That's It Market

My boyfriend and I are trying to complete a tour of all the places that Anthony Bourdain visits on the San Francisco episode of No Reservations. We recently made a pilgrimage to That's It Market on 23rd and Mission (2699 Mission Street), home of the largest Cuban Torta. This sandwich is truly a behomoth. For $10, you can get a sandwich that really is the size of two sandwiches.



The Cuban Torta includes beef milanesa, chorizo, egg, ham, bacon, sliced hot dog, avocado, queso fresca, and tomato, and it's finished with jalapenos, sour cream, and mayonnaise. It was rich, delicious, and intense. Here is a picture of my boyfriend trying to tackle the sandwich.



That's It Market is inside of a liquor store that sells lots of Mexican candy treats and Spanish language magazines. They had the chili mangoes that I love. You can eat your gigantamus torta at the marbled counter they have installed right next to the deli cooler and in front of the grills. We were under the impression that one could enjoy a beer at the counter, but were informed that open beer wasn't allowed, so we mosied outside and finished our torta on the sidewalk.

Carte 415 Update

Went back for more yesterday. This time, the cowgirl three cheese sandwich with grilled rapini, sunburst tomato confit, and majoram. I liked the rapini inside my fancy grilled cheese, but I thought the sandwich as a whole tasted like pizza. Again, it was accompanied by a little cup of pickled vegetables, which I forgot about until after half my sandwich was consumed. I kicked myself mentally for missing out the chance to combine flavors.

I was still hungry after finishing my pizza sandwich, so I decided to splurge and follow up with their homemade yogurt with summer berries for $6.



Oh my god.

I was happy that no one was around me in the atrium where I was eating, because I made gratuitous mmm noises for the entirety of my consumption. The yogurt comes with granola and a cup of mixed berries. It was the best thing I've eaten in weeks. The yogurt was thick, creamy, and very likely strained like a Greek yogurt. I was sad that it came in a recyclable plastic container, and not a compostable container, but wow, I was okay with a little ecological transgression after the first bite.

Carte 415

Carte 415 has opened! The food cart, housed in the atrium of 101 Second Street is helmed by ex-Stonehill Tavern chef, Joshua Skenes. The cart is two blocks away from my workplace. I was excited about a new sustainable, gourmet lunch option, after receiving both a Daily Candy, and a Thrillist email announcing its arrival about a month ago. I marched down to second street on my lunch hour to find an empty atrium. I checked the website, I checked the address, and I posted on Yelp about it. Someone replied saying that they hit some delays.

I had almost forgotten about it when one of my co-workers informed me today that it had indeed opened. When I got into line, at least three people, including myself, were taking cell phone photos of the cart for blogs and Yelp reviews, I'm sure.

I ordered the charcuterie sandwich which featured boccalone cured meats on a baguette, a watercress type green, gruyere cheese and a sweet chutney. Attractively packaged, the sandwiches come in little balsa wood boats alongside a tiny corn plastic cup full of pickled vegetables. I wondered about the sustainability of the wooden boat, but I'm sure it might have something do with its ability to be both composted and re-used. My sandwich for $8 was satisfying but not large. I get scared of cured meats sometimes, because they can be too salty, but I found that the quince jam on the bread made a nice balance.



Other items offered on the menu were crudites, packaged upright in a plastic drink cup with a dome lid, as well as dirty girl tomato gazpacho.

Tomorrow I'll try the three cheese sandwich, and maybe I'll bring back my balsa wood tray to be re-used.

5 Days of Sentinel Sandwiches

Day One Smoked Salmon Sandwich



5 days of Sentinel Sandwiches begins. Day One features Salmon salad with dill and pieces of lox on top, butter lettuce, and seeded bun. The Sentinel is a small lunch kiosk with daily changing amazingness. Chef Dennis Leary of Canteen barks out orders and slings out sandwiches in the teeny tiny kitchen.

Day Two Veggie Sandwich with Curried Raisins



Day two featurees the veggie sandwich with mushrooms, swiss chard, golden raisins, curried raisins with sun-dried tomato spread and goat cheese and topped with butter lettuce on seeded bun. I enjoyed the cooked leafy greens, which added extra texture to the sandwich. The goat cheese was spreadable like cream cheese or marscapone. www.thesentinelsf.com/

Day Three Corned Beef



This may be the swansong of the Sentinel, the corned beef with sauerkraut, carmelized onions, gruyere cheese and russian dressing on ciabatta. It has the most bravodo of all the sandwiches and the corned beef was not too salty. I might have gone for a little less meat, and a little more dressing, but that's picking nits. It was a pretty damn amazing sandwich. www.thesentinelsf.com/ Oh and let me also note that all of their sandwiches come with a homemade dill pickle. I have never liked dill pickles before in my life, but I think I may have turned a corner. I really like their dill pickles. They are so refreshing and so crisp, and it was the perfect note after the corned beef sandwich.




Day Four, Meatloaf and Meunster



Meatloaf and Meunster sandwich with mayo and butter lettuce. Wow, this was some serious business. The meat loaf was thick and soft, and cooked with a touch of pink on the inside, so that puddle on the paper in the bottom half of the photo is a mix of mayo and bloody meat juice. Today, I received an Andes mint as opposed to the usual butterscotch.

Day Five, Deviled Ham With Meunster



While remarkably similar to the meatloaf sandwich, the deviled ham and meunster sandwich was distinct in texture and flavor. I looked up the ingredients in deviled ham and it entails mined ham that has been mixed with scallions, sour cream and spices like cayenne, taragon and mustard. It is not as spicy as it sounds. This deviled ham tasted mildly of tabasco and there was a bit too much ham for my taste. The sandwich also had butter letturce, cream cheese, and the occasional walnut.


Bonus Day - Chicken Salad Sandwich



Chicken salad with lemon, sesame and chili. A surprsingly light and very meaty chicken salad sandwich. Shredded pieces of chicken breast are tossed in a light aioli with lemon juice and a touch of sesame and chili. I would put this right behind the veggie sandwich for lightness. Thus concludes the Sentinel's Winter menu. Amen.

BreadxBread

BreadXBread

Sandwich love in full force with poems, carbs, and more. Bloggers after my own heart.

Canned Sardines

I had my second sardine sandwich this week. Yum. I think I found a new canned protein friend.

I really liked canned fish when I was little, my sister reminded me the other day. I used to eat kippers straight from the can with a fork.

My first sardine sandwich was the result of a google search for sardine sandwich, and it came from this blog. It was one side sardines mixed with sauted mushrooms, onions, and garlic, and then a little olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. On the other side of the bread was melted cheese. I heated both sides in the oven.

The bread I was eating was too thick, the cheese wasn't strong enough, but the sardine mixture was delicious. I also tried to eat this sandwich with lettuce which was a big flop because the lettuce was wilting between the halves pathetically. I pulled out the lettuce and tried to eat as much sardine as possible.

My second sardine sandwich was much more of a success. I ate it on untoasted sourdough bread with lettuce and mustard. This can of sardines was packed in tomato sauce, which I've read is common for sardines that come from Mexico or if they are packed in Thailand. I still added some olive oil and lemon juice to the mix, which was a good call because the lemon seemed to balance the acid in the tomatoes to make a more mild flavor.

On the downside, these sardines were cheaper and more gritty than the previous can I purchased.

I was worried about the mercury content being high in sardines like tuna, but I read on the internet that the sardine's low status on the food chain makes it far less of a risky fish to eat. They contain less mercury because their lives are shorter, and they don't eat other fish who contain mercury like predatory fish such as tuna.

Also in terms of the food chain, sardines are incredibly sustainable. When you eat predators, you are eating a larger chunk out of the food chain, but since sardines are bottom feeders, they reproduce faster, and there are more of them to eat. Eating bottom feeders impacts bio-diversity less.

Cheap, low mercury levels, non-perishable, environmentally sustainble, high in omega-threes and delicious. Oh sardines, I think this the beginning of a beautiful friendship.