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Schnitzel and Things Truck Rocks the Schnitzelwich

Thursday, September 9, 2010

We are living in a food revolution. The food truck has graduated from run of the mill halal carts (not you Famous Cart) to full-blown mobile kitchen good eats. If you’ve been in NYC recently you’ve noticed the parade of nicely painted food carts taking their spots around town selling everything from dessert (ice cream and cupcakes) to full meals (burgers and mexican). It’s gotten so big that the food network has even started a reality show based around food trucks: The Great Food Truck Race. (Yuck!) If you’re from out of town you probably think food trucks are gross, let me be the first to tell you, they are incredible. Now that you’re ready, here’s a handy site to see where your favorite trucks are today: FindNYCFoodTrucks.

Oddly enough most of these trucks seem hell-bent on serving sit-down food instead of the obvious choice for mobile ingestion: sandwiches! I don’t really get it. My best guess is that they’re trying to stand out by serving food you can’t get as easily as sandwiches, but in the process being incredibly short-sighted. Hell, most dedicated sandwich shops don’t have kitchens much bigger than a truck – talk about a natural (and literal) fit!

Finally I visited Schinitzel and Things (various locations, get the latest on their twitter account) and my dreams of ultra-mobile sandwiching were realized. They serve all kinds of schnitzel (pounded and deep fried meat) with a variety of condiments as a ‘platter’ or sandwich (aka ‘schnitzelwich’) for $10 or $8. This ain’t your regular cart food. It’s just as expensive as any fancy sandwich you’d get elsewhere in the city and I had high expectations.

I got my first wich, sat down and they were met immediately. The schnitzelwich is incredible: the schnitzel is warm and crunchy without being dry, the bread is soft and toasted, the sriracha mayo is gently hot. It comes in tin foil and the process of ordering, sitting down outside and being enveloped in crunchy chicken is fantastic. I haven’t tried the other meats since I’m so taken with the chicken, but I’d wager they are equally delicious. Once, the schnitzel was a little dry and not quite as crunchy, but that never stops me from getting excited when the truck is nearby (most of my coworkers don’t even bother to check their twitter, they just wait for me to get loud about it every week).

Go forth and schnitzelwich! You will enjoy every bite.

Deep fried quality:

Unopened:

Looking Inside:

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Paradis To Go is Honest

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Paradis To Go (114 4th ave, NY, NY, near 12th St.) is adorable. It’s tiny and has a few chairs and tables in front and a few cases in the back where the magic sandwiches are made. The decor isn’t over the top, so it wasn’t until I stared at the sign that I realized it’s taken inspiration from French Cafes. Then again, what sandwich shop hasn’t? I stopped by shortly after noon on a weekday to find all the tables taken and a short line. The service is slow, French slow even, and I’m totally okay with that. I want them to give as much love to my food as possible, Subway this ain’t (thank god).

I was temped by all the pre-packaged foods such as lasagne and chicken salads, but I stuck to my guns and got the Spiced Rub Pork with provolone and sweet & sour cabbage on a semolina fennel, grilled. It was delicious. Not too big and not too small, with the bread nice and crispy and the cheese all gooey and warm. When it’s raining, this is what you want to eat. It’s that feeling you get when you put on socks fresh from the dryer, mid-cycle on high-heat. It just makes you purr a little bit under your breath.

Predictably, it’s got great ingredients in a relatively simple sandwich:

Fresh from the grill:

Fresh from the dryer:

Paradis To Go on Urbanspoon

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No.7 Sub Pushes the Submarine

Monday, May 24, 2010

You know sandwiches have made it to the big leagues, when they’re chosen as the casual arm of a swanky new hotel. No.7 Sub (1188 Broadway, between 28th and 29th St), by the same owners as No7 in Brooklyn, is just that and provides gustatory support to the Ace Hotel. While the Ace’s lobby is sprawling and cozy, No.7 Sub is just a few square feet to stand in while you wait for your sandwiches. I went on a Friday afternoon and it was jam packed. Oddly enough, especially for new york, everyone was clean, not-smelly and pretty happy. I always expect at least one weirdo / bum to show up in any group larger than 7, but alas the class of the Ace has them scared away.

I tried two sandwiches, both served “hot”, both $9:
Roast beef: Horseradish, Pickled Endive, Fried Scallions
Turkey Cubano: Pickled Daikon, Chinese Mustard, Swiss

In reality both were served barely warmer than room temperature. Perhaps they sat a bit after they were finished or maybe they were never properly warmed? Regardless, they would’ve been much better piping hot. Both sandwiches combine odd flavors and ingredients in new ways. I’ve never heard of fried scallions and would never have thought to put them on a roast beef sandwich; likewise for pickled daikon on a cubano. These guys are really pulling out the stops to spice up old standbys. It usually works, though can occasionally be a bit too ‘funky.’ My sandwich companion didn’t much like how red the roast beef looked and didn’t really like the turkey because it had a funky sweetness to it. I was intrigued by both, but haven’t rushed back to have them again.

The roast beef was the better of the two: the beef was tender and moist. I loved the spice and crunch from the daikon and horseradish. The scallion provided a pleasant crunch, but the one hard over-fried bit I got, made me a bit wary of knocking out a tooth each time I took a bite
The turkey was delicious, but a bit funkily sweet. I ate most of the sandwich wondering what that mushy stuff was and eventually settled on ‘pulled turkey’ (brown meat). It was good, but didn’t taste anything like any cuban sandwich I’ve ever had.

In all, No 7 Sub has some creative sandwiches that are fun to try out now and then. It’s not the kind of place I could ever go back to regularly, but if I’m with someone who likes to try new food experiences and doesn’t mind being a little risky with their $9 sandwich I’d go back.


No. 7 Sub on Urbanspoon

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Take the Crosby Connection to ‘Wichland

Friday, April 30, 2010

Ever since this blog has been around one place has stayed on the ‘wichlist: Crosby Connection (45 Bleecker St, New York, NY). Back then it was a little shop on Crosby Street, where it hits Bleecker. I’ve tried a handful of times to visit it but every time it was closed for one reason or another; the hours they kept were bizarre. It became my white whale, haunting my dreams, taunting me, always there in plain sight, but totally unattainable. I’d read about how amazing it was on various sites (for example) and I kept trying to get one, but was stymied at every attempt. After a few moves, they settled down in the lobby of the Bleeker Street Theatre. I’m happy to announce that today I put my whale to rest and it’s tender meat was every bit as succulent as I’d hoped — all the legends are true: Crosby Connection is incredible.

First of all, the shop is adorable. The menu is hand written (and never actually says ‘Crosby Connection’). The whole endeavor is the concession stand at the theatre and the actual ‘sandwich shop’ part is really just a counter for the owner (Joey Cramarossa) to prepare sandwiches. He does each one with a visible amount of love, trying to hurry to keep the line short, but still putting heart into each one. He’s also got this amazing gruff and calm demeanor but this isn’t SimplyAttitudes, so I’ll let you discover that for yourself.

I tried the Suze Special for $7.00: prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, sweet roasted peppers, avocado, basil, virgin olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. I don’t usually appreciate mozzarella in sandwiches, too often it’s just cold and slimy (ever been to Cosi?), but in this case it was room temperature and absolutely beautiful. The bread was fluffy and mild, keeping everything together. The tomato and avocados were perfectly ripe and their combination with thin slices of prosciutto was buttery and amazing.

Next chance I get, I’ll be back to try another. You should too.

It’s got it all:

Ahoy matey, something spotted on the brig:

Thar She Blows:

Delicious, Tender Whale Meat (not really, don’t attack me PETA):

Crosby Connection on Urbanspoon

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Smoke Joint Smoke’s ‘em

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Went to Smoke Joint (87 South Elliott Place, Brooklyn, NY) and got some pulled pork and some chopped beef (both $7.50) sandwiches. Both were fantastic: succulent and flavorful. The bread did a great job holding the filling in and didn’t hide any of the meaty taste. Sides were tasty too, but who cares about them? Smoke joint is MUCH better than other NYC bbq joints I’ve tried (I’m looking at you Wildwood and RUB). Have a bourbon, some BBQ and relax the day away.

Simple sandwiches with wonderful ingredients:

Outside the beef:

Inside the beef:

Smoke Joint on Urbanspoon

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Stand Down and Step Away from the Grill

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Stand4 (24 East 12th st, between University Pl and 5th ave) is some kind of mix between a French bistro and an American burger joint. It sounds nice but comes off a bit like a cafeteria. Or maybe it was all the kids eating with their parents that did that. There are lots of kids, bring yours.

I have no idea what the name means. Maybe you’re supposed to stand up when you eat? Why bother with the seats then? Was “Sit” taken? Maybe it’s their screenname and Stand1 through Stand3 were already taken? It feels like they knew they were opening a boring burger joint and tried to spruce it up with a super-modern name.

Cynicism aside their menu is obviously loaded with protein: lots of beef patties, cheese, bacon and eggs piled onto buns ranging from $5 to $15. I was starving (hungover) and went all the way by ordering the big kahuna: “Bold Burger”: Brioche, two 7 oz. beef patties, applewood smoked bacon, sauteed onions, American and cheddar cheese, pickle, tomato, chipotle sauce, fried egg for $15.

The server said they only serve it well-done because otherwise it falls apart, gross. It’s so big you can’t get your mouth around it and, come on, you can’t eat a big ass burger like that by taking little pansy bites off the bottom! Regretfully, I put it down and used a knife and fork, truly a sad fate for a hamburger. The bun was pleasantly soft but the beef was grossly over-cooked. The cheese and bacon were tasteless and added a little texture to mix up the chewy ground beef. I realized as I was stuffing bite after bite of over-cooked beef patty and cheese into my face that it’s never a good idea to see ground meat. Sausages and hamburgers should always be shrouded in bun, without it they just look gross all mealy and grey! Aside from the obvious food-coma, the burger was pretty bland.

My friend got the more traditional “Bacon & Egg Cheeseburger”: Beef, crispy applewood smoked bacon, cheddar, hard-boiled egg mayo for $12. He says that the best part about it was that the fillings didn’t fall off the bun. It doesn’t get much more boring than that, not even a word about the taste. Not good Stand4, not good.

I wouldn’t go back except maybe to actually stand up and have a beer.

Poor execution really kills them here:

I know I asked for it, but look at that:

It’s absurd:

How petite by comparison:

Stand on Urbanspoon

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