In our new location, I have access to some of the cheapest (and highest quality) meats, breads, and vegetables, which can only mean one thing… I am on a sandwich-making TEAR, my friends! Whether you believe that the sandwich was invented by the Earl of Sandwich or Rabbi Hillel, there is no finer pleasure in life than the joy that comes from architecting a perfectly balanced sandwich, then eating it. This week, my current top two favorites are on the lunch menu every day…

SALAMI & PROVOLONE

My version of this classic combo was inspired by a great (if pricey) sandwich at Ann Arbor’s Produce Station. The key here is some extra crusty bread, with very thin slices of a good quality salami (I’m currently going with Genoa via R. Hirt Jr) and a good salty provolone.

Mix a few teaspoons of olive oil with a few teaspoons of balsamic vinegar.
Grab 5 or 6 whole fresh basil leaves and dunk them in the oil & vinegar mix. If you have some salad greens or whatever, you can dip those in too, but it’s totally optional - this is not a goddamn lettuce sandwich. Slice a day-old baguette in half, then drop the basil in and spoon the rest of the oil & vinegar mix onto the bread. Slice up that salami so thin that you can see through it (in a salami-colored way), and cover the bottom of the baguette with said slices. Slice up the provelone almost as thin, and toss it on.

BÁNH MÌ (Vietnamese Sandwiches)

I’ve heard about these forever, but only tried one last week when we discovered a stretch of Vietnamese businesses on John R. near 13 mile. This sandwich is hard to get wrong, and I’d imagine that it would work with a variety of delicious ingredients, but I went with pork tenderloin (why? because it rules). My only problem with this recipe is that the sandwiches are so cheap (TWO DOLLARS) it’s almost a waste of money to make them yourself - but that never stopped me before.

Grab a bunch of ridiculously cheap mini-baguettes from your local Vietnamese grocery store. If you don’t have a Vietnamese grocery store, you are shit out of luck, my friend - these delicious little loaves are a lot like baguettes, but different in that they use some amount of rice flour in the mix, which makes for a less dense, crumblier bread, and it’s goddamn key to this dish.

Take one pork tenderloin, and fix it however you want - I marinated it in a mix of soy sauce, sugar, vietnamese chili garlic sauce and 5-spice, then did a pan brown-and-braise, but grilling or roasting would be great also. I think that pork tastes way better the next day, so toss that in the fridge when you’re done.

Slice up some carrots, cucumbers, and daikon radishes (if you can find them) - bell peppers would also be good - into matchsticks and marinate for 2-10 hours in a solution of rice vinegar, sugar, water, and (important) a bit of sriracha hot sauce. the liquid should be clear but orangish, and taste hot & sweet. We’re making tiny pickles here!

The next day, slice one of those beautiful tiny loaves in half, and toss it in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes, so it gets all toasty. Smear the inside with a bit of mayonnaise (if you have some Vietnamese fish sauce, mix a few dashes in with the mayo before you get to smearing - ain’t nothing better than some fish mayo!).

Slice your tenderloin thin-like, and feel free to sprinkle a little salt & pepper on them. Toss these slices on the bread. On top of the meat, layer some of your mini-pickles - feel free to include as much or as little of the sweet/hot vinegar sauce as you want. Slice off some very thin cross-sections of a Jalapeno, and put those on top with a good handful of cilantro (stems are fine). Take it all in for a minute, then devour.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 at 6:48 am and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.