Eli’s Top 5 L.A. Sambones June 23, 2010
Posted by Eli in : Uncategorized , trackbackThe sandwich, the sammy, the sambone is an art. Crafting the perfect sandwich requires balancing the right ingredients, bread, temperature and sauce to engineer a finished product worthy of human consumption and blogger photography. L.A. has legit awesome sandwiches found all over town. Here now, are my 4 current favorite restaurant sandwiches in LA. (and my go-to lazy sandwich when I’m at work and need to stretch $10 into 2 meals…) This list is not all inclusive and isn’t scientific. I wrote it mostly because I’m hungry and at my desk. I just really am digging these sandwiches at the present time. Let us know what your go-to sandwich spot is, what you order and why in the comments section.
1. Gjelina’s Turkey Prosciutto with Pesto Aioli Arugula and Avocado. This sandwich is so hip it got an ironic tattoo of a fixed gear bike on its calf.
2. Mendocino Farms Kurobuta Pork Belly Banh Mi with pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, cucumbers, jalapenos, chili aioli on panini grilled ciabatta. It’s a 15 min drive in traffic from my work to MF’s and it’s in a strip mall and it’s completely worth it without even blinking.
3. Huckleberry house made brisket on Ciabatta bread. Eating here makes me feel like I’m in a movie where people live in California. I mean I live in California already. yes, i get that. But not IN a movie IN california. Go there and you will understand what I’m saying.
4. Canter’s Deli- The Fresser. Corned Beef and Pastrami piled sky high. I order it with 2 sides of 1000 island and eat til I’m sick. I’ve eaten this 10 times wasted and 5 times sober. Honestly, it’s still pretty damn good sober but the $15 price tag stings less when I’m smashed-house and can food coma nap on the ride home.
5. Eli’s sambone of the week – Rotisserie chicken from Ralph’s stuffed into a La Brea Bakery sourdough baguette dipped into packaged roasted red pepper hummus. I’ve never pretended to be classy or denied the fact that I buy chicken kept under heat lamps stored in plastic bags.
For more tasty LA Sam’s check out this list from grubstreet. 26 of LA’s top sam-bam-thank you maams : http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2010/05/the_los_angeles_sandwich_regis.html#
Photo from Midtown Lunch's article on Mendocino Farms (via google img search)
Comments»
many cheeses on any kind of bread with lettuce and tomato and mustard. plain yellow mustard.
My fave sambone is the Madras Tempeh Wrap at M Café. It’s like a crushed velvet suit on a cold winter day.
Wow number one sound amazing! I want that sandwich right now!
mendocino’s banh mi is delicious! and the canter’s pastrami is a classic.. but, here are some of my OTHER favs:
godmother @ bay cities
salami sandwich @ larchmont village wine & spirits
french dip @ philippe the original
bobbie @ capriotti’s
I don’t think you can stress the bread enough, in what can make or break a great sammy.
Bay Cities makes a mean loaf of bread for any sandbone, but I refute the Godmother from Bay Cities as being a top sandwich. There is too much going on. The sandwich is like attending a meeting at the UN without any translators. Over it.
All I can think about right now is a Turkey Club. That is the Zen of sandwiches. Nothing is more pure, balanced, and consistent.
More lists!
WillTravel4Food –
Agreed! Bread is king.
The finest cuts of meat are easily destroyed by slapping it between two slices of WonderBread. But a well baked Boule with packaged (water added) turkey might get me through a cold winter if the mustard is right.
The Godmother is incredibly hyped up and yes BC is over-rated. While I find the Gmotha delicious, I often think Bay Cities baguettes are too hard which makes biting them difficult and then launches all the ingredients shooting out the back end at rapid speed (hopefully avoiding hitting other diners in the face).
Turkey+bacon is delicious and delivers consistently but I’ve been red hot on Proscuitto+basil+heirloom tomato+balsamic.
Ask and ye shall recieve…more lists to come