Was hungry after wasting time on the web. It was late enough my favourite restaurants were closed. I decided to grab a sub for dinner. “Mr. Sub” gets mediocre reviews from American websites, but I like several of their sandwiches, there is nostalgia value for me, they are relatively inexpensive, and I don’t know if the American one is the same as the Canadian stores founded in Toronto in 1968 anyway.
In line, was discussing options with the dude behind me. He felt meatball with extra sauce was the wisest choice, saying it reheated well, didn’t get soggy and was as good as eating it fresh.
This surprised me, since I would have thought a saucy meatball sub would be kind of nasty if reheated. I’m not sure I’ve ever had leftovers to test that theory, though. And one thing about Mr.Sub is their cheese slices are huge and placed on both pieces of bread, so maybe they are extra resilient. But extra sauce?
“You’ve got to get it in the fridge right away,” he added. Saying many people were surprised when he said this, but it was true, and cold Mr. Sub marinara apparently congeals really quickly.
I was talking to a woman in line at Subway days before, who did not want her sub toasted, telling me after I made a joke that it reheated better if it wasn’t. (The Subway person was about to toast her sandwich, though she said she didn’t want it toasted. She started getting upset and yelling she didn’t want it toasted. I made a joke about yelling “no” and pretending to leap over the counter in slow motion). I guess a lot of people reheat subs, since sandwiches are awesome and a big one is not much pricier than a smaller one.
Of course fries, even with the miracle of air fryers, aren’t quite as good as fresh. Got me thinking what the most durable sandwich was, if eating it tomorrow was the main goal. The best fast food? (apart maybe from fried chicken which seems an obvious contender and champion; no doubt pizza has its fans).
Great question - Even though I have pretty much eschewed fast food myself, it is interesting to consider, not to mention virtuous in terms of eating on a budget and avoiding food waste.
The one fast-food-like item I do end up taking home from restaurants on a fairly regular basis is French fries. I should probably just throw them out, but I am pretty fanatical about limiting food waste, so I tend to bring them home and sauté them with scrambled eggs for breakfast, or chop them and throw them into a stew, or reheat them in the microwave covered with cheese, or something.
I don’t think I’ve ever kept fast food to eat the next day since a very traumatic experience as a child. I got a McDonald’s milk shake, and didn’t finish it, so i put it in the fridge to finish the next day. Over night, the aqueous layer separated from the lipid layer. And the resulting mess looked really disgusting. So much so that i felt ill about having eaten the rest of it the day before.
So maybe that’s the worst fast food to eat the next day.
I’d believe that a meatball sub would be okay, because the sauce would protect the meatball from developing that “leftover” flavor. Cold cuts are usually best the day they are sliced. Preserved meat, like ham, corned beef, and deli turkey (well, it certainly tastes pickled) keep a little better than “fresher” meats.
Oh, but yeah, pizza wins. Leftover pizza is pretty decent, and the usual amount to buy is more than most adults want to eat in one meal. If that counts as fast food, it had my vote.
The meatball sub sauce would prevent leftover taste but I would have thought it would ensoggify the bun. Dude says no. And dudes are rarely wrong, unless they get high and start sticking candles into pie.
I mistook the title. I thought this was about food to eat after the huge bender (The Next Day).
Mexican food, from the little tiny joint on the corner. My buddy Gabe went to Menudo, but I could only manage the Carne Asada Burrito, Red, Wet. Lots of water.
From my (somewhat limited) experience, the morning after when reeling from too much drink before, nothing is better than going out with a group for the big greasy fried breakfast.
(Unless in Montreal, where the big greasy smoked meat deli is still better.)
You got that right. Back when I lived in Toronto, “Pizza Pizza” was who you called after a night’s boozing. Eat half that night (morning?), and the next day, after a half-minute in the microwave, you’ve got lunch.
We often get one of the burger chain drive-thru on a Friday night. Our closet is 15 minutes away and sometimes its 30-40 minutes before we sit down to eat so a lot of the times the fries are already luke warm so they get picked at byt nobody finishes them. I save them for the next day and as mentioned above repurpose them for lunch using whatever else is sitting around. I love loaded fries and they are quick to heat in the oven.
Obviously the definition of “fast food” is kinda elastic. And apparently kinda angst-inducing for some folks upthread at 1am eastern.
To me, fried chicken is best, pizza next, and cold subs third.
Things like meatball subs are good, although with the sauce soaking in it’s probably going to be a knife & fork meal the second time. Which is fine w me. The ingredient list in spaghetti and in an Italian sandwich roll are almost indistinguishable and nobody objects to eating meatballs and marinara on spaghetti with a fork. So why not meatballs and marinara with marinara-soaked bread? You’re at home and have all the appropriate tools to hand.
Burgers and similar are inedible once cooled. As @CairoCarol so wisely said, yesterday’s FFs are great diced up into scrambled eggs (sorta little mini tater tots) the next day. IMO they are otherwise suitable only to feed a trash can or a small child.
Sacrilege! I love our dear friends to the North with their much more civilized culture. But sometimes I think of aspects of their cuisine and think Philistia would be a better name for the place than Canada. I suppose it’s the residual Brit heritage, they being a culture that could and did ruin meat and potatoes.
CLOP (Cold Left Over Pizza) must be eaten cold. It’s right there in the name for gosh sakes! Microwaving it, and especially for a mere 30 seconds to slightly-less-cold-than-fridge temp would be gross.
If you must eat it warm, make it hot: put a non-stick pan on the stove, set the slice in it, and cook until the cheese is once again almost melty and the bread is hot. Not quite as good as new, but close. Cleanup is less horrific than it at first appears. Trust me.
