The Lunch Encounter

Did you ever dip pickle spears in Kool-Aid mix? Not me, my childhood was deprived. We only had pickles that were green and that was okay. Better than okay. I love pickles. Down south, in the pickle mecca of Greenville, Mississippi something called Kool-Aid Dills are blazing a rainbow trail.

Anything that rivals “dipping hot Cheetos in ice cream” has got to be good and I’m going to find out.

Grocery list:
Dill pickles
Kool-Aid, red
Cheetos
Ice cream, vanilla

Meant to make this post late last week, then got slammed with work and sandwiches flew out of my brain. Capped off a long week by making a 3-D cake for my son’s 7th birthday. You have not lived until you have made a Pikachu cake. Wait until after midnight the night before to optimize the pleasure. The request was for Pikachu running and, tell you what, I tried. That boy could get me to do anything by pretending to believe I can do anything. Wrapped around his little finger? You betcha.

So, the cake is firming up in the fridge – needs a lot of firming seeing as it is nine-tenths icing (with toothpicks making up the lion’s share of the remainder) – and I’m thinking about sandwiches again. Worked with a Cuban man today who waxed poetic on Cuban wiches and he got me back on track. Priorities!

Here goes, my belated post:

The $3 trip to Vietnam. Okay, Little Vietnam, the Eden Center in Falls Church, VA. Specifically Song Que.

This time I had the Grilled Pork – Banh Mi Heo Nuong. Same crunchy garnishes: slivered cucumber, white onion and pickled daikon, sliced jalapeno and cilantro branch, the bread smeared with something that must have had Dijon mustard in it going by taste and color. The meat. Oh the meat. Little gnarled chunks of sweet caramelized pork, burnished and satisfyingly chewy.

This shop is a festive, indoor carnival, with color-my-world displays from floor to ceiling. Most of the packaged food is a mystery to me, a mystery to unravel visit by visit. Cellophane pulled tightly over what I know is food, but cannot identify. Stay tuned. Or tune me in if you are in the know.

Mangos. Got that much.

Sitting around yesterday on a neighbors back deck we (middle-aged parents) started the game of who-used-to-be-coolest. Who saw the most famous band in the smallest venue? Who saw their first concert at the youngest age? Who got into clubs at age 15? And so on. You get my drift.

While a winner was never established there were a number of high rollers. One story that could not be topped was that of the B-52’s playing a dance at a local high school, climaxing with the band’s destruction of the student’s lovingly crafted 10-foot papier mache rock lobster.

That brought The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to mind as crayfish, ubiquitous at the fest, are sometimes called rock lobsters. This very weekend – and next – crowds of lucky festgoers are scarfing up crawfish by the fistfull as they have at this time of the year since 1970. I do believe that once you have been to Jazzfest it never leaves your system. The sounds and smells are easily conjured for ever after.

Speaking of good smells. Speaking of eating crawfish. Speaking of rock lobsters. Did someone say LOBSTERS?

While streaming lobsters of consciousness, my mind bumped into lobster rolls. If Jazzfest is in full swing down south, lobster roll season must be just around the corner up north, say in Maine. Now there’s an iconic sandwich, one about which northeasterners bear strong opinions.

To my knowledge, and this is definitely not my purview, there are only three necessary ingredients in a lobster roll: lobster meat, mayonnaise and a toasted hotdog bun, the kind that looks like a slice from a very short loaf of bread. A New England-style bun. The opening of the bun faces UP and is stuffed with lobster meat coated nicely with mayonnaise. Bits of celery are allowable in there as well.

There is a recipe on the Food Network site that includes parsley (flat leaf no less), lemon juice, chives and basil. Oh brother. Even to this mid-westerner turned pseudo southerner, I know that is just WRONG. Salt and pepper are okay with me, probably even good, but I find the specifications – kosher and freshly ground – annoying.

On the other hand, and for full disclosures sake, one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten was a lobster roll homemade in Massachusetts by my friend Marie. The secret ingredient? Truffle oil. Just to balance the scales she served onion rings as well. Homemade they were and perfectly plain. Key word, perfectly. As I recall, she did not include flat leaf parsley. Phew.

4:17 AM, April 27, 1758
According to Woody Allen, the groundbreaking invention of the sandwich took place on this day and is credited to the Earl of Sandwich.

Read on for more details from Mr. Allen’s research.

Excerpted from Woody Allen’s Yes, But Can the Steam Engine Do This? a short story in a collection titled Getting Even (1971):

I was leafing through a magazine…
when I came across a sentence at the bottom of the page…
“The sandwich,” it read, “was invented by the Earl of Sandwich.”…
My mind whirled as it began to conjure with the immense dreams, the hopes and obstacles, that must have gone into the invention of the first sandwich.

I spent the ensuing three months working up a brief biography of its great inventor, his nibs the Earl. Though my grasp of history is a bit shaky, and though my capacity for romanticizing easily dwarfs that of the average acidhead, I hope I have captured at least the essence of this unappreciated genius.

That said, take the following with a large pinch of salt:

1758
…finally – at 4:17 A.M., April 27, 1758 – he creates a work consisting of several strips of ham enclosed, top and bottom, by two slices of rye bread. In a burst of inspiration, he garnishes the work with mustard.

1778
Later that year, his open hot roast-beef sandwich creates a scandal with its frankness.

1790
He supervises… the construction of a hero sandwich by a group of talented followers. Its unveiling in Italy causes a riot, and it remains misunderstood by all but a few critics.

1792
He succumbs in his sleep.
At his funeral, the great German poet Holderlin sums up his (the Earl of Sandwich) achievements with undisguised reverence:
“He freed mankind from the hot lunch. We owe him so much.”

Now that’s what I all a sub! The Italian Store in Arlington VA never fails to deliver (if you pick it up). Recent posts have included several rants against chains, several of which sell subs. Here is my antidote – hard roll, sweet AND hot peppers, prosciutto, capacola, Genoa and provolone, aka The Capri.

I know this photo is horrible, but I like it anyway. Love the individual ceramic “skillet”. This looks to be about as far as you can get on the continuum from a sandwich and still call it a sandwich.

Never heard of a Hot Brown until I was enlightened by the PBS documentary, Sandwiches You Will Like. How did I get to be this old without hearing of or EATING a Hot Brown? A Louisville specialty, the Hot Brown is fitting for a Kentucky Derby party, as chronicled in Washington Post Food today. My preference would be to eat one in Kentucky, made by someone else’s hands. In lieu of that, find a recipe here for this gooey broiled wonder described by Bonny Wolf in the Post as “Louisville’s famous hot open-faced sandwiches of turkey, tomatoes, bacon and peppery Mornay sauce.”

I’d like to know who coined the term “open-faced” and when.

Photo by Renee Comet Foodstyling by Lisa Cherkasky
All sandwiches begin with a sound foundation.

Photo by Renee Comet Foodstyling by Lisa Cherkasky
And solid fixings.

To see other gorgeous photos by Renee Comet click here.

A husband and wife who own a local technology company have bought development rights to open 106 Dagwood’s Sandwich Shoppes in Greater Washington.

Curt and Cindy Anderson, founders of Nexus Technologies, signed a franchising contract with Clearwater, Fla.-based Dagwood’s in January. The contract allows the Andersons to open 63 stores in a territory covering D.C., Northern Virginia and west to Charlottesville, Va.
Washington Business Journal

Dean Young (current cartoonist for the Blondie comic strip) with Blondie and Dagwood

Okay, okay, I admit I’ve never eaten at Dagwood’s and I should not jump to conclusions. On the other hand, I have yet to eat anything that would qualify as a sub at a franchise. Maybe Dagwood’s will raise the bar. Maybe the bread will have an actual crust. Maybe the olive oil will have a personal relationship with olives. Maybe DC will get the vote. We’ll see.

Oh man, I just took a look at their website and found this nugget, “Dagwood’s is a franchise development and expansion company structured to become one of the fastest growing chains in history…” Now doesn’t that just make your mouth water?

It’s time I got out for a real sub, hoagie, grinder, hero, torpedo, wedge, zep…

Dagwood, of course, is the real deal, as is Blondie, no question. I do hope these shops do justice to their namesake.

Fatburger is coming! I hear from an inside source that the LA chain is planning to plunk down 10 units in the DC/Baltimore area.

Firehouse Subs is on its way too! While I hear that Firehouse does have pretty good subs –
One of the best “chain” sandwiches places I’ve been to. I had an excellent Italian Combo, and a so-so Meatball. Jeff W –
and their website has a cool siren soundtrack, why am I not excited?

Yikes, stripes, what’s DC’s sudden draw? Oh yeah, dollars.

She made the bed and she would like to lie in it. Mara Cherkasky’s favorite comfort food is a BLT.
The elements of a perfect BLT

She sleeps best on bacon