Braising takes forever and makes delicious tender meat. The hardest part was not devouring the braised short-ribs right out of the pot. I recommend never making this by yourself or you’ll have no one to hold you back. Also, I’d double or quadrupple the recipe: you’ll want 3rds and leftovers. They’re good enough, don’t worry!

Get shoppin and make some NOW, before winter ends!

Here’s the recipe:
Braised Short Rib Sandwiches with Pickled carmelized onions and argula

This didn’t last long:

The only thing you can’t see is the restraint:

I had:
Dan’s Havana Heaven: pulled pork, ham, Monterey jack, special sauce, pickles on concord bread, grilled ($10.50)
and sampled:
Andi’s Loose-knit Crew: grilled portobello, Gorgonzola cheese, crispy bacon, Monterey jack, spinach, red onions, special sauce on concord bread, grilled ($10)
Fern’s Problem Solver: turkey, Monterey jack, avocado, Russian dressing on Semolina bread, grilled ($10.25)

I liked my pork-heavy selection the best. The pulled pork was incredibly moist and savory. It was wonderfully offset by the sauce and pickles and the bread was fantastically soft. My only complaint was that it was so heavy, I could barely finish the whole thing, but that’s really my fault for ordering a double-pork sandwich. My sandwich companions had this to say about Andi’s LKC: “the perfect combination of hearty bread, fresh veggies and strong gooey cheese.” She doesn’t usually talk like that, for some reason she was stuck in billboard-speak whenever I pressed her for her thoughts. My other companion liked the Problem Solver very much, though I thought it tasted a bit too strongly of Russian dressing.

All together, the sandwiches are fantastic. Yes, $10 is way expensive for sandwiches, but I’d rather pay this than eat two “$5 foot longs” from a certain underground transportation chain. Most of them could have easily doubled for two meals, so if you have a little restraint, they’re really not too expensive; then again, restraint is hard when they’re this good.

['wich plot coming soon!]

Fresh pork, hope you’re hungry (Havana Heaven):

Look at all that fresh pork (Havana Heaven):

Fresh greens (Loose-knit Crew):

Crunchy and rich (Problem Solver):

What comes out of this tiny “deli” stall? Sandwiches of course! Sure they sell soup and chips and stuff but who cares. Shamas is all about sandwiches. I tried their ’spicy turkey’ (which is really just “Cracked Pepper Mill Smoked Turkey Breast” from Boars Head) sandwich on a roll ($8) with hot peppers, cheese, mayo and some fixins. Yeah, you read that correctly, you order from the tiny stall and they still charge you $8! You aren’t even INSIDE when you order and they charge $8! It’s amazing what people will get away here. Aside from the horrible pricing, the sandwiches are tasty, a bit above par. The bread is nice and soft and the ingredients are fresh. The sandwich’s on the menu are a bit boring and there’s not much to challenge your taste buds, but if you’re looking for something dependable, it’s a good decision.

The ‘deli’:

“Spicy Turkey”:

Pastrami:

I tried the Vietnamese BBQ Beef ($9), apparently their most popular item. It was incredibly savory from the basil-mayo and shredded beef with a bit of pickled-carrots to add texture and spice. It is delicious, all the marketing buzz was right! Bite after bite of delicious buttery beef and mayo. God I love mayo. Like most sandwiches, it wasn’t perfect, there was a lot of filling creep and the sesame bun could’ve done a better job holding it all together, but those aren’t deal-breakers.

Ignore the buzz – eat the sandwiches!

Complex and well delivered:

They all come in these clear plastic trays:

The carrots were a bit haphazard but wonderfully bright:

Visitor, say hello to mayo and beef:

Not much, I decided. Thankfully I was right, all is well in the limb department. More importantly the little buggers were delicious. L’Orange Bleu (430 Broome St, New York, NY) is a Moroccan-ish restaurant in SoHo that has a wonderful oyster special that I can never resist. They have tables outside that are perfect for watching the parking lot across the street or hoping some anorexic models walk by. After you have a few happy-hour oysters, get these delicious mini-burgers. I expected them to be cooked gray and be a little chewy, after all what do Moroccan’s know about mini-burgers? Everything. These were perfectly cooked to medium, not too greasy and complimented my Sunday fear-test perfectly. Free yourself from the media terror, eat mini-burgers!

(Disclaimer: I have no idea how safe the meat is, but it taste delicious.)

Better quality than I expected for a fairly simple dish:

Fresh:

Upclose (No E. Coli here!):

Here’s their pitch: fried chicken is delicious; even better with delicious sauces. Okay, that’s how I describe it, I have no idea what their pitch is. It says “Glatt Kosher” where the pitch should be. Maybe it’s something like “Jews love chicken!”? Regardless, it seems like a winner, after all, let’s not be dividers: everyone loves fried chicken! Aside from the kosher-tax-inflated prices, it was very tasty. I tried the Spanish Schnitzel sandwich ($10) which is their lingo for chicken that’s pounded flat, breaded with spicy peppers, deep fried and put into baguette sandwich. I got mine with a side of spicy sauce, though it was more mayo-y than spicy. All together, the sandwich was delicious. The chicken wasn’t overpowering, wasn’t greasy and the other ingredients tasted pretty good (like sauteed onions and pickles) together.

My mind wasn’t blown, but I’d go back. If only the prices were a few bucks cheaper.

The sandwiches are phenomenal. It’s run as a human business, not a robot business (skynet?): when they run out of ingredients, they don’t serve those sandwiches that day. When you order something, it’s made fresh: you can see the huge chunks of cured meat being trimmed and sliced. To top it off the sandwiches are fantastic combinations of complementary flavors. The smoked turkey and the sweet peppers go perfectly together. The prosciutto and hot peppers and oil mix wonderfully. The bread is chewy and crusty without making you feel like an animal ripping through food with your teeth.

I had the Michelangelo (prosciutto, provolone cheese, hot peppers, arugula for $10.50) and tried my companion’s Marina (smoked chicken breast, fresh mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes, arugula, for $10.50).

Go to Alidoro, it is amazing.

So fresh (and so clean):

Prosciutto heaven:

Thank god there’s another half:

Fresh roasted Marina:

I’m lookin’ at you delicious turkey:

From scratch means: You grow your tomato, you grow your lettuce, you cure your own bacon or pancetta, you bake your own bread (wild yeast preferred and gets higher marks but is not required), you make your own mayo. All other embellishments, creative interpretations of the BLT welcome.

He judged the sandwiches based on best photo, best reinterpretation and best overall preparation. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to submit a recipe. Fortunately I have plenty of time to drool over the photos of mouth-watering BLTs.

In his commentary, Ruhlman hits the nail on the head. Most BLTs are too wimpy, the bacon is so slight that it feels more like a veggie sandwich topped with a little sprinkling of tasty pork. Instead he slightly refines the BLT as “[...] a pork belly sandwich, garnished with L, T and mayo.” Yes! It’s a bacon steak sandwich with some incidental accessories. I can’t wait for this bit of wisdom to percolate through the food industry and BLT’s arrive on plates heavy with pork-belly.

Did anyone here enter the contest? Have any other insights on the BLT?

Where were we? Oh right, at Shorty’s! I tried their “Shorty’s Classic” ($10 for a whole, $7 for a Shorty): grilled tomatoes, Italian seasoning, oregano, provolone and steak. The bread was fresh and fantastic: a little mushy and a little crusty to keep all that grease contained. The sandwich was cheesy and very salty from the Italian seasoning. Unfortunately among all that seasoning the actual steak wasn’t too flavorful and the provolone was hard to taste. I had fun eating it and would return if I had a craving near by, but it’s not worth much of a journey. Maybe their regular steak has more of that greasy punch that just takes me away? I’m going to test drive the regular wiz wit’ later this week and see how it measures up to the big boys.

Update, 9.27.09: I went back and had the sandwich I should’ve gotten the first time: the regular cheesesteak with wiz and mushrooms ($10). It was a whole different experience. Where the “Shorty’s Classic” was too salty and not cheesy enough, the regular cheese steak was fantastic: gooey, steaky, cheesy with just a hint of onions and mushrooms. It was nearly perfect. This is what I was expecting an uptown competitor to Wogies! It’s a little sad to see a place that serves such a good steak sandwich dumb it down by going ‘upmarket’ and taking all the flavor out. When you come to Shorty’s, do me a favor, don’t read the menu. Stick with what you know: wiz ‘wit is all you need to try.

In this case, the lower strategy is better, KISS I suppose:

The classic freshly unwrapped:

Melty classic:

The one I tried was quite good, but nothing to get TOO fanatical about. I tried the Prosciutto di Parma: prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, sliced plum tomatoes, fresh basil and olive oil, served on foccacia ($8.75). The sandwich was a pleasure to eat: the flavors were well balanced, not too salty not too sweet, the bread was soft and fluffy and the mozzarella was just a touch salty (and not cold!). Of course, you have to really like foccacia, because it was very thick; thankfully it was also very fluffy and didn’t overpower the other ingredients at all.

No need to start worshiping, just a good reason to swing by and pick up something tasty.

They’re made with love:

Fresh ‘wich (Kid Robot not included):

Sitting pretty:

Nom nom nom: