Category Archives: condiments
Earl Of Sandwich Maybe Stole My Heart
Ok,
So, as you may or may not know, I live in Philly, aka Sandwich Capital Of The World. We have the best sandwiches, the best bread, the best selection and the best sandwich makers in the world.
I will pause here for guffaws from people of different cities.
*pause*
Ok, so, yes, we do it right and we do it above and beyond. When you live in sandwichland, it is hard to eat sandwiches other places and not be let down (this is why I would like to buy the Subway sandwich chain and put it right out of business. And then chase Jared with a pitchfork to Canada…but that’s another story for another day). I have come to accept that when I am in other cities and I get a sandwich, it is just sustenance, not anything to be enjoyed.
And then something weird happened.
I spent 7 days in Disneyworld with my Aunt and cousins. One day I went with my Aunt to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. Downtown Disney, if you didn’t know, is a plot of land chock full of shops, some Disney themed & some not and restaurants of all shapes and sizes. For instance, there is a Wolfgang Puck there (I ate there and wasn’t very impressed. There should be no mold smell anywhere in your restaurant. I am talking to you, enclosed porch area.), a Rainforest Cafe, a House Of Blues, a Fulton’s Crab House, you get the picture. There are also a few quickie type places, and Earl Of Sandwich is one.
It was hot, I was tired and we just wanted to eat. I thought the place was a sit down and when we walked in, we were a little taken back. It is more cafeteria style ordering, and the line was loooong. But to our surprise, it moves quickly because you order on one end of the counter, just the sandwich (or salad or soup, the big stuff), and move along to the other end where you pick up a dessert or a side (like, say, potato salad) and slide on down to the cashier where you pay for everything as well as a drink and/or slushie. They give you a pager and you hang out while they make your sandwich and page you.
The pictures on the boards hanging about looked delicious but we all know food magic can be done via crafty photogs. Once the pager went off, I skipped over, picked up the bag and slid back into my seat. I have never been so happy to have my expectations shattered.
Earl Of Sandwich makes little loaves of bread (to those of you familiar with Wawa, they are about the size of a Shorti. Those of you who are not familiar with Wawa, I am sorry for you.) about 6 inches long. They warm the sandwich up and wrap it in a foil wrap to keep it’s heat, altho I gotta say, it won’t last long.
I ordered the Hawaiian BBQ sandwich. This thing had Grilled Chicken, Roasted Ham, Aged Swiss, Fresh Pineapple & Hawaiian BBQ Sauce. It could have been a hot mess, and not in any kind of good way. The chicken could have been dry, the ham could have been lunch meat crap and the Hawaiian BBQ sauce? God knows.
So I jumped in. I unwrapped. The bread was still warm and soft, but it seemed sturdy. Cut on a bias, so I could peek in, it smelled delicious and I had to restrain myself from just stuffing it right in my face in order to take some pictures!
The chicken was shockingly juicy. It has absorbed some of the fresh pineapple pieces, that did not fall right out of the bread. The ham was cut thin, but you can tell they make that ham there, and don’t just ship it in and open up a cryovac bag.
The star of the show was the BBQ sauce. It was sweet without putting you in a coma, with a nice tang that the pineapple compliments. There was just enough to soak a little into the bread without making it soggy but enough to mix in with the ingredients. I have to hand it to the food guys in the bog offices at Earl Of Sandwich, this was a kickass sandwich.
But the star, the real shining star of this beauty is the bread, called “artisan loaf”.
I don’t know exactly what they means, but it was able to hold that crazy, juicy delicious thing all together without falling apart. The texture is almost like a southern biscuit but still slightly buttery and not ridiculously chewy. I don’t know how much R&D they put into that bread but BRAVO!
I also ordered 2 sandwiches besides the Hawaiian, to keep in the fridge at the hotel for late night eating. One was “The Original 1762″ (Freshly Roasted Beef, Sharp Cheddar & Creamy Horseradish Sauce”) and “The Full Montague” (Freshly Roasted Beef, Turkey, Aged Swiss & Sharp Cheddar, Lettuce, Roma Tomatoes & the Earl’s Mustard Sauce). I ate the Original the next night after a particularly long day at The Magic Kingdom. It melded together into, and I am not exaggerating, a sandwich fit for the Gods. I didn’t even warm it up, the roast beef and horseradish sauce mingled together with the cheese and the bread held together perfectly. I ate the Montague the day after that for lunch and still, fantasticalness (yes, that is a word). Mustard sauce didn’t get lost in the bread and even the lettuce (Bib lettuce I believe) was great!
I have never had a sandwich so good outside of my home area like this! And while I did not have the soup or the potato salad, my Aunt did and she raved about the potato salad and loved the soup. She loved that you could browse the salads and desserts in the line going towards the register, which is nice if you are picky about what something looks like or how fresh something is. We both thought the (lettuce type) salads looked awesome as well.
Earl Of Sandwich, I implore you: please come to Philly, beyond our airport (or which you do have a stand and I have, more then once, thought about driving there just for another bite of your deliciousness). Philly will embrace you. You do it right, unlike other sandwich chains *coughsubwaycough* and make them look like fools.
My Weekend In Food
After a real grind of a week, I was really, really hungry. Seriously. Luckily, I had a few things going on where the food was awesome. So let’s get started. As usual, click on the pics to embiggen.
Saturday nite my cousin Julie turned 30, so we had a surprise party for her! She will continue to turn 30 for the near future, just like the rest of us!
Michele bought a delicious fruit tart thing from Wegmans. The crust was like creamy, vanilla butter. So good! I had to walk away from it because I wanted to eat the whole thing.
Sunday, I met up with my friend Cecilia and we went to my friend Mary Kate’s place Ida Mae’s, a breakfast/lunch place in Fishtown. I eat there alot and the food is really great. I always get the Open Faced Chicken Salad Melt:
It usually comes with thier homemade potato chips but I get extra pickles instead. Sooooo good! Cecilia got the Huevos Rancheros but with scrambled eggs. She was oddly quiet when eating, so I know she liked it!
After the brunch, we went to see her boyfriend Nathan’s play “A Crock Of Schnitzel” at the German American Society on Spring Garden St. It was a sweet old building, and the people there were super nice, but I have to say, the building is kinda creepy and I was wondering how much cash they funneled thru there during the war.
Anywho, afterwards we watched the Eagles game with her sister Julie and ordered from La Lupe, a Mexican place right around Pat’s and Geno’s (overhyped cheesesteak places in South Philly). In my neighborhood we have alot to eat but not much good Mexican, so I was kinda excited!
Julie got a Cubano. Check this thing out!
Julie told me that it is so big that she eats half of it for dinner and the other half for lunch the next day. If she looked away for more then minute, I might have taken a bite!
Cecilia got a trio of Tacos: a chicken, a chorizo and a pork. I have to say when she said that’s what she was getting, it didn’t sound like alot of food. Oh, I was wrong:
Finally, I ordered a grilled beef burrito. It was the size of a Buick. When eating something of this size, you have to use a claw hand, because if you put it down, it’ll fall apart. Fun fact: another use for the claw hand is a Wendy’s triple!
Inside was some great rice, tender but flavorful grilled beef and queso fresco. On top was homemade guac and some sour cream. It was the best burrito I have had since the burrito place closed on South St., many moons ago. I loved every sloppy bite of it, my only complaint is that I forgot to order hot sauce. But honestly, the homemade guacamole (delivered in a coffee cup) was so fresh and delicious (along with the homemade chips) it was not even an issue!
I have been working so much, I don’t really get to eat actual meals (12 hour days do that to ya) so it was great to sit down with the Watson girls and stuff my face with awesome Mexican food! I recommend this place, and I wish it was Saturday all over again!
An Ode, Of Sorts, To Sriracha
I’m sure you’ve probably seen this bottle before (usually without the ham hand holding it). People have all sorts of names for it: “fire sauce”, “rooster sauce” (courtesy of Matt), “crazy hot sauce” and the actual name “Sriracha”. While it used to just appear on tables in hipster eateries, southeast asian places and, well, that was it, it now appears anywhere good food appears.
Sriracha is a Thai chili sauce involving, but not limited to sun-ripened chilis and garlic ground into a paste. Or, as I call it: fantastic-ness.
Let’s back it up a second and we can talk about my relationship with Sriracha.
I am, and have always been, a fan of hot sauce. Wings? More hot sauce please! Chili? Make it hotter please! I used to use Sriracha all the time and then kind of forgot about it until I was at a bar one nite and saw it sitting in the collection of condiments. Forgetting how HOT this stuff is, I proceeded to cover my fries with the stuff, while proclaiming to the bartender how much I missed Sriracha and love it. The bartender looked at me like I just proclaimed myself “king of the ant people, Ma!”. She also started filling up a water glass for me.
One bite and I remembered exactly how hot this stuff is, but being a hard headed Polock, I was going to finish my meal because money does not grow on trees (as was screamed at me constantly as a kid). Hours later, when the firey heat in my fingers and mouth went away and I stopped all the eye watering, I was making plans on picking up a bottle to keep in the fridge.
I enjoy regular hot sauces, like Frank’s Red Hot (and the wing kind as well) as well as Crystal Hot Sauce and most other hot sauces. The problem I have is the absolute ridiculous abundance of salt that is in the recipes of these sauces. When I am done eating whatever I have just slathered the sauce all over, I need to drink a bathtub amount of water in order to not dry up like a slug drenched in, yes, salt. I hate that feeling of being dehydrated as much as the feeling of low blood sugar.
I also can’t really eat peppers anymore also because the seeds turn my body into a festival of terror. Ahem…moving on…..
This is where Sriracha really shines. I’m sure there must be some kind of salt in there, but not nearly as much as the above mentioned sauces. You only need a little bit and it really mixes with other condiments nicely (for example, my new favorite dip is sour cream and Sriracha. Mix and chill and it is delicious with crackers or whatever you’d like). Plus! No seeds!
I tend to put it on everything. Chicken? Dip it! Chili? Add some! Spaghetti Sauce? A few drops will perk it up! Put some in cocktail sauce. Mix some mayo with it and dip your fries in it! Making Buffalo Chicken dip? Meatloaf? Go for it! The list goes on and on. The heat goes on, but if used in small amounts, can bring a recipe alive! If you really like heat, use a lot and rock on my friend!
As you can see from that picture, my bottle is running really low. This really makes me nervous, but have no fear, I am on it! My local Shoprite now carries it, and so does any store with an international aisle. Go grab a bottle and keep it in the fridge and experiment. Your food doesn’t have to be on fire, like I like it, but it can come alive with a little bit of heat to make a boring meal more interesting.
Paesano’s
My friend Matt recently got a sweet new computer. I went over to take a look at it (it is sweet and…shiny) and, after much deciding we decided to go get some lunch (Johanna’a idea, good call!). Off to Paesano’s we went.
Paesano’s is a sandwich shop owned by the guys who own Modo Mio, an Italian place that everyone I know who has been there loves. I had never been there before and Matt described it as a closet that sells awesome food. I was in!
Paesano’s is, indeed, an extremely small place. A small sandwich shop like you might remember from when you were a kid. Old guys smoking Lucky’s would hang out and talk about Roosevelt and you could come in and buy a water ice in the middle of the summertime heat. Well, there is no water ice and there are no Lucky’s, but there is a pretty good menu. At least, what we had anyway.
Wading thru the hipsters, we decided on a Daddy Wad for me and a Paesano for him. The guy behind the counter doesn’t particularly speak very good english and I am half deaf so it was fun ordering, and once I ecplained to him I wanted mayo on my sandwich, all was well (it does not come with mayo, but I wanted it. Must. Have. Mayo.). The wait was not too bad, about 15 minutes, then we got our sandwiches of gold and escaped to Matt’s air conditioned living room to stuff our faces with sandwiches, cokes and Patton Oswalt on the Roku Box.
I got the Daddy Wad, which is a classic Italian Hoagie with sharp provolone, hot and sweet peppers, arugula, lettuce, tomato and onion. When you order hoagies, the lunchmeat is usually very thick cut and laid on thick. These guys cut the meat pretty thin so that it’s not like biting into a loaf of bologna. The roll is fresh but not too chewy and even the arugula works nicely, giving it a fresh bite and separating it from the Wawa special (altho I love that too!).
Here is an inside shot:
They also use cheap mayo, of which I am a great big fan. Capicola, soppresata, mortadella and mayo. Yeah, I’m a fan.
What I didn’t mention was that Matt and I traded halves to I got to try the Paesano.
The Paesano is a hoagie with Beef Brisket, Cheese (sometimes provolone, sometimes ricotta, I guess it depends on the day), horseradish mayo (which I want to put on everything), a fried egg and a roasted tomato. I haven’t had meat that juicy on a sandwich in forever. Check it out!
This thing is a heart clogger, but you’ll go out smiling! Fried eggs on things is a new fad (“it’s the good morning burger!”) but I am all for it. The egg gives it that little extra bit so that you don’t feel so bad eating this fantastic bit of juicy goodness. As much as I liked the Daddy Wad, I think I liked the Paesano better.
What I liked about this place was the reasonable rate you pay for these sandwiches ($7), which might not look giant but will be with you the rest of the day, trust me. The place is very tiny (it was so small I couldn’t really take a pic, it was crowded) but they move along at a decent pace. I’d hate to be standing outside in the winter, but you can call in and then pick up, which is cool.
Will I go back? Surely! Will the parking get seriously crappy once the giant Pathmark next door opens? Oh yes. Will that stop me? Nah. Once a fat kid, always a fat kid. Eat up!


































