Candwich?! Um, gross....

Seriously? This is disgusting.

Turkey Pastrami from home

     I haven’t had any sandwiches from home for lunch lately because I’ve been on a soup kick as of late. This week however I have been enjoying turkey pastrami sandwiches with provolone cheese and mayo on white bread. Now this sandwich isn’t amazing by any means but it tastes pretty good for the basic ingredients that it’s made up of. The bread is regular white bread from Wegmans that I buy every week just to keep in the pantry. I have used my bread maker that I got for the wedding for some dishes I’ve made and I think I may start making sandwich bread because that would make this sandwich way better. The provolone is Wegmans brand as well and is okay as far as provolone cheese goes. The mayo is Hellman’s brand and should be the only brand anybody uses. The surprise to me at least comes from the pre-package turkey pastrami. If I recall it is Oscar Meyer brand but I’ll double check on that. Normally I don’t buy packaged meat because of the way it tastes but this wasn’t half bad. There was a lot of pepper that went into the curing process but I love pepper so this wasn’t an issue.

Syracuse Sandwich: Sylvan Street Grille's Lobster Roll

Who: Sylvan Street Grille What: Lobster Roll
Where: Salisbury, MA Phone: 978-462-7919 Website: Sylvan Street Grille

Parking: Yes Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No 

     This is the second installment of the special edition of Syracuse Sandwich. The second sandwich comes from Sylvan Street Grille in Salisbury, Massachusetts. The day after the concert we planned to stay the extra day to relax at the beach but weather had other plans. It began to storm pretty badly about two hours after we got there we decided to walk the shops, take a quick nap, and then head out and see a movie. The movie theatre was five minutes down the road in Massachusetts and had a few restaurants near by so we stopped by the one with a ton of cars in the parking lot thinking this must be the place to go. Luckily for us, we were totally right. The place has a huge dining room that surrounds and almost equally as large square bar. The menu and décor reminded me of Kirby’s. The menu was a total of ten pages long and had everything one could want to choose from. I hadn’t had lobster in a long while so when I saw the lobster roll on the menu I had to order it.

     For the second straight day I was surprised when my sandwich arrived, this time because of the shear amount of lobster packed into a New England style roll. Big chunks of tail and claw meat were lightly tossed in “dressing”, mayo and seasoning, and placed on shredded lettuce. This is such a basic sandwich but it tastes so good. If you’ve never had lobster you must go to the coast and have some fresh from even a shack like restaurant on the side of the road and you’ll want it whenever possible. My only issue was that the roll wasn’t lightly grilled on the out sides like I’ve had in the past. This is a very small issue and I only mentioned it because there may be a few lobster roll fans out there who could tell by the picture.

Rating: Delicious – There is NOTHING like lobster and if I’m in Salisbury ever again, I will be stopping by to get another one of these.

Syracuse Sandwich: Boardwalk Cafe's Haddock Sandwich

Who: Boardwalk Cafe What: Haddock Sandwich
Where: Hampton Beach, NH Phone: 603-929-7400 Website: Boardwalk Cafe
Parking: Street Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No 

     This is the first installment of a two part special edition of Syracuse Sandwich. This first sandwich is from the Boardwalk Café in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. We were visiting New Hampshire with Christine’s parents to see Ben Burnley, lead singer of Breaking Benjamin, in concert. After we had settled in to our hotel rooms we headed to the boardwalk for dinner before the show. Conveniently located right next to the Casino Ballroom, where were headed, was the Boardwalk Café. Their menu had something for everyone so we decided this was as good a place as any to eat. They carry an array of fish, pasta, and fried dishes along with burgers and chicken. The sandwich menu was rather large with a wide range of options. I came across a haddock sandwich and wondered of their take on it would be like ours is in Syracuse, long filet breaded with tartar sauce on the side. I took the chance and ordered it without asking the waitress how it came as I was sure they couldn’t screw it up too badly.

     I was surprised when a small filet came to the table with a slice of cheddar cheese and typical burger veggies to top things off. The tartar on the side and the bun were the only similar pieces to the Syracuse style haddock sandwich. I put some tartar sauce on the top bun and dug in. The fish was cooked perfectly and the breading was both light and buttery. Cheddar cheese brought an interesting salty element that I haven’t had before with a fish sandwich of any kind. The veggies were all fresh but the onion was cut so thick that one slice would have been more than sufficient. I was impressed by the bun that they use for all of their sandwiches and burgers. It was chewy and had a hint of wheat taste to them despite not being a wheat roll. I commend them on toasting the bun before putting any fillings on to keep the bun from becoming soggy.

Rating: Tasty – I like the spin they put on a Syracuse staple.

Syracuse Sandwich: Coppertop Tavern’s Tavern Melt Club

Who: Coppertop Tavern What: Los Cabos Chicken Sandwich
Where: Route 11, North Syracuse Phone: 458-1999 Website: Coppertop 
Parking: Yes Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No 

     I HATE when the temperature even reaches into the 80s not to mention the 90s we have been experiencing. I simply can’t cook with the humidity as high as it is so my Dan in the Kitchen blog is suffering. We planned on having friends over for some pasta with homemade Italian bread and cucumber tomato salad. But there was no way I could cook all of that and not die from heat exhaustion so we decided to go out. Coppertop has something for everyone and if you recall I had a very tasty sandwich there a few months back so I was excited to go. Christine and the other couple joining us ordered pasta but I couldn’t decide if I wanted one of their thin crust pizzas or a sandwich, since I remembered my last trip being a success, I went with a sandwich. The Tavern Club Melt was suggested by a coworker during a conversation earlier that day about where we should go out to eat. From its description it sound like something I might make myself only on their homemade bread so I went for it.

     To start we ordered the Chicago spinach dip also known as spinach artichoke dip which at Coppertop comes with homemade pasta chips. The pasta chips are flakey and crunchy fried pasta sheets cut up into one inch strips. I just want to comment that not only are the pasta chips delicious, but the spinach dip is equally amazing. Packed with spinach and cheese, the artichoke still comes through in this cheesy and salty dip.

     The Tavern Club Melt is ham, turkey, Dijon mustard, lettuce, tomato, and garlic cheese spread on homemade stretch bread. The bread is made in house and baked to where the crust is crunchy but the crumb is chewy. It reminds me of the stretch bread served from Pasta’s Daily Bread bakery in Armory Square which is amazing. The ham and turkey were standard deli style but as you know I love deli meat so they were fine, nothing to write home about, but fine. Dijon mustard goes really well with both turkey and ham so this was shaping up to be a great sandwich. The tomatoes tasted pretty fresh and since they were warm, they gave off a hint of sweetness. Unfortunately, the sandwich came to a screeching halt when it came to the . The spread was so thick, greasy, and garlicky that it was almost inedible. I was able to get through half of the sandwich before realizing I would be sick if I continued. I scrapped all of the spread off the second half of the sandwich but most of the bread came with it leaving me just a shell of crust for the top slice. I ate about three quarters of the second half before calling it quits and focused my attention on the tavern fries that come with any sandwich. The fries are shoestring style and they really load them on the plate. It was disappointing to have such a poorly executed sandwich that sounded really good.

Rating: Edible – I wish I ordered the same sandwich as I did the last time.

Syracuse Sandwich: Panera Bread's Cuban Chicken Panini

Who: Panera Bread What: Cuban Chicken Panini
Where: Route 11, Cicero Phone: 458-9436 Website: Panera Bread
Parking: Shared lots Accepts Credit Cards: Yes Take-Out: Yes Delivery: No

     Oh Panera how I love thee, let me count the ways. It’s starting to look that way isn’t it? Yes this is the 5^th review I am doing of Panera Bread but they are one of the only “sandwich” places around that isn’t a sit down restaurant. Plus Christine will go there whenever so that is a huge plus. We stopped there after Christine’s interview at J-D and it was pretty dead inside but that was good for us. We ordered quickly and received our food almost as fast. Christine went with her trusty asiago roast beef sandwich with macaroni and cheese while I decided to try something new. I ordered the Cuban Chicken Panini and the BBQ chopped chicken salad, the salad I got as a conservative pick in case the Panini didn’t work out. I highly recommend the salad if you aren’t in the mood for soup or a full sandwich. The Panini is made up of chicken slices, ham, Swiss, sweet & spicy pickle chips, chipotle mayo, and sun-dried tomato ale mustard on Focaccia bread. I’m a huge fan of Cuban sandwiches and while this wasn’t a traditional Cuban I thought it would be worth a try.

     I thought just by the look of the sandwich that it was going to shine but the light never really turned on. I expected the bread to be crispier and toasted but it was dry and soft with a few grill lines. The chicken was the same chicken used in my salad but I enjoy because it is seasoned with a spice blend that includes a lot of pepper. The ham is the same used in their ham and Swiss sandwich which I reviewed and I recall liking. While the Swiss cheese didn’t pack a ton of flavor, it did give the sandwich a creamy, gooey texture. The mayo and mustard were pretty much none existent but I did get a taste of them when I pulled some of the pickles out. The pickles were a bit overwhelming and had a strange taste that was neither good nor bad. It took me about 4 to 5 bites to get a sense of how this sandwich was going to turn out but even after I had finished it I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. The bread at Panera is always going to be the star but for once I was disappointed in it. The sandwich wasn’t bad because it tasted fine but it wasn’t great because there wasn’t much flavor.

Rating: Satisfying - Too many expectations, none of which were met.