I had one once. I “liked it”, but really, tried to like it. The meat part was delicious…but that “weck” thing? I don’t know how typical the roll I had was, but the hard shell and salt flecks fairly mortified the flesh of my gums. I may as well have been chewing on a mixture of broken glass and Kellog’s ‘grape nuts’. I tasted a bit of my own blood.
It’s a bit harder than a standard roll, but it shouldn’t be that hard. I’ve never had one that was difficult to chew, or too dense, and certainly not chopping up your gums. Like the hardness of a Kaiser roll.
Actually, I found a contemporaneous account I made of my first visit to Charlie the Butcher’s in 2006, and my description was that it was a fairly soft and spongy roll (and that the beef sandwich was the best of any form I had ever tasted.)
Love, love, love beef on weck— second only to Italian beef as a sandwich involving beef. Buffalo food in general is outstanding.
My experience with Buffalo is only as a visitor, and not for nice reasons (my wife sees a medical specialist there a couple of times a year); but I’m always happy to go, the 700-mile round trip aside, and like it best when we can stay an extra day. Parks are great, food terrific, interesting architecture, friendly people, recreational opportunities (though it is pretty damn flat), some fun little museums. I could live there.
Buffalo to me has four essential things in or nearby:
Old Fort Niagara - being a fan of the French in the War for Empire its almost a shrine.
Martin’s Fantasy Island and Darian Lake amusement parks
Mighty Taco
It also has the advantage of being located within reason to everything from Ohio, to the Poconos, to Lake Placid. All in all one of the cool places where I have had to spend extended periods of time.
I didn’t forget about this thread. It sounds like the position is mine if I want it. It’s a lateral move, but it would be interesting helping start up a new area of the company (that might be telling to some people). Mostly it’s whether we want a new adventure and a new chapter in our lives. The winter part seems daunting, although we did spend a significant amount of time in Michigan. Just not sure we want to go back to that. It looks like we could get a decent house in a nice area compared to where we are now, and the Polish food seems worth it on its own.
So to sum up, we are so f’in undecided at this point, and I have till Monday to let them know. If I go, it’ll happen quick. I swear I will let the next person to post decide for me, although you would forever be responsible for whatever happens…
Thanks for all the feedback!
I disliked horseradish growing up and I can still take it or leave it, so never had horseradish on my beef on weck growing up in Fredonia. Last time I was in Buffalo I tried it with horseradish on the side so I could try it out at my leisure and it would be good if what you wanted was a horseradish delivery system much like chips are a salsa delivery system. I couldn’t put on little enough horseradish to allow me to taste the rest of the sandwich, which ruins the point of trying a regional delicacy.
Okay, the weird: Buffalo has a subway. A one-line system that only goes for a couple miles.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
See post #6, but I believe yours is the correct version.
CURSES! I scanned the thread and didn’t see that anyone made this home before I did.
For what it’s worth, I believe any number of Buffalos from 1 to 8 is a valid sentence.
Wegman’s is amazing. I live in San Diego but any time I’m on the east coast for any reason I make a point of stopping at Wegman’s (no, really)
I used to travel to Buffalo every couple months. I truly hated it between Nov - Feb but the rest of the year was cute and I kinda miss that I don’t have a reason to go back anymore.
More weirdness: Eternal Flame Falls. I’ve never been but if Wikipedia is to be believed, it is a tiny, naturally occurring, natural gas leak which you are allowed to relight if it goes out. It’s probably better for the enviornment that way than to have all the free methane in the atmosphere.
OK, I’ll be the deciding vote. You should take the job. Why not, right? Half the country sucks in the winter anyway, and Buffalo has a lot of cool things to offer. Enjoy the adventure!
You’re not supposed to eat it as served. They give you a bowl of dip (which is the juice from roasting the beef). You’re supposed to dip your sandwich in to this as you eat it. This softens up the kummelweck roll and dilutes the salt.
While looking up the correct spelling of kummelweck I found this article on the cuisine of upstate New York. They missed State Fair Chicken and Chicken French though.
I don’t know you, we’re out drinking, but there we go. I’ll put in for it. Everything could still fall through, but I guess we’re shuffling off to Buffalo.
Western New York Dopefest!
Cool! Good luck with the move!
House prices have gone up since I was there 5 or 6 years ago, here’s an 8 bedroom house built in 1855, 475K
I don’t recall any jus for dipping. I’m google searching images for Charlie the Butcher’s and looking at my images, and there is no beef dip in sight. I’ve been there about four times, and never remember them giving me any jus on the side. And, as I checked my contemporaneous description of the sandwich, the roll wasn’t hard. Perhaps other places do give you dip, and the rolls are harder there. I’ve been meaning to try Schwabl’s, which is also legendary in the region, but I’ve just fallen in love with Charlie, that I can’t cheat on him when I visit.