An Unabashedly Gluttonous Inquiry Into the Origins and Meaning of the Greatest Goddamn Photographs American by Food Travis Ever Rathbone
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Recipe on page 151. AN UNABASHEDLY GLUTTONOUS INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGINS AND MEANING OF THE GREATEST GODDAMN PHOTOGRAPHS AMERICAN BY FOOD TRAVIS EVER RATHBONE RECIPES BY THE WORKSHOP KITCHEN SAN FRANCISCO ou can keep the Constitution, the tions and croque madames at bistros and White Castles when no Colt .45, the Internet, and the iPhone: one is looking. There was a flank steak, olive oil, andmozzarella di What makes me proudest as an bufala hero on semolina bread, wrapped in sandy newspaper, that American is our sandwiches. you shared with your new bride on the beach during your hon- There are a lot of us. We eat a lot. We eymoon; ten years after that, a pork roll, egg, and cheese marked eat on the move. And we make it up as the morning you got back together after a bad spell. Leftover tur- we go along. We didn’t require some key dressed with gravy, schmeared with stuffing, and thrown onto British aristocrat to take the basic a doubled-over slice of rye helps one man shake off a hangover out- Y stuff of life—meat and cheese and side Burlington, Vermont; a truck-stop chicken biscuit helps an- often more meat and more cheese—and put it between two slices other finish the haul to Johnson City. of bread. No, all we needed to create the sub and the Dagwood and And despite all our transience, our relative disregard for conti- the Cubano and the French dip and the pastrami on rye was the nuity, life here in Sandwich Nation will always be fundamentally unleashed energies of a million hungry people from a hundred dif- local—the taste of home, the thing you miss when you move. I’m ferent cultures. People who didn’t have the time to sit down or the from Atlantic City. The cheesesteak, for me, is a secret language. space, or just didn’t give a shit about the formalities. Likewise, New Orleanians speak muffuletta to one another. Buf- Which is to say: Americans. faloans, the jargon of beef on weck. Sandwiches are the default food for every part of a man’s life But we’re always happy to share: our stories, our favorites, even here. You eat them after you come back from a funeral, when some our blasphemous reinventions, recognizing that even in the most thoughtful person lays out a big, somber plate of cold cuts. You gnaw alien and inferior sandwich is an echo of the ones we love best. nervously on a thrown-together meatloaf on potato bread some- Ah, to be an American with a big appetite and no gluten issues! one hands you while you fret in the waiting room of the OB ward, For someone who loves sandwiches, there is no better place to live waiting to see the baby. You eat pulled-pork sandwiches at bus sta- on earth. JOSH — OZERSKY FACTS THE PICKLE YOU GET WITH YOUR DELI SANDWICH IS ONE OF THE LAST FREE THINGS IN THIS WORLD. CARELESSLY APPLIED AVOCADO 143 GREAT REGIONAL SANDWICHES OF AMERICA THE MEDIANOCHE MIAMI THE SANDWICH Basically, somebody looked MAKER at a Cubano and said, “It’s He might bust your provolone, mortadella, and ol- not rich enough. Let’s put it chops, but a great sand- ive salad—a popular lunch for on thick, sweet egg bread so wich maker understands Sicilian workers—on round, that it’s more like cake.” One two things: quality and continuity. Quality is self- flat muffuletta bread. Cen- assumes that the idea came FOR THE MEAT > 1 Tbsp kosher salt and bring to a boil evident. That’s why the > ½ lb brisket > 4 cloves garlic, over medium-high THE HOT BROWN tral Grocery remains true to its to somebody who had been shop’s been open for so > spice mix: 2 Tbsp peeled and sliced heat. Reduce heat founder’s vision. “People will drinking. Try it at Versailles, long. Continuity, howev- fresh coarse-ground > 1 onion, peeled, and simmer to infuse LOUISVILLE coffee, 2 tsp ground quartered, and sliced the coriander, about ask, ‘Can you put mayo on the which has defined Cuban er, is harder. It bonds the store with a place even black pepper, 1 tsp > 2 tsp whole corian- 2 minutes. Stir in Created at the Brown Hotel sandwich?’ ” third-generation food for generations of visi- dried orange zest, der seeds the jalapeños and as the place changes— 1 Tbsp dark-brown > 6 soft but sub- return to a boil. Re- in 1926 as a snack for attend- co-owner Tommy Tusa says. tors. 3555 Southwest Eighth as industries launch and sugar, 1 big pinch stantial hoagie-style move the pot from ees of its famous all-night “I tell them, ‘No. Mayo doesn’t Street; 305-444-0240; ver- recede, and roads are crushed red-pepper rolls, split in half the heat, cover, parties, the classic Hot Brown go on this sandwich.’ ” 923 De- saillesrestaurant.com paved over, and shops flakes lengthwise and set aside un- and restaurants flick- > 1 medium white on- til it cools to room consists of toast points with catur Street; 504-523-1620; cen- er on the street grid like ion, peeled, halved, METHOD temperature. Then roasted turkey, bacon, toma- tralgroceryneworleans.com and cut into ¼-inch- > Coat brisket evenly transfer to a seal- spent Christmas lights. thick slices with spice mix. able container and to, and Mornay—a rich bécha- A great sandwich maker Unlike their East Coast counterparts, Chicago’s turn-of-the- > 6 cloves garlic, > Add onion, garlic, refrigerate. century immigrants had access to the country’s largest com- mel cheese sauce—baked un- is a custodian of region- peeled and smashed and stock to a slow > Remove brisket al identity, an insurer of mercial stockyards. Their legacy is the city’s Italian beef: top-sir- > 2 cups chicken cooker. Place brisket and slice against the til golden brown. According a city’s soul, a still wit- loin butt oven-roasted in water with garlic and seasonings that drip stock on top, cover, and grain into ¼-inch- to Josh Bettis, current chef at ness to evolution, and a into the liquid—making the juice you use as a dip—and served on cook about 6 hours. thick slices. FOR THE PICKLES > Meanwhile, prepare > Skim some fat off the Brown, roasted veggies person you rely on when crisp-crusted bread with giardiniera: fermented vegetable relish made with hot peppers and shaved celery. In our version, Chica- > 20 jalapeños, the jalapeños. Place surface of the broth. are an acceptable stand-in for home doesn’t look like stemmed and cut the vinegar, wa- > Layer everything to THE LOOSEMEAT home anymore. go’s stockyard past is represented with a big beef brisket braised the turkey. 335 West into ¼-inch slices ter, kosher salt, gar- taste. Dip in coffee- THE JIBARITO SIOUX CITY, IOWA —JESSIE KISSINGER until tender in a spicy coffee brine, and the giardiniera’s dagger of > 1 cup white vinegar lic, onion, and cori- infused broth. Broadway; 502-583-1234; CHICAGO heat and acidity is delivered by homemade pickled jalapeños. > 1 ½ cups water ander seeds in a pot Makes 6 sandwiches. brownhotel.com Ground beef is seasoned with First devised at the Borin- mustard, ketchup, horseradish, quen Restaurant, at its former garlic powder, salt and pepper, location in Humboldt Park, and a little onion, cooked in a the jibarito lays traditional skillet, and then scooped onto CHICAGO fillings—slow-cooked Latin- a hamburger bun. It started out style pork or chopped fried in 1934 at Ye Olde Tavern, now THE B.L.A.T. chicken—between slices known as the Garden Cafe, LOS ANGELES THE MUFFULETTA of twice-fried green plan- whose current recipe was NEW ORLEANS tains brushed with garlic and created using feedback from A BLT enhanced by the fruit oil. It’s an inversion of most more than twenty longtime so beloved in California that In 1906, Salvatore Lupo, own- sandwiches: creamy on the customers who claimed very it could become governor if it er of Central Grocery in the outside, chewy on the inside. vivid memories of the orig- ran. The B.L.A.T. is simple, tex- French Quarter, combined Ge- 3020 North Central Avenue; inal. 1322 Jackson Street; turally satisfying, hard to screw noa salami, ham, Emmentaler, 773-622-8570 712-252-2515 up, and actually easy to im- ANNALS OF MEMORABLE AMERICAN SANDWICHES METHODS FOR DISPENSING WITH LEFTOVER BRISKET 1. On garlic toast with melted Gruyère. 2. On a kaiser roll with THE ITALIAN SUB LETHBRIDGE. ANDREW TYPOGRAPHY HAND BY KENDRY; C a fried egg and ketchup. I used to work with, a weekend-biker type no tucked in the crook of a solid inch of deli meat and provolone. 3. On an onion roll with There was an older guy pepper-jack cheese and with a handlebar mustache and a runaway cholesterol problem. He When we had finished, we’d lean back, at once renewed and immo- roasted red peppers. tried to eat right, really tried, but on those days when he felt as if bilized by that pound and a half of fat and salt and sodden starch. he’d been kicked in the nuts by the world, his resolve would buckle My God, those things. I don’t eat them too often now—part of a and he’d order an Italian sub for lunch. But he didn’t call them Ital- broader program of early-grave avoidance—but every once in a ian subs. He called them “slammers,” as in “We’re gettin’ slammers!” while, when I’m walking home past my corner deli at night dinged- Which is what he would yell.