Entries tagged with 'sandwiches'
Posted by Robyn Lee, May 7, 2008 at 6:30 PM
Editor's note: Robyn Lee, is also known as the Girl Who Ate Everything, and that's not far from the truth. She's out and about so much around the city that I asked her to write about some of favorite New York spots for this site. This is the first of them. —Ed Levine
The outside and inside of Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop, along with some sandwich innards
The Lower East Side's Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop is my most oft-visited sandwich shop in the city. They may not make the best sandwiches in the city, but the quality is much better than what you'd expect for the price, and the location and setting make it a convenient, relaxing place for me to eat dinner with friends.
What's Good?
My favorite sandwiches involve melted cheese, from standards like the seemingly butter-laden grilled cheese and tuna melt, to more interesting ones like Silly Philly Portobello (portobello mushrooms, sautéed onions, and provolone cheese) and Southwestern Chicken (breaded chicken cutlet, melted cheddar, bacon, onion, and barbecue sauce). If you're not into gooey cheese, you can create your own sandwich from their wide selection of breads, ingredients, and spreads.
Many sandwiches can be made vegetarian, I assume by way of replacing the meat with a soy-based substitute. I've never tried these sandwiches, but I heard they're very good. And if you don't want a sandwich (which would be crazy, but hey, whatever floats your boat), there are plenty of salads to choose from.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 30, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Julia Moskin weighs in (pun intended) on the "Next Best Things in Sliced Bread in New York City." I of course weighed in on this weighty issue a couple of years ago in the New York Times. Some of Moskin's discoveries I can't wait to try, like the merguez sandwich at Little Morocco or the pork butt al pastor cemita at Kiosko in Port Chester. Others I already knew. And some left me cold, like the chili mackerel mantou at Province.
A couple of favorites from my own Times article: The pork chop hero at Sandy's Lechoneria, 116th Street and Second Avenue, and the crisp skin-on roast chicken hero at Milanes, 25th Street and Seventh Avenue.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 24, 2008 at 11:00 AM
This week I learned something every astronaut has learned the hard way: Re-entry is a bitch, at least when it comes to breathing-living-eating-dieting. When I last left you, serious eaters, I was consuming quite a few pieces of some of the finest fried chicken in the land. It didn't get any easier after that in New Orleans.
Dinner that night was at Cochon, Donald Link's tribute to all things porcine that should be renamed Porktopia. The man loves pork as much as I do. It wouldn't surprise me if the tap water I drank there was infused with pork. We ate fried boudin balls, grilled pork ribs with watermelon salad, cochon (roast pig) of course, and house-made salumi, including some killer bologna and so many other pork-derived or saturated dishes that my dinner companions and I actually oinked in unison when we walked back to our hotel.
Last Meals in New Orleans
Breakfast and lunch the following day, the last two meals I was to have in New Orleans, were from Lüke, John Besh's newish restaurant that serves classic New Orleans cuisine and New Orleans–influenced German food. Mad good, but not exactly light.
Breakfast was grilled shrimp and buttery grits studded with fantastic andouille sausage, feather-light pancakes topped by berries in syrup, and just to kick it up a notch (hey, I was eating in Emeril country), a couple of big fat links of house-made pork sausage. Of course I left most of all three dishes, but the total calorie intake couldn't have been all that minimal. While there, I figured I'd order lunch to take on the plane; I grabbed a pressed cochon sandwich, which I had been eying on the menu ever since I had arrived in New Orleans. That sandwich represented my re-entry to moderation, as you're about to find out.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 22, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Here's an email from a restaurant publicist I can totally get behind (I've deleted the hypey stuff).
Earth Day is coming up and to honor its commitment to Environmental Awareness, Il Buco will be offering a $30 lunch prix fixe, including its famous porchetta panino, for five days starting today (Tuesday).
One hundred percent of every $30 prix fixe menu will go to Al Gore's We Campaign, a Project of the Alliance for Climate Protection, whose aim is to halt global warming.
This is extremely cool for two reasons.
First, the folks at Il Buco really know how to cook pig. The porchetta panino is so good I put it in my September 2006 story in Details magazine—"22 Sandwiches That Will Change Your Life." (The article's not available online, but here's a list of the sandwiches).
Second, Il Buco is giving 100 percent of the proceeds to charity. Usually when restaurants do fund-raisers, they give away only a portion of the proceeds.
IL BUCO
Address: 47 Bond Street, New York NY 10012
Phone: 212-533-1932
Posted by Ed Levine, January 22, 2008 at 7:15 AM
Wow, it turns out that people are as passionate about their local food as they are about their sports teams. There were many claims and counterclaims being made by Boston and New York food advocates on yesterday's post, so I thought it might clarify things if I broke down the comparison food group by food group, much the same way newspapers, magazines, sports radio shows, and talking heads on television break down a football team: offensive line vs. offensive line, linebackers vs. linebackers, quarterback vs. quarterback, coach vs coach, and so on.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM
Alidoro's namesake sandwich is so delicious I often find myself gravitating there even when I have no other reason to be in SoHo.
What's in it? Smoked chicken breast from Nodine's, arugula, and Alidoro (formerly Melampo) dressing.
When Alessandro Gualandi owned this picture-perfect sandwich shop, he would never tell me what was in his dressing, and I'm afraid new owner Walter Momente has been sworn to secrecy. I think it's a caper vinaigrette, but all you really need to know is that it's a delicious complement to the smoked chicken breast and the peppery arugula.
If you're looking for one of those over-stuffed cold Italian heroes the Alidoro is not it.
But if you're after a perfectly balanced sandwich with the right ratio of filling to bread the Alidoro is your kind of sandwich.
Alidoro
Address: 105 Sullivan Street, New York NY 10012 (b/n Spring and Prince)
Phone: 212-334-5179
Posted by Ed Levine, October 5, 2007 at 5:21 PM
At El Quinto Pino, the piquillo pepper-sized tapas bar opened by the Tia Pol team, I found the best little ham sandwich in New York. The Serranito is a Serrano ham sandwich on a stecca, a slightly crispy little hero roll made by Sullivan Street Bakery that tastes as if it's made with the same dough Sullivan Street uses to make its pizza bianco, with a little extra olive oil thrown into the dough for good measure. This sandwich is taken to new heights of porcine deliciousness with the addition of some rendered Serrano ham fat. So between the Serrano ham, the ham fat, and the olive oil in the bread dough, I figure we're talking fat to the third power here. El Quinto Pino opens at 5 p.m., so this sandwich and a glass of wine will cure whatever post-work ills you are suffering from.
El Quinto Pino
Address: 401 West 24th Street, New York NY 10011 (just west of Ninth Avenue)
Phone: 212-206-6900
Posted by Ed Levine, June 7, 2007 at 12:02 PM
I've taken a lot of flack on both ELE and Serious Eats about my declaring the untraditional Cubano at the Spotted Pig the best Cubano I've ever had. It's all in good fun, of course, but I have decided to test my theory that most other Cubanos are the same by eating as many different conventional Cubanos as I can in the coming weeks.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 28, 2006 at 12:17 PM
A few weeks ago in the New York Times Arts and Leisure section there was a great piece by Susan Dominus on the Starbucks aesthetic embodied in the CDs and DVDs it sells. That aesthetic, according to both Starbucks executives and customers quoted in the story, is built around the notions of community, inspiration, discovery, and, of course, quality. I'm not ashamed to admit that I buy into this aesthetic. I think the CDs on sale at Starbucks are usually good and interestingly chosen. And I am a music freak. In fact, I wrote about music for ten years before I started writing about food, and I have 2,000 CDs in my collection.
But can you apply these aesthetic values to the food served at Starbucks? Say, to the breakfast sandwiches it now serves at 1,100 Starbucks locations in eight markets? I'm a food guy now, so that's what I want to know.
The first thing you notice when you're waiting in line to order is the stack of breakfast sandwiches in the pastry case right next to the bagels and croissants. These sandwiches are there for display purposes only. There are five on view: sausage, egg, and cheese; pepper bacon, egg, and cheese; sun-dried tomato, ham, egg, and cheese; reduced-fat turkey bacon, egg, and cheese; and eggs Florentine, made with spinach, eggs, and cheese.
When you order one, however, your barista retrieves an already cooked and assembled shrink-wrapped sandwich from a refrigerator and heats and crisps it in a combination microwave-convection oven. Your barista then puts it into a bag and seals it with a sticker that articulates the newfound Starbucks food aesthetic: "Great coffee deserves great food."
Unfortunately there's nothing "great" about the Starbucks breakfast sandwiches. In fact, they are only marginally edible. Egg sandwiches can't even attain "pretty good" status when they're not made fresh to order like they are at hundreds of delis and coffee shops in and around New York City.
I was curious about the genesis of the Starbucks breakfast sandwich. A Starbucks spokesperson explained that the breakfast sandwiches are the product of a lengthy R&D process by a team of "certified" chefs at Starbucks headquarters. These chefs were charged with developing homey breakfast sandwiches using high-quality ingredients that could be heated and served to the customers within the tight real estate confines of a typical Starbucks store. Consistency and high quality were the cornerstones of this initiative.
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Posted by Ed Levine, November 3, 2006 at 10:19 AM
Along with pizza, fried chicken, cheeseburgers, and barbecue, I would like to nominate breakfast sandwiches for my personal food hall of fame. How great are breakfast sandwiches? Where else do you find flaky biscuits or some other appropriate breadstuff, cured and smoked meat, tangy melted cheese, and fluffy eggs in one glorious edible package?
Even bad breakfast sandwiches are pretty good. A McDonald's egg, cheese and bacon biscuit is pretty damned satisfying, though I invariably end up removing the loaf-like eggs after a bite or two.
One of the best things about breakfast sandwiches is how ubiquitous they are in most parts of the country. Every deli and coffee shop in New York makes fresh egg sandwiches to order on a flat-top grill. That means you can get a freshly made breakfast sandwich just about anywhere. It can be difficult to find breakfast sandwiches with softly scrambled eggs because eggs made on a griddle are invariably overcooked, but in the larger scheme of things that seems to be a small price to pay.
The ingredients may not be top-quality in a generic breakfast sandwich, but egg sandwiches are good enough to withstand any Alice Waters-like scrutiny.
As long as they are made to order.
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Posted by Ed Levine, October 10, 2006 at 6:53 AM
In honor of Columbus Day I started thinking about meatball heroes. A great meatball hero is hard to find. Most meatballs are leaden and way too dense. They're weighed down with too many breadcrumbs. Most hero rolls are cottony disasters, with no chew to the crust. When you find a good meatball hero it's cause for celebration. But when I tried to come up with a top five meatball heroes list I came up short: I could think of three that I truly loved. They are:
Frankie's Spuntino
Address: 457 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (map); 17 Clinton Street, New York, NY 10002 (map)
Phone: 718-403-0033, 212-403-0033
Website: frankiesspuntino.com
The gold standard of meat ball parm heroes. The meatballs are light, the mozzarella is fresh, and the bread is Sullivan Street bakery pizza.
Caputo's
Address: 460 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (map)
Phone: 718-855-8852
A family-run Italian grocery store with very high standards, Caputo's features Mrs. Caputo's surprisingly light meatballs, made with beef, pork, and veal.
Leo's Latticini
Address: 46-02 104th Street, Corona, NY 11368 (map)
Phone: 718-898-6069
Also known as Mama's, Leo's Latticini only has meatballs on certain days of the week. So call first.
Crosby Connection
Address: 290 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY 10012 (map)
Phone: 212-677-8444
Website: crosbyconnectionnyc.com
The crosby special is a meatball hero with ricotta and mozzarella. It's a little messy and I wish the bread were a little better, but overall the Crosby Connection makes a fine meatball hero. The price is right, as well: $6.
In theory, based on their track record, the following places should be prime territory for meatball heroes:
Esposito's
Address: 357 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231 (map)
Phone: 718-875-6863
The quintessential Brooklyn pork store, Esposito's makes meatballs, fresh mozzarella, has decent bread, and they have pretty high standards.
DiFara
Address: 1424 Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY 11230 (map)
Phone: 718-258-1367
I've never had a meatball parm hero at Dom's, but let's face it, the man knows how to cook and he takes great pride in everything he makes. Anybody had a meatball hero at DiFara?
Meatball Hero Emeritus
Corona Heights Pork Store: The Corona Heights Pork Store is closed (I haven't been able to get in touch with the Cappezzas to find out why), but Mary Lou made a meatball parm hero that was as good as an old school hero could be. Her meatballs were clouds, her sauce was loaded with meaty pork flavor, and she used excellent hero rolls from Rose and Joe's Bakery in Astoria.
I'm also thinking that Faicco's on Bleecker St. and Brooklyn must make a really fine meatball hero, but I've never had one there. Any reports? And what about Royal Crown in Brooklyn?
Posted by Ed Levine, September 20, 2006 at 10:57 AM
A respected food critic who may want to maintain his anonymity just e-mailed me that the BLT at Frankies is out-f'ing-standing (his words, not mine).
I may go check it out today or tomorrow.
Posted by Ed Levine, August 29, 2006 at 8:42 AM
I have found the ice cream sandwich of my dreams at Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven, 350 Hudson St. 212-414-2462. This photo, courtesy of Flickr, is of Torres' hazelnut ice cream sandwich, but I wanted to give you an idea of what his ice cream sandwiches look like.
It was made with two of his chocolate chip cookies (see review below) and roasted banana ice cream. Roasting the bananas concentrates and intensifies their banananess and makes the resulting ice cream very creamy. Even more remarkably, the cookies themselves were not that soggy, which is always the problem with designer ice cream sandwiches made in advance as these were.
I have tried four other designer ice cream sandwiches in the last week, two from Ciao Bella (lousy cookies, good ice cream) and two from Ruby et Violette, and the Jacques Torres sandwich is definitely winning the designer ice cream sandwich at this point. The Ruby et Violette brownie ice cream sandwich filled with fromage blanc was pretty damn fine and a reasonably close second.
I also bought an ice cream cone from JTCH covered in chocolate with vanilla ice cream and brownie bits inside. Sounds amazing, doesn't it. I'm desperate trying to summons the willpower not to dig into it for a day or two
Updating yesterday's post, I had the chocolate chip cookie at Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven (350 Hudson St., 212-414-2462) yesterday.
It was good, not great, a little too sweet, though it did have as you'd expect a very high chocolate to cookie ratio. What was really cool about the cookie was that they would warm it up on a griddle if you asked for it. It didn't get as warm as I would have liked, but it was a nice touch nonetheless.
New York Mag's take on designer ice cream sandwiches
Posted by Ed Levine, August 23, 2006 at 7:29 AM
For the September Details Magazine (on newsstands now) I wrote a story on 22 sandwiches that will change your life. It's worth buying the magazine for Anthony Cotsifas' pictures alone. Here's some of the story cut for space reasons:
There are the thousands of sandwiches we eat out of habit and for sustenance, like the soggy, brown-tinged tuna sandwich I get from my local convenience store. And then there are the sandwiches that are so cosmically correct, so intrinsically perfect, that eating one becomes a lifechanging experience. These are the sandwiches worth writing about.
What elevates a sandwich to life-altering status? Fantastic fillings, the appropriate bread, and the proper condiments, all coming together in some
The bread does not have to be a fancy-pants baguette made by a former hippie or monk. It just has to be right for the filling that goes into it. It could be a perfectly toasted hot dog bun for a lobster roll, or two pieces of crusty, seeded rye bread for a pastrami sandwich. Condiments are the grace note of a sandwich. A caper vinaigrette, a dab of whole grain mustard, or just the right amount of Hellman's mayonnaise can make any good sandwich great.
That was the intro cut for space reasons.
Because I had such a good time writing the story for my editor there, and because Details doesn't put its articles on-line, I can't list the sandwiches described in the piece here. But there were quite a few sandwiches that were cut for space and geographic diversity reasons. These sandwich outtakes I can share with you. I'll tell you about five sandwiches today, and five more on Friday.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 22, 2006 at 7:36 AM
"SOME COOKS ONLY KNOW HOW TO COOK DELICIOUS FOOD"
Momofuku's David Chang and his talented crew of cooks are folks that seem to only know how to cook delicious food. So it should be no surprise that the brand new Momofuku Ssam Bar (there's supposed to be two dots, an umlaut, over the a in Ssam, but I can't figure out how to put it in), opening tomorrow (Wed.) at noon, serves food I would happily eat every day if it were in my neighborhood. A ssam translates in Korean into wrapped food of any kind. So what kind of wrap did I try last night? Black beans flavored with ham hocks, kimchee puree that didn't taste like any fermented cabbage salad I'd ever had before, whipped tofu that was as creamy as sour cream, rice, and toothsome Berkshire roast pork. It was the ultimate Korean burrito. I also had phenomenal chicken and pork buns, similar to the ones you get at Momofuku, but made with braised and shredded meat instead, and a vegetarian salad with roasted mushrooms that had me believing there was meat in there somewhere as I wrapped it in a whole lettuce leaf . Think of Momofuku Ssam Bar as a Korean-American version of a Chipotle Grill (and that's a compliment). And unlike Momofuku there's even a few tables for those of us old fogies who like to eat facing one another.
207 Second Avenue at 13th St. 212-254-3500.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 14, 2006 at 8:42 AM
It's tomato season here in the produce-challenged northeast, which for me means it's BLT season.
I am relentless in my BLT-making. Today I served my 85 year-old cousin Terry (I don't think she has a cholesterol problem) a BLT for lunch, made from two absolutely amazing heirloom tomatoes I bought at my local greenmarket yesterday, superior Nueske's bacon, Hellman's mayonnaise, a Pullman loaf (an excellent white bread with a nice chewy crust) from a local French bakery, and, yes, some baby arugula.
I only served the baby arugula in deference to my cousin Terry, who would have seen my leaving out the lettuce as unnecessarily revisionist. But over the last month or so I have been assembling "BTs" for myself, my son Will and my wife Vicky, and not once has anyone complained about the absence of the "L".
THE LETTUCE IS SUPERFLOUS IN A BLT.
There. I said it. I feel much better now. The bacon gives you smoky, porky, slightly sweet flavor, the tomato is sweet, juicy and lends just a touch of needed acid to the sandwich, the Hellman's mayo is creamy and rich, and the Pullman loaf's crusty edge gives you the crisp crunch some would say the lettuce provides.
Am I crazy? Is this food heresy?
Posted by Ed Levine, July 28, 2006 at 11:05 AM
In theory, the turkey club sandwich is a great idea. Turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and toast; what's not to like? Yet every element of a club sandwich, except perhaps the mayo, is fraught with peril. Dry turkey or turkey roll, rigormortis-ridden bacon that was cooked and left for dead hours before it makes it into your sandwich, iceberg lettuce browned to a not-very-crisp, and woody, cardboard tomatoes that taste more like potatoes than tomatoes, often lead to a turkey club sandwich gone horribly wrong.
That's why I am thrilled to report that there's finally a great turkey club sandwich in NY, at Cookshop. There chef Joel Hough constructs his club sandwich with gently house-smoked turkey, smokey and just sweet enough Hatfield Farms bacon from New Hampshire, ripe avocados, baby lettuces, housemade mayo, and Balthazar toasted potato batard. Each bite of this sandwich gives you smokey, sweet, creamy, tender, crisp, fresh-tasting pleasure. And isn't that what we're all looking for?
The Times take on Cookshop.
NYM's take by Hal Rubenstein.
Cookshop is at 156 10th Avenue (20th St.) 212-924-4440
Posted by Ed Levine, July 18, 2006 at 8:13 AM
My friend Roy took me to the Yankee game last Friday night, and not only are his seats fantastic, fifteen rows back to the right of home plate, but they are fifty feet from the Arthur Avenue and Carl's Cheese Steak concessions. Roy waited twenty minutes between innings for a Carl's Cheesesteak, which turned out to be mighty disappointing. It turns out that for some things good things don't happen to those who wait. The roll was cottony and dry, and the meat was all shriveled and dried up from sitting for too long. Roy said they cook off the meat in advance and then hold it on the griddle for as long as it takes to sell it. This is no way to produce a good cheesesteak.
The Arthur Avenue sandwich, from Mike's Deli, was much better. There was no line, and the prosciutto, mozzarella and roasted peppers sandwich I had on foccacia was pretty damn fine for a ballpark sandwich. The sandwich was pre-made and sitting in a refrigerated case, so it was kind of soggy. But all in all I would certainly order the sandwich again. But the best ballpark sandwich in New York is the Mama's roast turkey, fresh mozzarella and gravy sandwich behind home plate at Shea Stadium.
For that sandwich alone the Mets win the Subway Sandwich series.
Posted by Ed Levine, July 12, 2006 at 7:57 AM
In a move I wholeheartedly approve Boston Magazine sent writer Erin Byers to eat 20 lobster rolls in three weeks. I can do the math. That's just about a lobster roll a day.
The winners:
B&G Oysters 550 Tremont St., 617-423-0550. She calls it the "world's most perfect lobster roll." It's 8 ounces of lobster meat with a lemon-garlic mayo, chive and celery.
Neptune Oyster 63 Salem St., 617-742-3474. This is Byers' warm lobster roll of choice. She describes it as "warm butter-basted claw and tail meat with drawn butter and butter-soaked brioche." I sense a butter theme present in this particular sandwich.
Posted by Ed Levine, June 19, 2006 at 12:39 PM
I was at Yankee Stadium last week, and I noticed that there is now an outpost of Mike's Deli. 
the great sandwich and specialty food emporium in the Arthur Avenue retail market. Does this mean that the Yankees and the Mets, who installed a Mama's (Leo's Latticini) sandwich kiosk a couple of years ago, are now engaged in a battle for both sandwich and baseball supremacy. Has anyone had a Mike's sandwich at Yankee Stadium? I've had a Mama's sandwich at Shea, and it was pretty swell to be eating real food at a stadium.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 11, 2006 at 7:39 PM
The question of the day: Which is the superior sandwich, a roast pork banh mi or a mixed Italian cold cut hero? Is it just me, or has everyone fallen in love with the Vietnamese heroes called Banh Mi . When I was in Manhattan's Chinatown recently, searching for great chicken soup, I noticed a sign for Banh Mi in the window of what looked like a jewelry store. SliceNY's Adam Kuban and I walked in and ordered one roast pork and one chicken banh mih. Both sandwiches were sensational. The bread was crisp, the meat tender enough, the vegetables were spritely, and the fresh coriander in the sandwich had a lovely fragrance. If you're like me, and banh mi have taken over your sandwich life (at least when a banh mi joint is nearby) head over to:
- Saigon Bakery
138-01 Mott Street (just south of Canal)
212-941-1541
Posted by Ed Levine, April 6, 2006 at 12:19 PM
I had a terrific 'Cueban sandwich yesterday at Blue Smoke for lunch, made with smoked instead of roast pork, and I was reminded that I had not included the "Cueban" in my New York Times Hot Heroes roundup. There were a number of other fine hot sandwiches on long rolls that I didn't have the space to write about, so my next few posts will highlight my favorites: The best fried seafood'poboys I have found in New York are at Jacque-Imo's NYC at 366 Columbus (77th Street) 212-799-0150. Decent roll, crisp, greaselessly fried seafood, and properly dressed New Orleans-style with shredded lettuce and dressing. Please note that the Jacque-Imo's To Geaux in Grand Central's subterranean food hall serves truly awful fried seafood 'po boys that have clearly not been cooked to order.
Posted by Ed Levine, April 4, 2006 at 12:20 PM
Last Saturday I went to NYC's Time-Warner Mall and braved the three escalators you ride to get to the newest branch (The first two are in Yountville, Ca. and Las Vegas) of Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. The first thing you are confronted by is a sit-down area with waiter service. The retail bakery with a few stools and tables is down the hall. There I was confronted by display cases filled with impossibly beautiful and elegant pastries, cookies and chocolates, all at French Laundry prices. I ordered a grilled vegetable sandwich with gruyere on seven-grain bread ($8.25) that the counterperson plucked pre-made out of the case. He asked me if I wanted it pressed. I said yes, and he told me it would take five minutes. I then bought an apple danish ($3.00, I think), a caramel macaroon ($3.00) and a large iced tea ($2.75). I sat down on one of the stools and took a bite of the buttery apple danish. It was too doughy, and the ratio of apples to pastry was all wrong. The caramel macaroon was excellent, chewy, just crunchy enough, and not too sweet. The iced tea was a total rip-off. My glass was mostly ice, and I ran out of tea well before my sandwich was ready, which was in 15 minutes, not five. The sandwich was very fine, though the vegetables kept falling out of the sandwich as I took succeeding bites. I will go back, I won't order the tea, and I would say this early visit was promising if not perfect.
Posted by Ed Levine, March 19, 2006 at 12:48 PM
All right, I've said what I had to say about looking at the Katrina carnage in New Orleans. Now I'll move on to the food.
I made three new discoveries this year. Stanley! (1031 Decatur, 504-)s is a fabulous new breakfast and lunch spot on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. Great banana walnut pancakes topped by a scoop of decent vanilla ice cream and some optional Louisiana cane syrup, and an even better eggs benedict-like concoction with killer fried oyters on top. The fried oysters were so good I think I will do as my friend John T. Edge does when he goes to Stanley's, have a plate of fried oysters for breakfast.
I had a disappointing, tasteless roast beef with debris (the shards of meat left in the roasting pan after you take the roast beef out) po'boy at Mother's, but then I more than made up for that lousy sandwich with a transcendent roast beef po' boy from the Parkway Grill and Tavern (538 Hagan Avenue(at Toulouse), 504-482-3047. Plenty of gravy, the best hero roll I've had in NO, just enough tender shards of roast beef, and a squiggle of mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato made up this paradigmatic sandwich.
Finally, the sweet potato turnovers, the biscuits, and the sticky bun at L'Espiga Bakery were outstanding. The city will be back, and so will I. My advice to all of you: You should go see and eat New Orleans now. In my next post I'll talk about the more formal upscale meals I had in New Orleans. Two quick postscripts: For those people who want to take a food guidebook to the Crescent City (or just eat vicariously without leaving their house) I think Pableaux Johnson's Eating New Orleans: From French Quarter Creole Dining to the Perfect Poboy
is a beautifully written treasure trove of information and opinions. And a thank you to the reader who sent me an e-mail telling me that Gerald Ford was President from August 9, 1974 to January 20, 1977, not the early eighties, which is what I wrote in my first New Orleans post.
