a cut above

santa monica, ca

website

what comes to mind when you hear the phrase "hipster butcher shop"? whatever is in your mind's eye is probably a pretty accurate representation of a cut above. they sell beautiful meat - the kind that is marbled in all the right places and has a rich color that you know will taste good no matter what you do to it. but they also sell sandwiches - very popular sandwiches. pictured is the bbq pulled pork - slow roasted pork shoulder with secret sauce, pickled carrots, red onions, served on a brioche bun. i've tried nearly every sandwich on their chalkboard menu - grassfed roast beef, roasted turkey club, italian salumi, chicken salad ... all delicious. i've heard the salads are good here, but unless you're a vegetarian, i recommend a meaty sandwich or their beef chili.

defonte's

3rd ave & 21st

website

i think this might be my new favorite sandwich. it's definitely a close race between defonte's hot roast beef sandwich and num pang's pulled pork sandwich. i discovered defonte's through the "a sandwich a day" feature on the nyc seriouseats blog. the original defonte's is in brookyln, but thankfully there's a manhattan outpost that delivers to my apartment.

the hot roast beef sandwich is so much more than what the name implies. at defonte's, the sandwich is served with crusty french bread, soaked in au jus, piled high with thinly sliced juicy roast beef, house-made mozzarella, and get this - a slice of fried eggplant. ridiculous. it gets a little cold in the delivery process, but wrap in foil and toast it in the toaster oven for a minute and the bread gets crispy on top and the mozzarella and meat warm through perfectly. yum.

dish d'lish @ seatac

seatac airport, wa

website

kathy casey is a fixture in the seattle food scene. i'm not sure what the source of her fame is, but i do know that her dish d'lish in the recently remodeled pacific marketplace is the source of my flight food. i usually order one of the paninis - always gooey and good. there's a comfortable and spacious seating area to enjoy your meal and wait for your flight.

i also picked up a chocolate bar with almonds, some cold chicken, and crackers for my 4.5 hour flight back to new york. the chicken was a bad idea because it made my bag smell like a deli, but the crackers and chocolate bar were excellent.

specialty's

bellevue, wa

website

when i worked in seattle, i would come here for lunch all the time to get a cup of soup, maybe a sandwich, and usually a freshly baked cookie (oatmeal milk chocolate). and now, several years later, they've opened branches throughout seattle, including one in the bellevue square mall.

cindy and i stopped for lunch to fuel up for post-christmas shopping - spicy corn chowder and a turkey pesto sandwich. specialty's soups are always thick, creamy and very comforting. i once asked them if they used cream and they said instead they used some sort of grain to thicken the soup for the texture without the calories. of course you can make up for those calories with one of their freshly baked cookies or a sandwich on their freshly baked bread. so good.

burrito box

new york, ny

website

i'm surprised this place even has a website. jenny dragged me all the way across town to try her favorite hole-in-the-wall burrito place. i happened to be carrying a giant binder of documents in my bag so i was constantly getting bumped and pushed trying to order and wait for my food.

of course, such places inevitably have great food. i took a picture of jenny's veggie wrap (with avocado and cheese) because it was much more photogenic than my quesadilla filled with ground beef. but both were tasty and definitely worth the price. $8 for a huge quesadilla (with guac, sour cream, and pico de gallo), plus chips and salsa. my quesadilla was on par with blockheads, but i think jenny's wrap is worth trekking to the west side for.

casellula

new york, ny

website

highly recommended by kate and y&a. the three of them suggest ordering the amazing truffle fries, but i have yet to see it on the menu (and i've been three times already...) the cheese plate is my favorite part of the menu. before casellula, i didn't even know that fromagers existed. they do. and the one at casellula is brilliant. you tell your server your cheese preferences (derek and i don't like bleu or stinky cheeses) and how many cheeses you want (at $6 each, be cautious). then the fromager works her magic and throws together a cheese plate that delights and surprises. each cheese comes with a specific condiment that matches the cheese perfectly. our gouda came with a vodka mustard sauce - amazing. our middle cheese came with a sweet brittle - delicious. and derek loved the corn pudding that came with the brie. so good - if you like cheese you have to try this place.

oh, there are other things that are good too. the pig's ass sandwich. it tastes as good as it sounds. the mac and cheese has comte and bacon in it. ridiculous. for dessert - order the chocolate cake. just before you dig in, your server will pour a cup of cool fresh cream over it. a few months ago, my sister cindy and i dined here with y&a before our broadway show. we nearly missed the start of the show because we were in chocolate-cake-fresh-cream heaven...

initially posted 8/31/2009 -- reposted with better photo (but different cheeses...)

porchetta

new york, ny

website

finally the day came when jenny and i made it out of our offices early enough to get to porchetta before the crowds hit. we managed to snag 2 of the 6 bar stools inside the restaurant. there's an outdoor bench where another 6 people can sit, but it was cold outside. despite only seating 12, this place gets very busy. the namesake, porchetta, is the highlight and pretty much all they serve. we each ordered a porchetta sandwich and shared the honey-covered brussel sprouts.

eating an entire porchetta sandwich was an incredibly delicious, but a once-in-a-lifetime experience because twice might kill you. only two ingredients - porchetta and bread. the pork, flavored with italian herbs, was juicy and fatty goodness. the chewy and dense ciabatta bun perfectly soaked up all of the extra pork juices (okay, grease). pork gluttony at its best. our advice - don't order an entire sandwich - split it with someone else and then go for a salad afterward. but i know that when you're in the moment, you're going to think, "i have to finish this incredible sandwich." fine. but just this once.

xie xie

new york, ny

CLOSED

asian ingredients on a baguette-like bread, but definitely not a traditional banh mi sandwich. it's okay, though, because the xie xie sandwiches are delicious. and very filling.

i had the shredded-chicken-smoked-egg-salad sandwich which came with pickled cabbage and cilantro. unique and tasty. to use the banh mi comparison, the cabbage took the place of the marinated vegetables and the smoked egg salad seemed to play the pate role. y had the make-your-own sweet glazed pork sandwich, which was also very tasty. the pork, sweet and sour "condiment" and steamed mantao buns came separately, but unfortunately she ran out of mantao buns before she ran out of meat. next time, we'll definitely have to ask for extra buns.

'wichcraft

new york, ny

website

'wichcraft is a great sandwich shop - not a lot of variety, but quality ingredients. my go-to sandwich is the mozzarella & fontina melt with olive tapenade (pictured with potato salad). best grilled cheese ever. derek likes the turkey club sandwich and their soups. we also tried the apple turnover - which honestly tasted like a fanchy version of mickey d's apple pie ...

they have locations throughout the city, usually near parks. we took our sandwiches to madison square park and ate them on a bench next to the playground. perfect nyc meal.

updated: mantao

new york, ny

CLOSED

see link for July 16 post.

attempt #2 was more successful. pictured is the curry chicken pancake roll. chicken was actually moist and the pancake is like a cong you bing but without the scallions. the egg mantao with xiang chang was pretty good, but it's difficult to screw up anything that has chinese sausage in it. the mantao itself was slightly more moist than last time. jenny ordered the sesame noodles which she said were just okay and could use more actual sesame flavor. her chrysanthemum tea was good, my milk green tea was not so good.

to summarize - it's still a hit or miss spot, but at least we had a few hits today. will probably go back again to try the rest of the menu. even so, the quality is nowhere near the level of the asian sandwich shops you can find outside of midtown east. oh midtown.

mantao

new york, ny

CLOSED

a few weeks ago, jenny and i were walking back to our offices from lunch when we noticed the sign for a new restaurant opening up on the block - mantao chinese sandwiches! since then, we've been waiting waiting waiting for it to open. i finally went today and ordered the pork bun, short rib+kimchee bun, and shrimp chips. see pic. (it came with a salad too, but who wants to see that?)

eh. it was alright. meat was kind of dry and tasteless. shrimp chips were dense and cracker-y. i hoped for a mini-ippudo/momofuku/bao-like outpost near work, but i was just setting myself up for disappointment. that being said, it is right next to the office, so i'll probably go again and try something different on their yummy-sounding menu.

will update this post if i go again and if i can figure out how to update old posts.

num pang

new york, ny

website

yes - derek and i ate two banh mi-style sandwiches in two days. anyway - i ordered the pulled pork and derek ordered the pork belly special sandwich. i liked this one better than baoguette because the vegetables were more flavorful and more prominent. there was still a LOT of pork (as you can see in the picture), but once i removed (okay, ate) the larger pieces of pork, the proportions were perfect. derek's pork belly version was much juicier and greasier, but i was quite content with mine. the bread, however, was still off. and the portions were small. it's hard to tell from the picture, but this sandwich looked like a mini-banh-mi, maybe 3/5 the size of the baoguette.

btw - don't think that this is a cambodian version of a banh mi sandwich. derek says there's no such thing, but cambodians do eat vietnamese banh mi sandwiches.

baoguette

new york, ny

link to baoguette on yelp

ordered the baoguette from baoguette. derek and i are on a quest to find an authentic banh mi sandwich in manhattan (or if not authentic, yummy enough to overcome the inauthenticity.) baoguette had excellent barbecued pork (see dark red meat in the middle) and a good spicy sauce. but there was just too much pork and it overwhelmed the vegetables (i know, you're shocked that i thought there was too much pork, me too). plus the bread was underwhelming. that said, would probably eat there again to try their other sandwiches but the search for a good banh mi continues ...

also - note that my labels are inaccurate and will probably reflect a skewed understanding of geography, food, and prices. whatever.