Simply Sandwiches » pulled pork

Hi-Rise Rises the Bar [sic]

Ben — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:48:28 +0000

One glorious holiday afternoon I went to Hi Rise (208 Concord Avenue, Cambridge, MA) and sampled their amazing sandwiches. While it’s a bakery first, they’ve gone bonkers and decided to sell sandwiches, coffee and wine. What else could you want? Obviously all their sandwiches use their amazing breads, but many also use other delicious house-made ingredients (like pulled pork). The “bakery” has a rustic, back-of-the-woods feel with a cobblestone floor and a huge wooden table. The menu is on a huge chalkboard above the counters and all the sandwiches have cute little names (see below). It’s all very cozy.

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):

Pork from the Tavern

Ben — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:35:05 +0000

We’ve seen how incredible small barbecue places can be, but how well do upscale, warm-and-fuzzy, Michelin-star-winning restaurants do barbecue? To unravel this mystery, I visited the Gramercy Tavern for lunch and immediately ordered their $18 pulled pork sandwich, served with cole slaw and “Pickled Swiss Chard,” whatever those are.

As expected, it came on a white plate, with a bunch of random little veggies that I wouldn’t bother to touch. The sandwich was simple enough:

- Fresh roll

- Pulled pork

It was good. It wasn’t the religious experience I had the last time I ate pulled pork, but it was tasty and competent. The photo’s make it look dry, which it was only slightly. The roll wasn’t tough or chewy at all. It was a touch too sweet, but fantastically buttery. It could have used a little more sauce, since there was almost none. It’d order it again, half for the taste, and half to celebrate the fact that a sandwich has made it onto this fancy menu (and finally booted some boring seared tuna or lame game hen).

The plate: What are those things on the left?

The sandwich: stare deep into the murky depths!

The bite: Delicious!

Pulled from Magic Pigs in the Sky

Ben — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:53:53 +0000

This post is not like the others. The pulled pork from Blue Ribbon Barbecue is so tasty and simple that I’m not sure what to say about it. It’s a little sweet, extremely soft and is served between two fluffy buns. It’s delicious. It melts in your mouth. It’s never stringy or too chewy and not too soft or overcooked. It doesn’t look like much, but it tastes like heaven. Granted I’ve never been to the south, but if they eat like this every day, I’ll be packin’ my things in a jiffy. A JIFFY.

The fluffy mashed potatoes and sweet baked beans are nice icing on the cake.

Ingredients:

soft bun
delicious, roasted, bbq pulled pork