update, september 2015: mile end's sandwiches now appear to be slipshod execution and heartbreak. look elsewhere for sandwich perfection.
the mile end sandwich shop on bond street presented this, the best and nearly the most expensive chicken salad sandwich i've ever had: a modest quantity of light-mayo white meat chicken salad, fresh dilled cucumber slices, pickled and fresh red peppers, and gribenes, on thick challah toasted only on the inside faces. normally, the crunch in a chicken salad sandwich comes from little pieces of celery in the salad. here, pillowy softness from the bread, crunch from the cucumbers and gribenes. cool salad, warm gribenes. a textural marvel demonstrating, again, that the quality of a sandwich lies in an architecture of contrast and an awareness of how it unfolds through time.
Thank you for taking the time to link to the definition of Gribenes, I can appreciate the additional texture they might add. I was, however, slightly concerned that only the inside of the bread was toasted. While this may give the sandwich a good platform to prevent sogginess, it feels mushy in hand and less substantial. #kaizen.
ReplyDeletei think the inside-face toasting is intentional. one of the problems to solve when toasting sandwich bread is: how to add crunch without making the outside of the bread so firm that the crumb compresses as you bite in. toasting just the inside solves this problem, especially if the bread is a fairly substantial challah-type. if the bread in your sandwich is mushy untoasted, it is not the right kind of bread. also, substantial is not always the right quality for a sandwich. sometimes, austerity is a good thing.
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