Friday Fun: How do make your favorite sandwich? 🥪♡

[#1]

hi everyone! 

So glad to take this week's Friday Fun! What other fun could I bring today but to talk about food (I may or not be hungry at the moment). I wanted to ask the community how you create or order your go-to sandwiches? What are your favorite places to order one?

Any great sandwich needs a strong foundation- the bread! My favorite bread is sourdough. The slices are big and its so crunchy when baked. 🥖🥯🥐🫓🍞



Then it's my favorite thing in the entire word: cheese! 🧀 Oh how I love cheese! Manchego, gouda, provolone, swiss- you name it, and I'll eat it. But a good cheese must be paired with the perfect meat! I love proscuitto. Sometimes I will use a mortadella, ham, or spicy chicken. 



And lettuce add our favorite vegetables!😆  I'm a simple gal that loves shredded lettuce, sliced roma tomatoes, and sometimes banana peppers when I'm feeling frisky. 



Let me know how you'd create your perfect sandwich below! And feel free to include your sides and drink! I love to add potato chips in my sandwich (is that super American?)

[Amanda Barber]

Yum, reading this at lunch time has me drooling over here! 🤤 

Lately, I've really been loving tuna melts on sourdough. Also a huge fan of all cheeses - I am from Wisconsin, after all! As a kid, I frequently had American cheese and Miracle Whip on white bread - can't imagine eating that now, but was just reminded of it as we tried to find a sandwich our 8 year old would eat earlier this week. Kids are so goofy! 

[Robert Wen_Cprime_]

My favorite breakfast sandwich (that I eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner!)

Toast 2 slices of bread

While that's going, crack an egg on a frying pan

Flip the egg

When ready to flip a second time, add turkey, bacon, and cheese.

Assemble and eat!

[Summer Hogan]

My favorite sandwich is the Hook and Ladder from Firehouse Subs. They steam the meat and cheese together and it is so gooey and good! It has Smoked turkey breast, honey ham, and melted Monterey Jack. They have a fully involved version, but I only like it with mayo, lettuce, and onion. I also love the kosher dill pickle they give you on the side! I love to pair this with their hot chicken noodle soup! YUM! 

[Dave Mathijs]

My favorite sandwich is a Belgian classic, called the "Smos" (or "Club") with mayonaise:

[John Funk]

Now I am hungry for sure seeing all of these sandwiches! I guess my sandwich kind of depends on my mood. I general I prefer hot sandwiches like a panini or otherwise nicely melted. A lot like Summer's Hook and Ladder. But as a rule - there needs to be cheese! Cheddar, Monterey Jack, Provolone, Swiss, you name it. And then meat - roast beef, turkey, ham - anything smoked is good. 

Then Mayo, lettuce, pickle, maybe a thin slice of tomato. Maybe a little mustard. 

[Saralie S.]

Haha! You all provided me sandwich recipes to steal! hehehhe. @John Funk I prefer hot sandwiches too! My teeth are sensitive and sometimes "cold subs" are too cold! 

[Dan Breyen]

Nobody can make a sandwich as good as Shaggy!  Dagwood would be a close second.  

Thanks to Alton Brown he has been touting using 'Duke's' Mayonaisse for years.  Now if you know anything about Duke's, it's not a national brand and made in Georgia.  So that means, if you're like me, and live in the Midwest, you need to get it shipped to you.  I could be wrong, but if your sandwich needs mayo, try using Duke's.  I can taste the difference between that national brand that starts with 7734 upside down on your calculator!  

[Kristin Lyons]

Not my favorite sandwich but one I typically have to make myself if I'm craving it - a pb&j.  Start by toasting the bread - this is important!  Also, typically I use Dave's Killer Bread but with PB&J I'll usually want a Wonderbread.  Then after toasting, you add the Peanut Butter to one side and then grape jelly on top of the peanut butter (not on the other piece of toast).  Then add the other piece of toasted bread.  Yum!

[Amanda Barber]

@Kristin Lyons - There's an amazing local PB&J restaurant here in the Milwaukee, WI, area called the PB&J Deli. They always have such amazing ideas for elevated PB&J. In case you need some ideas for your own - https://thepbjdeli.com/ :)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm very aligned with @John Funk on this one - my favourite sandwich is "what I feel like today", but it's always going to involve cheese.  (I don't eat meat, so my main protein option in sandwiches is cheese.  But it goes in sandwiches because I like cheese, not because I need to balance my diet)

When I make sandwiches, I'll make them randomly - whatever is in the fridge and cupboards that might work together and I feel like eating today.

When I buy them (I tend to eat sandwiches for lunch when I'm working - pick one up on the walk to work), I quite like M&S's simple cheese and onion, or cheese and pickle, but to get to our new office, I'm going to have to walk past a "build your own" shop (much like subway), who look to have a load more options.

I also rather like the toasted sandwiches our local Lounge does - they change their menus every six months, but they've currently got a simple mozzarella, tomato and pesto toastie and it's lovely.

I do eat what I suspect are unusual sandwiches too.  Brie and cranberry can be found in shops sometimes, but, cheddar and capers, leerdammer with a smidgin of marmite, smoked cheese with chilli and pickles, hummous and nuts, etc.  And, of course, both chip butties and crisp sandwiches work well for me.   

But probably one most don't know of - I quite like a toast sandwich sometimes.

[Jimmy Seddon]

I LOVE this topic @Saralie S.!

However, I don't eat sandwiches too often.  I have celiac, which means wheat does terrible things to my insides and my wife and I have struggled to find really good Gluten Free bread that doesn't cost a fortune.

So, when I do make sandwiches I usually fall back on my favorite which is a "loaded" grilled cheese.

For this, I use Gluten Free bread (obviously) and I like to get a block of havarti cheese that I will slice.  I make sure to make enough slices to cover both bread insides and I add thin sliced black forest ham in the middle.

Grilled to a golden brown with a pickle spear or two on the side!

[Kristin Lyons]

@Amanda BarberThat sounds amazing!

[Kathy Hart]

Every week when I go to get my allergy shots I time it to go at lunch so I can eat at the Scholtzsky's which is near there. 

For a while I was getting the Tuscan Turkey. The sauce on there was so good, but they don't serve it anymore. Now is get the Fiesta Chicken, another saucy sandwich. 

But really you can't beat the Original for taste and consistency. Love the bread and everything about it. 

[Esther Strom]

@Jimmy Seddon and I have almost the same favorite sandwich 😄

Mine is King's Hawaiian bread (the big round loaf, not the ones shaped like normal sandwich bread), a ton of havarti, and paper-thin sliced raw onion in the middle. And cooked in a pan in butter, of course - I can't get behind people who make their cheese sandwiches under a broiler or in a toaster oven. That's an infrequent treat for me.

I don't eat much meat, so my standard lunch sandwich that I have a few times a week is a nice squishy whole-wheat or multigrain bread with the traditional lettuce/tomato/mayo, but also sliced cucumbers, pickles (all the pickles!), sweet banana peppers, bell peppers, maybe some onion, and dijon mustard. And absolutely always with one or more dill pickles on the side. I should own stock in a pickle company!

[Esther Strom]

@Kathy Hart I'm so jealous! Way back when (I'm talking pre-2000) there used to be Schlotzky's all over downtown Chicago, and that was my go-to lunch several days a week. They've since all shut down; there's only one left in all of Illinois, out in the deep dark suburbs.

I don't know what it was about that little round sandwich, but I still miss them!

[Darryl Lee]

OMG @Kathy Hart YES Schlotzky's. I discovered it the summer I spent working in San Antonio. I must've eaten there a few times a week as well.

@Esther Strom pretty sure "what it was" was all the grease in the bread. God I love that bread. :-}

So then, although it didn't always agree with my stomach later in the day, I regularly got The Original:

ham | salami | 3 cheeses | olives | lettuce | onion | tomato | mustard | signature sauce | sourdough bun

No onions for me though, thanks!

Locally I've gotta say my favorite is Ike's Sandwiches which is known for their freshly baked Dutch Crunch rolls, and huge menu of sandwiches. I love pastrami (more on that in a bit), so 91. Paul Reubens is great. But some of the best sandwiches are the "secret" or "local" items that are actually available at any shops in his ever growing empire, if they have the ingredients.

Recently I got 87. Legend of Zelda - All-beef meatballs, marinara, fried zucchini. So delicious. Sadly I can't find a photo.

Another longtime favorite is:

142. Pat Tillman 
Roast Beef, Mozzarella Sticks, Mushrooms. Amazing.

But I've also tried and enjoyed:

30. BACKSTABBER
HALAL CHICKEN, CREAMY CAESAR, MARINATED ARTICHOKE HEARTS, PROVOLONE.

OH OH, and I almost forgot, this veggie sandwich is AMAZING:

71. Steve Jobs 
Breaded Eggplant, Pesto, Ranch, Provolone

OK, my post is gonna time out, so I should probably wrap this up. But hey, it looks like there's a few Ike's locations in Las Vegas, including at Fashion Show, a few blocks from The Venetian! So I guess if you get tired of the free food and drinks at Team 23, you could check out Ike's for yourself!

Here's a fun article about the origins of Ike's.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/04-2021-Ikes-Sandwiches-San-Francisco-Shehadeh-16133675.php

As always, it was my brother, a real foodie, who knew about him from his original shop, and clued me in on how to order ahead, because they used to bake each roll for each sandwich TO ORDER, which certainly made wait times crazy.

[Darryl Lee]

Oh and now that I lived in San Jose for over 20 years, I guess I can claim to be a "local", and that means I have to rep "local" chain Togos (just found something about the original being from Michigan, but San Jose's is distinctly different).

I think Togos was one of the first places where had nice steaming hot (AND HUGE PORTION) #9 Hot Pastrami on probably a sourdough roll (hey, hey, I'm California-born and bred - we can't all have a Katz Deli experience).

These days I'm pretty loyal to Ike's, but a new Togos opened up nearby us so I should probably visit for old times' sake. On the occasions when I've visited I've been impressed with how consistent the food has been (at least in my memory) with how I remember it from over 20 years ago, when I probably had it nearly once a week.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

But, as my cat says.  Sammich

[Brant Schroeder]

I really like warm sandwiches.  We have a little place not to far from where I live that does grilled cheese sandwiches (don't know if you can really call them that)  and they are really good.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Oh, and my wife is rather partial to fishfinger sandwiches to add another one to the list!

[Darryl Lee]

I'm sure this wasn't what prompted @Saralie S. to post this topic, but it was funny to hear about this story on my favorite weekly news quiz show, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!

• Have deli sandwiches destroyed the American diet? Healthier alternatives and swaps 

[Esther Strom]

@Darryl Lee if deli sandwiches include fried mozzarella sticks, yes, I can see how they might destroy the American diet!

[Saralie S.]

@Darryl Lee Just pure hunger LOL! Thank you for the reads! 

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

My favourite one is "caprese" sandwich : Parma ham, tomato, mozzarella and basil 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

@Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_ for those of us who eschew meat, it still works - tomato, mozzarella and basil is always a win.  We don't need a replacement for the ham

I am less sure about the vegans who would need to lose or replace the mozzarella as well, I shall ask my friends.