Straight Outta' Steel City

Greetings, Readers!

It seems that lately I've had some luck finding restaurants or food trucks that I have been trying to get to for awhile.

It turns out that one of these sought after food trucks, Steel City Sandwich, happens to hang out in my neighborhood every Thursday night, and somehow I've never known this until the other week.

Well obviously I remedied that problem quickly, and on a Thursday night headed out to finally try their famous Yinzer sandwich.

Named after a slang term for a Pittsburgh resident, the Yinzer is stacked high with your choice of meat, Italian slaw, tomato, fried egg, provolone cheese and french fries.

Now, the size of this sandwich surprised me. It's an absolute monster and isn't exactly easy to take a bite out of because of all of the ingredients stacked as high as they are.

But it is a very tasty sandwich nonetheless.

The bread was thickly cut and rightfully so as a tough base was needed to hold this sandwich together until the end. The Italian slaw added a nice crunch to the sandwich in contrast to how thick and soft the bread was. The tomatoes were fresh and not mealy at all, and the french fries added a great seasoned flavor with a different textural contribution than the other ingredients.

At first I felt like the fried egg was an odd choice to add to this sandwich, but upon eating it  I was greatly surprised by the flavor contribution and how well it blended with the rest of the ingredients.

My main complaint about this sandwich would be with the meat. Don't get me wrong, the turkey that I had on the sandwich was good, but I had showed up a little later in the evening only to find out that my intended choice of pastrami had sold out.

One of the driving factors to visit this truck was seeing Primanti Bros. featured on an episode of Man vs. Food in which a pastrami sandwich topped with french fries was the main course.

I guess my problem this week is that Steel City Sandwich has become pretty popular. So applause is still handed out to these sandwich purveyors, and next time I'll make sure I'm first in line to get a pastrami Yinzer.

So Readers, in the coming weeks I will be heading back out into Burbank along with writer Bryan Mahoney to find some of the best burgers the neighborhood has to offer. You may remember from last year we worked together to find some of the top delis in Burbank (Deli 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). While those places were great, we are now focusing strictly on burgers as that seems to be the the unofficial sandwich of the city.

So for a little preview on our massive burger outing, Bryan has written an excellent intro here. Check it out and make sure to come back next week to see the beginning of a double digit burger tour.

Until next week, Readers...


The Yinzer
**** Stars
Steel City Sandwich truck
http://www.steelcitysandwich.com

Traveling Down The Golden Road

Greetings, Readers!

You know, sometimes a place makes such good sandwiches (or beer as well in this instance) that you just have to return again and again to have that same meal or to try something new.

In this case, I spent the evening with close friends at Golden Road Brewing, a place I have visited numerous times before and reviewed a year ago

This time, relaxing in the cool evening air with friends and a gut-warming glass of GRB's Barleywine (amazing, try it) I decided to go a little lighter than my last visit. This time I tried a sandwich for all of you vegetarians out there.

This time around I went for the Tomato Caprese Sandwich.

Stuffed into a golden, flaky French roll were thick and delicious slices of mozzarella, sliced roma tomatoes, basil pesto, balsamic reduction and olive oil.

The sandwich, while filling, was fresh, light, and thoroughly enjoyable. A contrast in flavors and ingredients to my previous visit (the delicious pulled pork sandwich), this was an excellent example of delicious on the other end of the food spectrum.

And it's proof that pub food doesn't have to be soaked in grease and made from meat to be enjoyable and easily paired with delicious beer.

As I've stated on the blog before, when tomatoes are on a sandwich that I am eating, I really need them to be fresh and juicy. If a tomato is mealy in any degree, I'll pull all of them off...but this was not the case this time around.

The tomatoes were fresh and juicy, with the balsamic reduction and pesto adding excellent herb flavors on top. Packed inside the flaky French roll, this is sandwich worth eating....again and again.

Overall, with this sandwich I can proudly state that Golden Road is a place where carnivore and vegetarian can eat at the same table and drink delicious beer while both enjoying excellently created sandwiches.

+++++++++++

In related sandwich news, I wanted to pass on this excellent article regarding the inherent danger in sandwiches. They can be so dangerous that even professional athletes can get hurt.  Seems that Tampa Bay Rays relief pitcher Joel Peralta suffered a neck injury on a recent sandwiching adventure in Florida.

Read more about it here.

Do you see, Readers? The danger I put myself in weekly to inform you of great sandwiches?

So take care out there this week, and enjoy your sandwiching.

Until next time...


Tomato Caprese Sandwich
**** 1/2 Stars
Golden Road Brewing
5410 West San Fernando Road
Los Angeles, CA 90039

Chasing The White Whale

Greetings, Dear Readers!

I have some fun news to share.

Like Captain Ahab chasing the great Moby Dick, I have finally caught up with my own White Whale...except this time with much more positive results.

In the early days of this blog, when I first signed up for Twitter (@danger_sandwich) many moons ago, one of the first accounts I started to follow was that of The Grilled Cheese Truck (@grlldcheesetruk).

Even though I had wanted to find and sample from this truck from nearly the beginning of my sandwiching adventures, timing and location always seemed to elude me.

Well that all changed two weeks ago.

While at a comic book signing at House of Secrets in Burbank with Matt Fraction (@mattfraction) the Grilled Cheese Truck showed up outside to cater the event. Not only did I get to meet one of my favorite comic book writers, but now I could finally try my most sought after sandwich: The Cheesy Mac and Rib.

Yes, that sandwich sounds exactly like what it is.

Between two slices of seasoned grilled bread sits a healthy serving of cheesy mac, sharp cheddar cheese, caramelized onions and shredded BBQ pork rib (you can get the sandwich just as the Cheesy Mac though without rib for you non-meat eaters).

Wow.

When I got home with the sandwich, I quickly took my first photo of it to show you, and I had planned to take another. Before I knew it though, the sandwich was gone.

Seriously, I could not put it down after I started. The sharp cheddar was an excellent choice for this sandwich because it's so full of flavor, you need a strong cheese to stand out. The cheesy mac, while plentiful, wasn't overloaded.

The BBQ pork was amazing. The smoky and tangy flavors brought to the plate with it were excellent complements to the sandwich, but also contrasted well with the sharp cheddar to stand out on its own. The caramelized onions gave a bit of textural difference...and then there's the bread.

You would think with this sandwich being packed with not only heavy ingredients, but also ones that would easily destroy bread, that it would fall apart after the second bite.

I can happily report though that the bread not only held together incredibly until the end, but also added a great grilled flavor to the mix.

Overall, finding my own Moby Dick was worth the wait, and is definitely a truck anyone in the area should try to find and eat from. It will be absolutely worth your time.

So now with the Grilled Cheese Truck crossed off my list, it's now onto finding another great sandwich. What will the next one be? Only time will tell.

Until next week, Readers...



Cheesy Mac and Rib Sandwich
***** Stars
The Grilled Cheese Truck
http://www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com/

Cold Weather, Warm Sandwich (Part 2)

Greetings, Readers!

As I mentioned in last week's post, my sandwiching experience back East was cut a bit short with illness, but that doesn't mean that I didn't get to taste some of the local flavor.

On my last day back East, I headed to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch with my mother and sister. I hadn't been to the Market since I was there two years ago to review DeNic's Roast Pork Sandwich, so it was definitely time for a return visit.

Going without a particular shop or sandwich in mind that I wanted to try, it took some time to walk around the entire market and find a place that I wanted to eat at. It was definitely much busier than my last visit, and some of the aisles were near impossible to get down because they were so crowded.

Finally though, I happened upon the simply named The Rib Stand in a far corner of the Market. This stand is pretty bare bones, offering shredded ribs, slabs of ribs and three side options, but you'll still have a hard time deciding which way to go. The scent of ribs and the sides will have you salivating while you wait in line.

I went with the shredded rib sandwich and was not let down in my expectations. The rib meat is juicy and had obviously been marinated for a long time as it was bursting with flavor. There was also a distinct flavor of black pepper that permeated the sandwich without being too overpowering.

The ribs had been marinated in a thin red sauce instead of a more thick, standard barbecue sauce, but The Rib Stand provides you with a container of deliciously made sauce that you can add to the sandwich in your desired quantity.

While the rib sandwich was delicious in its own right, this addition of barbecue sauce really sends it to the next level. It's got a little kick to it, but nothing that will set your mouth on fire.

The only downside is the roll. It mostly held together until the end, but wasn't really anything spectacular. It did its job as a vehicle for delicious rib meat, so I guess we can applaud it for that.

For my sides, the green beans and mac & cheese were excellent options and complemented the sandwich so well. Definitely worth choosing these two if you happen to lunch here one time.

And so ends my trip back East, Readers. Hopefully next time I can visit more places on my list and get a better sense of the sandwiching culture there.

Next week, I finally catch up to an LA food truck I've been chasing for years.

Until then, Readers...


Rib Sandwich
**** Stars
The Rib Stand
Reading Terminal Market
Philadelphia, PA