Day 31 - Ham and Cheese

I got this sandwich at lunch whilst volunteering at an event my fiancée was holding at her work. Unlike most catered lunch sandwiches, this one had bags of flavour. The combination was great - salty ham, spicy mustard, pickles and creamy cheese on a semi-sweet roll. The problem with it was that there was way too much ham in proportion to the rest of the sandwich and, for its size, it was really quite filling.



Description: Ham, cheese, mustard and pickle roll
Location: the Ivy Room, Chicago
Accompaniments: Bulgar wheat salad, crisps, cookie
Companion: Many
Rating: 7/10

Day 23 - Bánh mì

Bánh mì is a Vietnamese sandwich. Technically, I believe the term is the Vietnamese word for bread, but it is commonly used now to describe a type of sandwich which is made using a baguette (introduced to the country by the french during colonial times)and filled with a variety of ingredients such as roasted pork belly, Vietnamese sausage, grilled pork, spreadable pork liver pâté, chicken, sardines, meatballs, head cheese, fried eggs, and tofu.

I had 'The Classic', which is Vietnamese pork, American ham, French country pate, mayonnaise, cucumber, pickled daikon (Asian radish) and carrots, coriander and jalapeño. On the owner's recommendation, I added a mixture of hoisin sauce and their own hot sauce, which is a sweeter version of Sriracha hot sauce. The result was a heady combination of Vietnamese and western flavours which made for a great mouthful of food. My only criticism is that the meat was lunch meat, not fresh grilled pork or chicken, like you get in Vietnam. Still, lip-smackingly delicious.



Description: Vietnamese pork, American ham, French country pate, mayonnaise, cucumber, pickled daikon (Asian radish) and carrots, coriander and jalapeño Bánh mì
Location: Saigon Sister, Chicago
Accompaniments: Water
Companion: Fiancée's cousin
Rating: 9/10

Day 17 - The Pepe from Jimmy John's

Jimmy John's is a chain of sandwich shops that a quite well known for quality sandwiches that use "fresh" ingredients. What "fresh" ingredients means I have no idea. You could say anything that isn't rotten is "fresh" therefore, logically, anywhere that serves food uses "fresh" ingredients. Anyway I was looking forward to lunch here as I'd heard so many positive things about Jimmy John's sandwiches. I was, however, disappointed. It's not that the sandwich was bad, far from it, there was just nothing special about it. I had real applewood smoked ham (oh good, I'm glad the ham was real and not imaginary), with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. All of the ingredients were pleasant, but they weren't tasty. The homemade bread was relatively uninspiring and the ham was not smoky at all. The cheese was creamy but the salad was lacking in flavour. The whole thing needed seasoning, or a sauce that wasn't mayonnaise. I left feeling a little unimpressed.




Description: Real (!) applewood smoked ham with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise
Location: Jimmy John's, Chicago
Accompaniments: Crisps and Cherry Coke
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 14 - Buffet sandwiches

Day 14's sandwiches were a selection from the American Airlines Lounge food buffet area. I only had two, but both were your typical buffet sandwiches; white bread, lots of tasteless vegetable spread/margarine and fairly cheap fillings. The first filling was cheese. It was medium cheddar at best because it packed so little punch. The second was ham and tomato, which was more enjoyable, so I had another. The ham was tasty, but you could tell it is the sort of ham you buy in packs of 1000 and has so much water in it that you would fill a bath with it if you wrang it out. Still, there is something about these tasteless triangles that reminds me of my childhood; they were the sort of sandwiches you had a birthday parties. Therefore the nostalgic element probably has skewed the marking in this case.



Description: Cheese sandwich and Ham and Tomato sandwich
Location: American Airlines lounge, terminal 3, Heathrow
Accompaniments: Cognac and pretzels
Companion: Girlfriend
Rating: 6/10