I love a good “fully dressed” N’Awlins-style po’ boy, and have learned to approximate them in New York by going into a hero sandwich-specialty deli and asking for a Black Forest ham hero with Swiss or Muenster – heated through – with lettuce, onion, pickle, tomato, mustard, mayo, salt & pepper.
They usually make a mistake with a sandwich that complicated, but when they get it right…take it home, crack a cold beer, put on some Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, and it’s like you’re right there in the Crescent City.
Thank you, interesting article! When I was a teeny-bopper I did most of my kielbasa eating on the West Side, where the Polacks lived. The usual recipe was “cook kielbasa, put on roll, serve. Mustard optional.” The East Side was for the more exotic cuisines, although that’s where most of the soul food joints were.
I agree that the fries should be dumped off and eaten on the side. Lotsa Chicago hot dog joints put them on the sandwich too, for some reason.
Yeah, the best places in Chicago do (at least, I should say, my favorite places like Gene & Jude’s and Jim’s), but they’re not meant to be eaten with them on it. At least I’ve never seen anyone eat them with the fries on top.
To be honest, it was around 2007-2008 that I learned about the Cleveland Polish boys when I was going through town. I read about them on something like Roadfood.com or another one of those regional food websites and I’ve been craving them ever since.
Gray’s Papaya, the classic hot dog & fruit juice joint in Manhattan, does cole slaw hot dogs – which I think is indigenous to either Atlanta or Pittsburgh. They’re very good.
So you could approximate a Cleveland Polish Boy at home simply by adding some good BBQ sauce and cole slaw to grilled kielbasa on a roll? And eating it naked, to preserve your shirt front?
(Please excuse this tennis game between puly and me, folks! The Ukulele Lady asked for tofu with bok choy and shiitakes for dinner tonight, so I am FUCKING STARVING and everything sounds good to me now.)
I live in this neck of the woods outside of Cincinnati, I agree with the Hot Brown (although I personally don’t really like them).
Goetta is a different animal. It’s served on everything here, including pizza, but like you, I most associate it as a slab of meat product served alongside sloppy eggs and toast or something.
We have Coney dogs here too, slathered in Cincinnati chili, which IMO is the best use for the stuff, I’m not a fan of it being poured over spaghetti with beans and onions.
The funny thing about Cincinnati is that the majority of the chili parlors here are Greek owned or founded. So another sandwich that Cincy does REALLY well is the gyro. There’s a little place on the West side of Cincinnati called Sebastian’s that has a KILLER gyro. They’re an institution and have been there for decades, run by the same grumpy old man who’s quite similar to the Soup Nazi.
I live in the SF Bay area, and I can’t think of what our local sandwich would be. If we had one, maybe it would be Tri-tip on sourdough. Or perhaps a burrito.
I was going to say that–in essence–the “local sandwich” for L.A. (and California in general) is the burrito, in that it’s ubiquitous and organic to the region. Yeah, there’s a sandwich which supposedly was invented in L.A. (the “french dip”), but it’s not like everyone is going around eating those.
Really L.A. is more like a collection of sub-regions, so you can’t really say any one thing is “the” local sandwich: you have tortas in East L.A. (and other parts), banh mi in San Gabriel Valley, schwarma chicken sandwiches or falafal in Little Armenia and Glendale, etc. But even then what you have is people going half-way across town to a specific place which is know for a a specific sandwich, and which isn’t really “local” (i.e., Langers by MacArthur Park for pastrami–a place which is surrounded by pupuserias and taco stands.)
I don’t think the premise of this thread works for L.A.
I’m assuming, in the case of all of these Local Sandwiches, that you can stir up heated debate by asking a group of locals, “Where can you get the best ________?”
Other than the ubiquitous falafel, shawarma and shnitzel-in-a pita, the local Tel Aviv-area sandwich is probably the sabich, which consists of eggplant, hard boiled eggs, Israeli salad, amba, parsley, tahini sauce, and hummus stuffed inside a pita.
I think those are all fair game. There’s no reason why L.A. can’t have a bunch of local sandwiches based in different local cultures.
Yeah, definitely! I do like my five-way chili, but I like the coney dog even more.
I’ve always heard it described as “Macedonian,” but I don’t know if just solely Greek Macedonian, or a broader idea of Macedonian. It was definitely the Macedonian community that created Cincinnati’s version of chili.
See, I thought of The French Dip (developed there, but fairly ubiquitous) or the Chili Size (very regional, but open faced–though we’re counting Springfield’s horseshoes here) as the classic regional LA sandwiches.
yep. Downtown Detroit has American and Lafayette Coney Islands right next door to each other. there are people who religiously go to one and never go to the other.
I grew up outside of Boston, so I am gonna go with the clam roll. Don’t know how unique, but they are all over New England in the summer. Fried clams in top opening hot dog bun.
DAMN YOU!;)Green Acres in Simi Valley, CA makes/made the best tri-tip sandwich I’ve ever had. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve lived in SoCal and twenty since I’ve had a tri-tip sandwich. IIRC, Saturday and Sunday, during the summer, they would cook them out front from 11:00 to 3:00 and sell them for two bucks.
As for around here in Georgia, I’d say it’s the southern style chicken sandwich; fried chicken patty made from breast meat or an actual fried chicken breast, on a buttermilk biscuit or bun, with pickle slices. I prefer it with a bun but the original seems to be on a buttermilk biscuit.
