Are These The Post-Christmas Blues?

Welcome back again, Dear Readers!

Did Santa bring you everything your heart desired for Christmas? And if you don't celebrate Christmas, did you happen to treat yourself to an awesome gift as well?

Being that I am back home for the holidays in Philadelphia, I decided to do a few sandwich stops as a treat to myself. But i have to admit that the holidays had made me a bit more lazy this week in pursuing a sandwich.

Blasphemy, I know.

But wanting to meet up with my friend Lance for drinks in town, he recommended a new-ish pub called Kraftwork which caters to highly developed beer palates as well as providing delicious food.

The interior of Kraftwork is very cool, and not expected for the neighborhood the bar happens to be in. Unfinished wood and steel, the bar has a very modern, constructed feel adds to the great vibe of this corner bar.

The sandwich selection was small, but every one of them screamed out to me, asking me to sample their deliciousness. I finally decided upon the French Onion Short Rib Sandwich.

Now I have previously had a short rib sandwich at 8oz Burger Bar in Los Angeles, but I remember not being completely impressed by it, so this was a chance for this type of sandwich to regain my trust, and for this bar to wow me on our first meeting.

The sandwich contained the shredded short rib meat, caramelized onions, melted Gruyere cheese, horseradish creme fraiche, all on a ciabatinni bun.

And yes, whenever I hear creme fraiche now, I always think of South Park.

Hilarious comedy shows aside, the short rib meat was moist, flavorful and well cooked, allowing it to fall apart with every bite. Since the meat was already shredded, the melted Gruyere cheese blended in seamlessly with the short ribs. This cheese, along with the caramelized onions, gave the sandwich a bit of a sweet flavor to it which was a nice change of pace from sandwiches that tend to overdo it with the flavor of their red meat.

The bun was also excellent: a sleek, golden outside and a soft interior that managed to hold up throughout the entire eating experience. Not that it lasted long at all.

So despite the fact that my night did not include a German techno band, it did involve an excellent craft beer bar with very notable sandwiches.

And hey, the waitstaff was pretty amazing too.

So if you find yourself in Philly in need of an excellent bar with a delicious sandwich to try, look no further than Kraftwork. It will be worth every minute of your time.

Until next week...



French Onion Short Rib Sandwich
**** 1/2 Stars
Kraftwork Bar
541 East Girard Avenue
Philadelphia, PA  19125
kraftworkbar.com

Excuse Me, This Salmon Is Still Alive...

Well, hello again Dear Readers.

Have you been busy the past weeks preparing for the upcoming holidays? Hopefully you have had time to explore your neighborhood and checked out a local sandwich shop. You know that those businesses appreciate your visit just as much as any retail store at this time of year.

Despite looking for gifts and preparing to fly back east for Christmas, I thought I would try one last sandwich before I left Los Angeles for a week, this time I took a recently mentioned recommendation of Roman's in Sherman Oaks.

Now as you may know, I haven't really eaten too many vegetarian sandwiches, or really many sandwiches that don't involve a land animal, so I quickly jumped at the opportunity to eat the Salmon Sandwich when I saw it at the top of Roman's menu.

I am a huge fan of salmon, especially when it is either smoked or grilled.

I am not a fan of lox. 

For those of you that don't know what lox is, it's a cured salmon filet and something that completely grosses me out due to the texture. I know it's very popular with a lot of people, but it just does not fly with me as it seems like it's still almost raw, though I don't have a problem with sushi.

Well, that's exactly what was on this sandwich.

Gross.

The "fish" was topped with marscapone cheese and fresh arugula on a delicious Italian roll. The cheese wasn't terrible, but it didn't add much to the sandwich. The arugula was fresh and tasty and the Italian roll was crispy on the outside and warm and fluffy on the inside.

But let's face it Readers, I wasn't going out last night for an arugula sandwich.

This has been my problem so far: I have not had good luck with sandwiches that do not contain red meat or poultry. Why? I have no idea. I love vegetarian restaurants here in Los Angeles, and I do love fish (especially salmon), so why have I had bad luck when it comes to these types of sandwiches?

SO I am reaching out to you to help with some more recommendations. You've all been excellent with suggestions in the past, so any help with a great fish or vegetarian sandwich would be an amazing help.

Your sandwich blogger of choice needs you, America. Will you help?

Until next week...


Salmon Sandwich
* Star
Roman's
15100 Ventura Blvd.
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

A Little Something From Warmer Climes

Greetings Dear Readers!

You know, one thing I've discovered over my time writing this blog is that, even though I've traveled to numerous places and wrote about faraway sandwiches, sometimes the best ones come from your own backyard.

Not literally, of course.

One place in my new neighborhood that I've heard rave reviews about (from three different people without prompting) is a little mom and pop shop called HyMart Sandwiches and Mediterranean Fusion. Located on the corner of Vineland and Camarillo in North Hollywood, this shop is family run with ingredients imported directly from Turkey.

Seeing as how I love Mediterranean (my favorite restaurant in the Valley is The Great Greek, an amazing and well-known restaurant), everything on the menu immediately grabbed my attention. The question was quickly becoming not which sandwich to choose, but how could I come back to try them all?

Finally I settled on the Mediterranean Madness wrap. Packed tightly with labni (a strained Greek yogurt), hummus, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and stuffed grape leaves.

Yes, stuffed grape leaves were the main ingredient to this sandwich.

The vegetables used in this wrap where incredibly fresh. The onions and lettuce were crunchy, and the tomatoes used were not mealy but from perfectly ripened red tomatoes.

The stuffed grape leaves, and there were a few to each sandwich, provided the bitter tang that grape leaves are known for with the wonderful spices of the Mediterranean with the seasoned rice insides. I would have taken an order of the grape leaves to go even without the sandwich. They are just that good.

I also happened to order the spicy version of this sandwich. Now while I normally like spicy things, I think next time I order this I may hold back on the extra kick. While it wasn't too spicy for me, I think the extra flavor brought from the added sauce overpowered some of the more mild flavors of the sandwich.

Still an excellent sandwich though.

And as an added bonus: Hy Mart has excellent service from a friendly family. There's nothing better than supporting your local small business sandwich shops.

And so ends another satisfying week here on The Danger Sandwich friends. On December 23rd, I will be heading back to the east coast to spend time with family over Christmas, so if you know of some good sandwich shops in the Philadelphia/New York/Washington DC area, let me know in the comments section so I can try some of your favorite places while I'm home.

Until next week, Readers...


Mediterranean Madness
**** Stars
Hy Mart Sandwiches
4795 Vineland Avenue
North Hollywood, CA 91602

An Unexpected Find

Greetings this week, my dearest Readers.

This week while taking our lovely little puppy for a medical checkup with her vet in Sylmar, I stumbled upon another deli without even the goal of finding a new sandwich shop.

Across from the vet , a bright sign stood out from the many in the strip mall in the north valley. Submarine Queen called my name in the light of the setting sun to drive across the intersection and sample their sandwiches.

Walking into the shop, I was amazed at the stark contrast between the very minimalist eating area and the massive checkerboard-sign in the front showing off some 40+ sandwich options. Even though most of the sandwiches were slight variations the other sandwiches, I finally settled on the turkey, avocado and Swiss cheese on a wheat roll.

The sandwich was pretty basic. Besides the main ingredients it had chopped tomatoes, pickles, onions and a bit of mayo. Since the tomatoes were chopped, I was spared the disgust of eating mealy tomatoes by only getting the best, red and fresh chopped tomatoes on mine. Mixed with the pickles, crisp onions (and a few pepperoncinis that I added myself) the vegetables of this sandwich were fresh, crisp and full of flavor.

The turkey was thinly cut, and full of flavor. The middle of the sandwich was packed with a ton of avocado. Seriously, there had to be about three full avocados crammed in there. And they were so fresh, it was like they were just picked from the tree before being sliced and added to the sandwich.

The wheat bread did an excellent job at holding the sandwich together until the end and was fluffy without being too thick and taking up the better portion of the sandwich.

After visiting Sub Queen, it is good to know that a great and simple sandwich shop exists in Los Angeles, it's just a shame that I normally have no reason on earth to ever make it out to Sylmar, except for the puppy to get checked out by her doctor.

But if you happen to have another reason to head out towards Canyon Country, make sure you hit up Submarine Queen before doing so.



Turkey, Avocado and Swiss Cheese Sandwich
**** Stars
Submarine Queen
13758 Foothill Blvd
Sylmar, CA 91342

An Afternoon In Wine Country

Welcome back, dear Readers!

Hopefully this past week has been filled with delicious Thanksgiving holiday food and leftovers, and leftovers, and leftovers, etc.

I think I'm still up to my eyeballs in delicious leftover mashed potatoes.

On Black Friday, instead of heading out to shop and be pepper sprayed, I headed down to Temecula, CA for some wine tasting with family members who had graciously joined us in Los Angeles for the holiday.

I had been to Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez wine country, so I was glad to hit up another well-know SoCal wine area in Temecula.

Something happens when you hit any wine country in California. Life seems to melt away and time seems to come to a standstill. Life just...happens.

It's wonderful.

We originally stopped at Mount Palomar Winery, which had amazing wines and an Italian villa feel. After the 6 win tasting, we moved onto Maurice Car'rie Winery down the road which resembled more of a farm in the French countryside.

Pulling up to the patio cafe on the winery grounds, I ordered the Turkey Sandwich at the cafe. The sandwich came out on sourdough bread, with lettuce, tomatoes, and an optional cranberry spread.

The sourdough bread honestly wasn't very sour. The faint taste of sour was there, but wasn't as strong as I normally like it. The lettuce and tomatoes were fresh, but nothing to write home about. The cranberry spread added a nice flavor to the mix, but from what I could tell, it may have just been scooped out of the can. Now, don't get me wrong, I like canned cranberry sauce, but not on my sandwiches, and not at a winery. I feel like they could have gone above and beyond and made their own sauce.

Oh, the turkey? Eh. I felt like they just bought it at a supermarket. Pre-packaged.

Luckily, all of the wine I drank that afternoon was more than enjoyable.

In the end, the turkey sandwich was mildly forgettable, but the wine and the times spent at the winery will be remembered for a long time to come.


Turkey Sandwich
** 1/2 Stars
Maurice Car'rie Winery
Temecula, CA
http://www.mauricecarriewinery.com/

Deli Dilemma

Dear Readers, by now you have heard me mention before the difficulty of finding a good, dependable deli here on the west coast, and in Los Angeles specifically.

I've grown up and lived around numerous neighborhood delis that always provided top notch food and sandwiches that I never considered the fact that many cities were not as lucky.

Despite this, I have continually sought out a deli I could call my own here in the 818, but have, for the most part come up a little short.

Having driven past Handy Market in Burbank numerous times over my four years in LA, I had never even bothered to stop by. Not even on Saturdays when the chef fires up the giant BBQ grill and cooks outside.

So this past week, I finally decided to check it out.

First of all, Handy Market is more than just a deli. If you live in the neighborhood, it can serve all of your basic needs if you can't make it out to the supermarket easily. But the real story is the deli counter in the back.

For this experiment, I decided to order the pastrami panini with tomato, basil and feta cheese on a wheat roll.

The roll was fresh and when pressed and grilled had a nice crispy exterior while keeping the insides fluffy and warm. The feta offered an excellent dry and pungent flavor which contrasted well with the savory pastrami. The basil was so incredibly fresh and the flavor had an incredible bite which cut through most of the other flavors.

The only not-so-standoutish element was the pastrami. While it was tasty with a light black peppery flavor, the pastrami was a little too chewy at points. It could be that it cooled down a bit before I was able to eat it, but that shouldn't have accounted for this level of chewiness. While not bad, it wasn't spectacular.

Overall, my experience at Handy Market was fairly positive and I would definitely be willing to give it another try, but for the time being, I will just be moving on to find another deli.

What's your favorite sandwich at your favorite deli?

Until next time, Readers...



Pastrami Panini
*** 1/2
Handy Market
2514 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505

Cubano Delicioso

Greeting, Readers!

Throughout my time reviewing sandwiches for this blog, I have been given a number of recommended places to visit. I end up adding these to a word document that I keep at my desk at work and it really has increased substantially over time.

I don't always get to hit up the list because I do a lot of research myself and tend to sometimes forget the places I've added to my list. But this week, looking for a close by eatery, that I haven't visited yet, I reached for this holy grail of sandwich lists.

Reader Matty has recommended Mambo's Cafe in Glendale numerous times and I kept forgetting to visit, despite the fact that I live ten minutes from it.

Mambo's is situated in a quiet neighborhood right on the border of Glendale and Burbank and serves up delicious Cuban food.

I had been tempted to sample the Cubano in order to compare it to my favorite Cubano at Porto's, but wanting to try something new tonight, I reached for the Pan Con Chorizo.

The sandwich is very simple: thinly sliced chorizo sausage and grilled onions.

For those that have had chorizo (and living in LA, I've basically had it with every meal in some form or another) I've found that it can sometimes be too overpowering with it's flavor. I've had a number of chorizo tacos where I'm still tasting chorizo three weeks later, but with this sandwich, that is not the case.

The chorizo flavor was still there, still delicious, but it was much more subtle, and the sandwich was better of for it.

The onions provided a nice crunch texture along with the delicious and flaky, pressed french roll.

Simple, stripped down, and delicious.

One part of the meal that I must pay special attention to has nothing to do with the sandwich at all. The service at Mambo's was incredible. Everyone who worked their stopped and asked us if we needed anything, and our server was very nice and always there for us as well.

I guess I haven't thought much about service because a bunch of my last reviews were grab-and-go

So if you're looking for good Cuban food in the Valley, and maybe you want to take in some Latin Jazz (Tuesday nights apparently), definitely check out Mambo's. It'll be worth the visit.

Until next week...


Pan Con Chorizo
**** Stars (out of 5)
1701 Victory Blvd. (at Western)
Glendale, CA 91201
mambosla.com