Plus there’s the whole “not getting soggy” aspect of Subway.
I sometimes eat Subway at work for lunch on days I don’t pack my own. This is because sometimes I likes me a nice tuna sandwich or possibly a meatball sub. Now, I could make one at home and it would be cheaper for sure. However, a tuna sandwich that’s been knocking around in my purse for a minimum of 6 hours before I get to eat it tends toward the soggy, nasty mess end of the sandwich spectrum. Plus the fact that my purse isn’t refrigerated, and any food left in the refrigerators at my office is significantly unlikely to still be there at my lunchtime. I prefer my sandwiches made with perishable items like mayo to be refrigerated if they’re going to be longer than a couple of hours before eating.
Even a sandwich with tomatos (and I love tomatos on a sandwich) is likely to get at least a little soggy between 7am and 1pm, particularly if it gets knocked into a book or a bottle of water or a piece of fruit in my purse a few times.
A sandwich, well crafted by a master sandwich maker, is unlike anything the average person can make in his own kitchen. there are those who take great care to guarantee the freshness of ingredients, who work closely with local hunters to guarantee the choices and best marbled cuts of meats, and who’s dedication to bread texture, flavor and color is integrated thoughtfully into gastonomical craftsmanship to produce a lunch fit for gods, but affordable to mortals. You do not find such artisans at Subway. The best known example is a man who resided for a time on the planet, Lamuella.
Actually, about every other month or so I’ll drop by the deli and get about a half pound each of ham, turkey, havarti & provolone. I keep salad veggies and several kinds of mustard on hand anyway–dijon, cheap yellow, honey mustard, sweethot. I get my fix on sammiches for a few days at home or at lunch at work and I’m good to go. So yeah, a little planning–like5 minutes at the grocery store which I’ve got to visit anyway; and alittle preperation time–like 5 minutes in the kitchen as opposed to an hour or more for spaghetti or chili or chicken cordon bleu or roasted game hen, or jell-o (can’t get the hang of making jell-o).
I go there because it’s cheap ($2.50 a sandwich? that’s the cheapest fast-food lunch around), vaguely nutritious and easy to get vegetarian food from. It’s the only fast food that serves something recognizable as real food. It’s not the sort of place one goes out to on purpose- nobody gets excited about the thought of going to Subway. But when I need food fast and don’t want to force down some hot, gross, ultra-ultra processed fast food, it works.
I don’t think it’s very good- the bread tastes like cardboard to me. But when I was a broke student pressed for time and living off carbs (ramen, rice, etc.) the veggies really did hit the spot. What other fast food place gives you real genuine vegetables?
In its latest smart decision, Subway has introduced avocado to its ingredient repertoire. Consumers can expect to pay an additional $0.50 to $1.00 to add the divine fruit onto a respective 6-inch/12-inch sandwich, but recent polls show they will be unlikely to regret it.
In related news, Subway is also offering a creamy garlic butter spread, guaranteed to bring gustatory goodness to even the most discretionary taste buds.
I am blessed to live in Chicago where we have some incredible Italian Delis. I would not eat at Subway simply because for less money I can get a Will Special as shown here, or my favorite, the Italian sub with marinated eggplant from Bari’s (see picture down the page here)
Disclaimer, I am not MikeG on that site, I am Octarine. Our last names differ by only two letters in the middle and when we meet, I am invariably the “other” MikeG. It’s fine, he is a far better writer than I am so the name is in good hands:)
It is the Ineffable will of the Almighty Bob that he gives unto us His once-begotten Sandwich Maker to make our Sandwiches, it is not our place to wonder why, just enjoy…
That’s it. Subway is just passable compared to a good deli sandwich. I’ve tried to replicate them at home and it never tastes as good. I think part of it is the finely shredded lettuce, not something I can ever copy. Plus the place near me has quotas on how many pieces of cheese or meat they put on their standard sandwich and a large cheese grinder/hoagie/sub gets TWELVE full size pieces of Swiss. drool They get the mayo, oil and vinegar just right too.
Not only are subway sandwiches expensive. Their cold cuts and vegetables suck. It’s all lesser quality than any ingredients you could purchase in a market–Mass Marketing/Lowest Common Denominator food.
Their subs are misconceptions of Grinders/Hoagies/Sub sandwiches. I’ve had better Subs at podunk, Midwest, Mom and Pop Pizza Places of better quality and cheaper.
I eat at Subway nearly every day. It’s the best combo of healthy/cheap fast food I can think of. I just get the sub for about $3.30. For chips & a drink, at the grocery store I buy one .99 cent bag of chips and one .99 2-liter soda and that lasts me the whole week.
I don’t know about your kitchen, but mine doesn’t contain 4 different types of fresh-baked bread, ham, turkey, roast beef, salami, bologna, chicken breast, tuna, pepperoni, steak, lettuce, tomato, spinach, green peppers, onions, olives, cucumbers, and I could go on.
I suppose if you ate the same sub every day you could do better by making your own, but if you want variety Subway has kept me happy for years.
I sound like a commercial…but still I don’t know of a better healthy fast-food deal.
Oh, and another thing, I like the fact that you can actually SEE your sub being made right in front of you. Makes me feel a little better about cleanliness. It’s also a pretty good sign to see the employees eating the food.
I’m not crazy about Subway-I find them more expensive that independent shops, and they seem to use lower-quality coldcuts than many of the independents. however, they are everywhere…and are at least clean. That said, there is nothing difficult about making a good sanwich at home-you just need the ingredients. Anybody know much about the Subway franchise? i heard the guy who founded it got in all kinds of hot water-his franchisees were suing him over contractural issues.
[nitpick]It’s been running substantially longer than that. I remember buying a lot of them when I was working last summer (San Jose, the one way up First Street), so it’s been almost a year at least. It may wind up a permanent promo, like the sticker cards they used to have.[/nitpick]
Do parenthetical toppings taste any differfent than their al fresco counterparts?
Um, right, anyway, I’m not a big Subway fan myself. I seem to recall they used to be better than they are now. Just the same here in Canada we’ve had Mr. Sub for a great deal longer than Subway so Subway was just another chain store to us. Mind you, Subway’s stuff is certainly much fresher and they have tastier subs overall.
It’s definitely all about convenience. Subway exists precisely because people like me (and most here) just can’t be arsed to go out, buy all of the fixings for the particular sub you’re presently in the mood for, cut up the toppings, slather on the condiments, slap on the meat and then deal with wrapping the leftovers and storing them for the next time you want one, which may not be within your current batch of ingredients’ lifetime. At least with Subway there’s no waste other than what you don’t eat at this one sitting, and the mess is someone else’s problem.
Creamy garlic spread and proper shredded mozzarella cheese (as opposed to that processed stuff they refer to only as “white.”) Makes a mighty, mighty fine pizza sub on parmesan-oregano bread.
Just in case the point is too subtle for this thread: it’s about convenience.
There’s no reason you couldn’t churn your own butter, either. It’s cheaper, it takes no skill to speak of, and it tastes better. But most people would rather pay the $6 a pound for butter, rather than spend $2 on cream and 15 minutes on churning.
