I’d call that a jaffle iron, and yeah that takes me back. These days I make mine in a non-ribbed floating-hinged sandwich press. Focaccia and pasta-dura rolls work well, but nothing beats pide (Turkish bread).
Ah, they’re Dutch “Tosties”.
They exist since time immemorial. The French call it “Croque Monsieur”. It’s usually made with ham and cheese. And this is new for you?
I’ve been eating them for the last 8 or 9 years (yes, nonstop :rolleyes: 
) but I have seen them becoming more common in the last 2 or 3.
The Pontiac Cafe in Wicker Park makes them very well.
No, but the global conglomerate has ensured that every American household has purchased a panini pressing machine by using a clever marketing campaign involving George Foreman.
I think the OP isn’t debating the existence of said sandwiches - which indeed have been around forever. He’s wondering why they’re everywhere all of the sudden… like Spinach and Artichoke Dip. It seems like that dip was available in one or two restaurants and now every single place that has an “appetizers” section on the menu sells it. What gives?
Thanks Rex. I just figured that nobody here knows the real answer. But it’s still nice to have many contributors to your thread even if the actual question isn’t answered.
I should qualify this response by saying that there are people who have disagreed with my premise (that all of a sudden, panini is everywhere). It’s certainly possible that I just now noticed something that was always everywhere. And of course, my observation space is limited to Manhattan (mostly midtown). So, is there anyone who lives or works in Manhattan who can confirm what I’m saying?
I think that was prompted by the hijack of “what the heck is a panini?”
These things seem to go in waves. I have a good friend from high school who’s a chef. She comes to NYC each year for the fancy foods fair at Javits (the convention center) and got me a ticket last year*. Interesting experience: everyone sees the latest developments in the food industry, which means that suddenly the whole world’s buying panini machines, or jalapeno jellies, or oddly flavored chocolates. Plus, with so many celebrity chefs around, the whole country hears about the ingredients and recipes they’re using that much faster.
But in truth, I think the only thing that’s changed is the speed of the cycle. Go back a few decades and there were crazes for Baked Alaska (courtesy the longrunning, and now long-defunct, Delmonico’s restaurant here in NYC), “Polynesian” cuisine (Trader Vic’s in California), Waldorf salad, etc…
*That required giving me, erm, unusual credentials, because supposedly the fair is only open to people in the food industry. And this year, they raised the ticket price from $20 to $35 to get rid of people who did stuff like I did. In my case, it’s an effective deterrent.
With a name like ‘Mountain Pie’, I don’t think it would have been profitable at all.
The name is stupid. Like it was said, panini means nothing more than “sandwich” in Italian. It doesn’t mean a toasted sandwich at all. I tested this when I first heard about “panini” and “panini makers” here and was worried that I mistaken about what a panino is. I called one of my Italian friends in Florence and faux-casually told him I was buying a “panini maker”.
“A ‘panini maker’? What’s that?”
“It’s a machine that makes panini”.
“…huh!? You don’t need a machine to make panini; just throw some stuff on bread and put it together!”
I explained that these were specifically toasted and pressed sandwiches and he said, “Oh. I think I’ve seen those before”.
What was the point of just throwing any old “Euro” name on it? They should just call them pressed sandwiches and stop being so pretentious and condenscending.
Well after basic food and shelter are taken care of every thing else is just style. Pressed sandwiches man who would spend extra fro pressed sandwiches now panini that has style.