday and, to my surprise, the line ended AT the door. I was literally in the vestibule at the end of the line, and was told that the experience would only take about 10 mins. That was an accurate estimate, if not a “conservative” (kneeslap) one. I was probably back out the door, food in hand, within 8 minutes.

But my timing was impeccable. One could even say my timing was, oh, I don’t know… divinely inspired? Perhaps providential? As I left, I turned and noticed that the line had grown to go OUT the door and around the block:

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Anyway, I ordered about $18 worth of food, which consisted of the traditional sandwich with cheese, lettuce and tomato:

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The spicy sandwich with a spicy breading, pepper jack cheese, lettuce and tomato:

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An 8-piece nuggets, with all the sauces:

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And a medium order of waffle fries:

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As far as fast food goes, this comes in on the upper 75th percentile, I’d say. I’ve had better, but I’ve definitely had worse. The chicken is tender and juicy, but when competing in NYC with the likes of places like Fuku+ for a chicken sandwich, there’s really no choice. Anyway take a look at the inside:

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In conclusion I’ll say this: sort of like the entire Chick-Fil-A controversy itself, there’s just more hype and loud voices than actual substance when it comes to the taste of Chick-Fil-A. If you’re like me and you absolutely MUST try something that looks interesting, for fear of missing out, then go for it! But since this place is somewhat out of my hood, I will probably be sticking to Fuku+ from now on, which is literally just a few streets away and SO much better.

One last thing I’ll say is that the service truly was incredible, which is something that Chick-Fil-A is known for. Everyone was super friendly and accommodating, and the whole process was really fast. If I may say so, it was probably one of the best fast food buying experiences of my life. So there you have it.

CHICK FIL-A
1000 6th Ave.
New York, NY 10018

Cow Pig Bun

Cow Pig Bun

What a fucking weird location for a reataurant. I can understand the brewery being there, as this area is an office park or business park. I suppose people hit this joint for lunch while they’re at work nearby.

The place is like something out of Williamsburg Brooklyn. The decor is corrugated metal, reclaimed wood, filament bulb lighting and industrial meat facility chic.

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The food is great. It’s a small menu, essentially a burger joint with fancy apps and lots of different whiskey and bourbon to sample.

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We tried a flight of flavored whiskey – one was just a blend, then coconut, chocolate macadamia nut, and coffee flavored whiskeys followed. Macadamia nut was my favorite. Sweet and strong.

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We also sampled some of their mixology style cocktails. My wife had an awesome tequila and pho broth based drink, called “Cannibalistic,” and I had a pineapple, lime  and Maker’s called “Butcher Town.” Good shit.

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I ordered the bacon jam burger. This was a potent and powerful burger. The blue cheese didn’t overpower the meat, nor did the bacon, but altogether it was super heavy. I liked it, but I could only put down half (I ate the rest a few days later).

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My wife had a poorly worded sandwich that was called banh mi, but was really more like a pulled pork sandwich. It had pork belly, pulled pork and really nice fois gras butter, but none of the pickled veggies, fish sauce or fresh leafy cilantro that you usually associate with the banh mi flavor profile. In short, it was still good, but not banh mi.

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Along with the drinks, I think the best part of this place is the pork rind chicharones that come with each entree instead of French fries. These morsels were real pig skin fried up to warm, golden, crispy goodness. Amazing.

Satan’s Fried Chicken Sandwich

Satan’s Fried Chicken Sandwich is a recipe I concocted for usage of Saint Lucifer Spice during my review of their product. If you can’t get your hands on their delicious shit, then substitute for some other pepper like cayenne powder. But I highly recommend their habanero garlic blend. It just works better.

What do you need, and how do you do it?

1) Grab a pack of thinly sliced chicken breast from the grocery store.

2) Crack a few eggs into a bowl and mix/scramble.

3) Create a breading mixture using a combination of Italian breadcrumbs, panko and a teaspoon of Saint Lucifer Spice.

4) Drag your chicken filets through the egg dredge and batter them with the spicy breadcrumbs.

5) Fry your chicken to golden brown in hot oil.

6) Hit your still-hot chicken with some more Saint Lucifer spice to lock in the seasoning after they come out of the fryer/hot oil.

7) As the chicken cools, quickly prep some lettuce, tomato, onion and sliced apple. Maybe some cooling cucumber as well, if you feel like it. As an alternative, you can do this step before you start cooking, but then the apples may bruise up and oxidize – unless you know to hit them with some lime juice to prevent that brown bullshit from happening.

Note: This step is for adding additional crunch and a little sweet juiciness to cut the spice. If you happen to have coleslaw laying around, you could simply use that. And if buying an apple is too much work for your lazy fucking ass, you can also use the pickles that have been sitting in your fridge, floating around in murky water like a shit that never got flushed.

8) Mix a few shakes of Saint Lucifer spice into some mayonnaise.

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9) Apply some of that spiced mayonnaise onto each half of a potato bun. A soft, sweet bun is key, like Martin’s or King’s Hawaiian.

10) Assemble sandwich and eat.

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If you’re ambitions, you can make some “conundrum fries” to go with this sandwich on the side: sweet potato french fries spiced with a few shakes of Saint Lucifer, once they come out of the oil. Do it, and then eat them with the remainder of your spicy mayo mixture from above. Why? Because fuck ketchup, that’s why.

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Harlem Shake

Harlem Shake is a cool little diner/burger spot up on 125th & Lenox.

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Also… It’s this:

Anyway, my wife and I grabbed a sweet deal for this place through Amazon Local. I think we paid about $8 or $10 for $20 worth of food. Taking the new subway fare hike into account, though, we nearly broke even with 4 x $2.75 to get there and back for two people. So we made it worth our trip by buying a fuckload of food. Here’s an aerial view of what we ordered:

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That’s $39 worth of delicious.

First was the classic burger:

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This was constructed with two thin patties, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and special sauce. It was perfect on the soft potato bun. Really good job. A much better tasting burger than their two thin patty competitor Steak & Shake, though I’m not sure I’d venture all the way up to Harlem for this when Steak & Shake is literally a stone’s throw down Broadway from us.

Next up, the classic fried chicken sandwich:

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This had crunchy slaw on it, and pickles, but I think it was in desperate need of mayo. They have some next to the registers, so make sure you grab a packet or two if you order this. I liked it, but was sort of expecting a more juicy, thicker piece of chicken.

Let’s keep it rolling here with this amazing “jerk dog:”

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This snappy, tasty dog was topped with pickled slaw, diced jalapeños, pork rinds and jerk sauce (not to be confused with semen, jizz, boy batter, man mayo, or cum). The pork rinds added a really interesting crunch element, and the hot dog bun was of the perfect pillowy potato variety.

Our last entrée item was the cherry pepper and bacon relish grilled cheese, sandwiched between two buttery and toasty slices of good old-fashioned white bread.

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This was sweet, spicy, tangy crunchy and gooey all at once. Such a nice concoction. I’ll definitely be trying to make these at home soon.

The fries were nice. A natural cut style, nicely seasoned without going overboard, and with a decent crispy crunch to them. They could have been better, but I wasn’t complaining.

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For our first drink we had a watermelon cooler, which was delicious. I was half expecting some sugary, diabetic coma-inducing watermelon “drank,” but this was a delicious, natural tasting watermelon juice. Not too sweet, not too pulpy, and extremely refreshing. Big fan of this:

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Next, of course, was a vanilla shake. At nearly $6 I was expecting a let down, but this was a good size and it had great flavor. It was light and easily suckable – like a guy with a 2-inch pecker, and unlike some joints where they basically give you soft serve ice cream in a cup and expect you to blow an aneurism trying to suck the shit through a 3mm diameter straw. Fuck that. This was ready to go; no melt-wait time needed. Nicely executed:

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So that’s that. Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this place. If you live nearby, it is definitely worth a visit. If, however, like me, you will need to get on public transit to make it here, then make sure you try to score a coupon first… and go with the intention of delving into a ton of grub to make it worth your trip. Go for and gorge thyself!

HARLEM SHAKE
100 W 124th St
New York, NY 10027

Chutney Kitchen

I’ve always said that Indian food is probably the least photogenic food out there. It’s probably the most flavorful cuisine, in terms of raw power, so it’s kind of a weird dynamic. Anyway, this joint is sort of like Indian food meets American grab-and-go lunch.

For example, take a look at this “Board Meeting” wrap, which has roti, chicken, rice, tikka, cucumber, tomatoes, chickpeas, kale and a cilantro chutney. I was hoping for a bold-flavored sandwich. Unfortunately it was a bit on the bland side. Perhaps it relied too heavily on the rice and not on the chicken and tikka.

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My wife got the “All Sunshine” salad, which was the better of the two items. It had rice, lentils, cucumber, tomatoes and date chutney with cilantro. It may look like shit, but it tasted pretty nice for a salad.

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The real star of the meal, however, was the order of fries. They were spiced with a little bit of curry powder that made them pop. They were crispy outside and soft inside. Delicious.

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CHUTNEY KITCHEN IS CLOSED

Num Pang

My wife recently “brought home the bacon” a few times with some delicious sandwiches from this joint.

First was the special Ad Rock (from the Beastie Boys) sandwich, which had pastrami and all the typical SE Asian sandwich fixings. This was pretty awesome, and came with cream soda and a bag of chips:

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Then she came home tonight with a trio of hard, pipe-hittin’ niggaz that would bring even Marsellus Wallace to his knees:

Catfish: my favorite of the three, I think. Oddly enough. This was light, flavorful and really well balanced between spicy, sweet, hot, cold, soft and crunchy.

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Pork belly: my second favorite. Deliciously soft thick-cut pork belly that was braised to a jerk worthy flavor level. I took three pics of this bitch.

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Brisket: my least favorite of the three, probably because it had too much western style BBQ flavor going on. Otherwise this was a killer sandwich as well. LOTS of meat here too.

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These ain’t your typical banh mi sandwiches, but they are fucking awesome.

NUM PANG
148 W 48th St
New York, NY 10036

2nd Avenue Deli

What better way to cap off a day of beer and burgers than to put down a massive, heaping pile of corned beef, sandwiched between two slices of rye bread? This baby was so excellent that it almost made me forget that I dropped nearly $20 for it. Check out what half of a sandwich looks like from the famous (but moved) 2nd Avenue Deli (on 1st Avenue, UES):

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2ND AVENUE DELI
442 1st Ave.
New York, NY 10021