San Diego Sandwich-Con 2012

Greetings and welcome back for another week of delicious sandwich profiling, Dear Readers.

This past week, I made a trip down to San Diego for something that I have been putting off far too long: Comic Con.

My group of comic book aficionados only had tickets for Saturday and Sunday, so having arrived on Friday evening, what could we end up doing?

For those that have not been to SD before, the Gaslamp Quarter, right next to the Convention Center where Comic Con was, is a great section of town for drinks and food, and that is where we found The Field.

This place was packed on a Friday night during one of the busiest nights of the year for the city, but it didn't take long for our drinks and food to come to us. The only thing that happened faster was my selection of a sandwich from the menu: a corned beef sandwich on rye.

Set between two slices of lightly buttered, and lighted toasted rye, this corned beef sandwich was one of the best ones I've had in a long time. It absolutely lived up to the standard that a true Irish pub should have for this kind of meal.

The corned beef was very thinly sliced, very warm, and piled very high between the slices of crisp bread. Lightly grilled onions blended in between the layers of meat along with melted Swiss cheese that permeated the sandwich a smear of dijon mustard.

Wow. Absolutely delicious. The flavors blended together to give a smoky and spiced sandwich that mellowed with every bite. The meat was tender and juicy, and overall well cooked.

An excellent way to start a fun weekend at Comic Con. For those of you who have yet to attend the event, it is an absolutely incredible time. Comics, artists, video games, movies, cosplayers, and fans all crammed into an area the size of two square miles can be a bit overwhelming, but if you have an interest in any of the things I mentioned above, it's a must see event for you.

I for one know I will be back next year...and I will have this sandwich again to kick off my weekend.

Until next week, Readers...



Corned Beef Sandwich
**** 1/2 Stars
The Field Irish Pub & Restaurant
544 Fifth Avenue
San Diego, CA 92101
http://www.thefield.com

Fun Times in San Diego (Pt. 2)

Another day, Another Sandwich in San Diego ladies and gentlemen of DANGER.

This time, my adventures took me to a corner bakery in Ocean Beach: Charlie's Best Bread. A little shop on a street corner with a very small town square feel. I liked the atmosphere of the neighborhood, but would this highly recommended shop make waves with me this week?

Walking into the shop, I was overwhelmed by the smell of bread. Every bit of bread used in this place was freshly baked that day.

After spending a significant amount of time narrowing down to one sandwich from a seemingly endless list of deliciousness, I settled on the pastrami sandwich.

Ah the pastrami sandwich. My friend, and sometimes my biggest letdown.

For me, when there is a sandwich you revere so much, one that truly possesses the talents to achieve the status of Danger Sandwich, it is all the more disheartening to find one that is a let down.
First and foremost, the positives: The bread really was spectacular. A rye bread that was incredibly fresh, and doughy, with a perfectly even rye flavor It really showed that this had been hand crafted by someone who worked there and not delivered in a bag by some unknown megaconglomerate.

Although, I still feel as though it could have been better for the sandwich overall if it had been toasted.

This sandwich had two types of cheese: swiss and bleu cheese. Both excellent choices. The swiss with its smooth and mild flavor played well with the pungent dry taste of the bleu cheese. I enjoyed these two so much that I didn't even taste the pastrami at all.

No, really, seriously. You couldn't taste the main attraction at all.

I had to tear a piece off of the sandwich just to be able to taste it.

And I should have just left it alone. The meat wasn't bad, but wasn't great either. It lacked a definite taste and I could have been eating plain old ham for all I knew.

Maybe that's why they packed on so much cheese.

So, dear readers, I am asking you now for some recommendations for San Diego.

Have you ever been there? Have you heard of a great sandwich that needs to be tried out? Let me know, I'd like to hold onto hope that my next trip there will be devoid of subpar sandwich tastings.

Until next week!

*** Stars
Charlie's Best Bread
1110 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, CA 92106

Fun Times in San Diego (Pt. 1)

Salutations DANGERfans!

Last weekend I made my way down to San Diego to celebrate the marriage of two friends of mine (congrats Eric and Wendy), and like any true Sandwichologist, i used this excursion to seek our new delicious sandwiches far from my base of operations.

Scouring the internet for the word on the street, I happened to find stellar reviews on a place called the Brown Bag Deli.

The Brown Bag Deli is truly a local hot spot.

Because you seriously need to be a local to even know where this place is.

After driving back and forth a few times, it was finally spotted, tucked into a corner of a strip mall on an major street in Ocean Beach. The inside of the deli lacked windows and any flair. Obviously it needed no pizazz to attract locals.

A promising sign, indeed.

I ordered the Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich with the works on Foccacia bread. This sandwich was piled high with the fixings and was quite a challenge to even take the first bite.

Seems to be a pretty great sandwich already, right?

Well, let's discuss what went wrong.

The bread is really the main culprit here.

Focaccia should be a golden colored bread. Maybe even a slight crisp on the outside with a nice soft interior. It should be able to support a decent sandwich without being too tough.

The focaccia at Brown bad was still doughy. It's as if someone took it out of the oven ten minutes early. No golden color, no flavor, and practically raw. Disappointing at best.

The turkey was bland, a bit too moist, and too thickly cut for being deli meat.

The "works" were the only bright spot in this sandwich. Lettuce, onion, banana peppers, avocado, jalapenos, mustard, and mayo worked for this sandwich and really gave it the only life that the sandwich had.

If the turkey and bread had been better, this may have been a delicious sandwich, but sadly, it was not meant to be.

Next week though, I tackle another sandwich from my time in San Diego, so be sure to return for more DANGER!

Until next time...Dia De Los DANGER!

* 1/2 Stars
Brown Bag Deli
1912 Rosecrans Street
Point Loma
San Diego, CA 92106