2006/09/17
I have recently developed a new favorite lunch combination; the legendary soup-and-a-sandwich. The heartiness of a lunch consisting of a soup and a sandwich satisfies me in a way that many other lunches can't. Two main elements contribute to making this such a successful combination of food items; it has a good variety of flavors and textures, and it is a relatively healthy meal. I think a great business idea would be to open up a nice little deli across from a college campus and serve on soups, sandwiches, beer, and coffee in a nice atmosphere, with jazz streaming quitely throughout the place.
To add to this recent infatuation, I have taken my sandwich game to a new level. Living right next to a Publix supermarket has afforded me instant access to high quality Boar's Head delicatessen. Boar's Head deli products are very good. Any time I've had Boar's Head anything, it is miles beyond any other brand of item I have had (that is available in any local supermarket). If you get a chance, try their all beef hot dogs. I'm convinced that there is no better hot dog out there. My current meat and cheese combination is BH Mesquite Wood Smoked Turkey with BH Dill Cream Havarti. My Jewish-but-Atheist roomate Dan also turned me on to Rye bread, which has taken my sandwiches into regions of unrepentant awesomeness that were previously unheard of.
I like my lunches to be quick and easy. Because of this I like to keep the ingredients I futz with all simple, dry ingredients that you can pull out of the fridge, put onto your sandwich, and be on your way. For this reason I haven't been eating tomatoes on my sandwich, what with all the pulling the tomato out, slicing it, possibly getting tomato juice on the cutting board, then putting the tomato away, and having to clean the cutting board. I know, that's not really that big of a deal, but Ive been doing without. The only accesories I put on my sandwich before the big dance are salt and pepper, sprouts, and mayonnaise. I had given up on mayonnaise for a really long time, but recently got back on the mayo train, thanks to eating several sandwiches at Jimmy John's that had mayo on them and were fantastic.
I also lightly toast the sandwich, open face, in a toaster oven. I am a huge proponent of toaster ovens and highly reccommend toasting anything you can, it usually makes it better.
Now, this all brings me to the main point of this, and that's the sprouts. Sprouts can do anything that lettuce can do and can do it better. They provide more of a crunch more consistently than lettuce does, they look more appetizing, and most importantly, they trump lettuce in terms of flavor and nutritional value. Plus, with sprouts, you dont have to mess with that big awkward head of lettuce and then throw half of it away when it gets soggy. I'll put sprouts anywhere lettice can go. They have a great earthy flavor that I love in combination with other foods. I'll still eat Romaine, but Iceburg lettuce is dead to me. Let's put it up on the board:
YOU ARE DEAD TO ME LETTUCE! DEAD! I HAVE A NEW MISTRESS NOW, AND SHE HAS FLAVOR!
As far as the soup goes, Im a big fan of Campbell's Chunky. Most of the varieties, even those with meat in them, which are pretty good chunks of meat, have only about 1.5g of fat. At 2 dollars a can, Chunky Soup can be a lunch on its own. Notice in the picture I have two seperate soup containers. When I was in Publix stocking up on soups, I noticed the Campbell's select microwavable containers (left). They were the same price as the the Chunky soups, and according to the packages, the same volume of soup. The only difference was that the Select came in a handy microwavable container. Eyeballing the containers, I found it hard to believe that the tiny Select container could actually hold the same amount of soup that the gargantuan Chunky can could, so I devised an Archemedian experiment to find out. I bought one can of Select to use as a container for the Chunky soups. If I could pour the entire can of Chunky into the Select container and close the lid, then the two volumes were in fact the same. When I tried this, it came out to be very close, but the Chunky soup rose to the absolute limit of full in the Select container, and still had a bite and a half of soup left in it. I concluded that the two volumes of soup are not the same, and the Campbell's corporation are a bunch of liars who make really good soup. Normally I would declare Cambell's soup to be dead to me, but I can't stop eating Chunky because Progresso is an inadequate replacement.
Posted by Chris Santoro on 2006/09/17 @ 9:58 | Comments (5) | EatFoo 1.0 Posts
Comments
I agree:
- Progresso Soup sucks.
- Iceberg lettuce also sucks
- Sprouts are awesome.
Another reason sprout trumps lettuce is the overbite factor. I assume it doesn't matter much to you mr. perfect bite, but I have a noticable overbite that can make sandwich and pizza eating ardous and frustrating affairs. Many times when I eat sandwiches with one big piece of lettuce on it I end up pulling the entire thing out on the first bite. Sprouts totally alleviate that problem.
On the soup tip, I have a love-hate relationship with these canned soups. For one, I hate complete-meal-in-soup-form soups such as creamy chicken alfredo, bbq seasoned beef, salisbury steak with mushrooms and onions, pepper steak, etc. (all those are cambell flavors).
I do, however, really like the cambell select lentil soup.
Posted by: Adam Rugg at September 17, 2006 2:48 PM
Have you tried the Ceasar Salad with Cuban Sandwich and Cheesecake for dessert flavor soup?
Posted by: Chris Santoro at September 17, 2006 3:43 PM
That all sounds very good. I feel that I too need to delve into the boar's head and start eating away at it. I wonder if they make hot sauce.
Posted by: Patrick Barnes at September 17, 2006 6:01 PM
p.s. BH hotdogs are indeed the best hotdog you can buy at a grocery store
Posted by: Adam Rugg at September 17, 2006 6:36 PM
First of all, your mention of hot dog superlatives warrants fleshing out. I have strong opinions on such matters, and shall write a hot dog post soon.
Adam, I have a pretty big underbite, and I also tend to grab all the lettuce out. However, I dislike sprouts. They are too dry, still mostly flavorless, but lack the shielding properties of lettuce. Lettuce has the benefit of protecting the bread from the juices of the tomato, keeping the bread nice and crispy. Mayonnaise also works decently for this, but lettuce and mayo forms a nearly impenetrable barrier to moisture.
On the soup front, I'm also not a fan of meals in a can. But, Campbell's Chunky Chicken and Andouille Sausage Jambalaya is good. Not great, but good.
Posted by: Barzelay at September 18, 2006 9:58 AM