I’m incredibly honoured to have Linda Haynes offer her pick for a sandwich everyone should eat before they die. If you eat bread in North America, you’ve likely eaten some of hers — she is the co-founder of ACE Bakery, an artisan bread bakery based in Toronto. She’s also the author of two cookbooks, The ACE Bakery Cookbook and More from ACE Bakery, and with her daughter Devin Connell, she has co-authored Two Dishes — Two Cooks, Two Lifestyles, Two Takes.
What makes a good sandwich?
Obviously using the best artisan bread available is mandatory. I prefer bread with a crisp crust for most sandwiches but if the interior is “squishy,” like egg or tuna salad use bread with a soft crust or a pan loaf so that the filling doesn’t end up on you. Since I’m in the bread business I like to match up what ever I put in my sandwich with a type of bread. For example, I love most vegetarian sandwiches on a grain bread, especially if some of the vegetables are raw. A light sourdough just says Dijon mustard, butter, ham and Gruyere to me.
Always use first class ingredients and make sure you lightly spread a barrier of butter, mustard, mayo, etc. on both slices of bread before loading it up. A sandwich just tastes better when you eating it with someone else.
Recommend eats
I may be biased, but I’m crazy about the Spicy Bird at Delica Kitchen in Toronto. I’d never attempt to make it at home — so many ingredients and I imagine it takes a while to make. They cut a white Bianco roll in three and layer it with roasted chicken breast, marinated banana peppers, a drizzle of Frank’s Red Hot, Blue cheese aioli, shredded carrots, and crunchy lettuce. At the cafe they toast it. I like to pair it with a Denison’s Weissbier, a Toronto based micro brewery.
Delica Kitchen, 1440 Yonge St., Toronto, $8.85
My current favourite, not so tidy package comes from the good folks at Nasib’s. We here at Saha are in the shawarma business. We produce a marinade for people who want to make shawarma at home, we eat shawarma all the time, we know shawarma. Nasib’s is, hands down, the best shawarma sandwich in Toronto. My choice is always the beef (with lamb when available), lovingly seasoned and slow roasted to charred perfection, with everything on it — shredded lettuce, cabbage, pickled turnips, tomatoes, sliced onion, parsley, hummus, tahini sauce, garlic sauce, hot sauce and (if you ask nicely) their delicious Nasib’s salad, all wrapped in a thin layer of pita bread. The price? Get this: two for $7. Although I usually end up eating them both, the sane and fit among you will surely want to take a friend along to take care of the second sandwich. That being said, once you try it, it’s unlikely that you’ll still want to share!
The pulled pork sandwich with house made BBQ sauce topped with a spicy red cabbage and mango slaw from Cafe Plenty at Dundas and University. I salivate just thinking of this sandwich. I stumbled upon this hidden gem of a cafe when going a few stores down to get my lifeline (read: cell phone) fixed. I did a double, then triple take, as, this beautiful cafe stuck out in the area. It was a sharp contrast to the Tim Hortons, Mr. Sub and other chains that are around the area. I went in, introduced myself to the owner, Melissa. I have since been back many times to try the rest of her sandwiches and they have never disappointed — but, you know what they say, the first time is always the most memorable. When I took my first bite of the sandwich, it was pure bliss. Perfection between my two hands. The pulled pork was perfectly tender. The BBQ sauce added just the right amount of sweetness. The spicy red cabbage and mango slaw were the perfect accompaniments to add a zing and crunch. The sandwich held up perfectly, and, there was enough of all the ingredients to ensure that you had flavour until the last bite. Did I already say that I still salivate thinking about this sandwich?
There’s a simplicity to a fish sandwich from the aptly named The Fish Store on College Street in our very own Toronto. It’s just a tiny shop with a bright blue façade that looks like it belongs on a Caribbean boardwalk rather than in Little Italy, but they deliver remarkable made-to-order sandwiches. You get to choose the fresh fish — from salmon and wild sock-eye to shrimp, scallops and tilapia — from a display case. I always default to a firm, white fish, like cod, halibut or haddock. And then they grill it to order, dousing it with some sort of tangy vinaigrette and shaking some sort of salty spice concoction over it. The morsels, generous in size, are placed on a crusty white bun (baked across the street at The Golden Wheat Bakery), and topped with that green leaf lettuce I always see in the grocery store but never buy, a few slices of tomato and thin bits of red onion. And oh snap, the sensation of the piping hot, always moist and tender fish with the crunch of the lettuce and the chewy bread, is simply sublime. And it’s consistently good. In the temperate months, you can eat your sandwich on their modest patio and watch the College Street types go by. Mind you, it is difficult to consume the fish sandwich slowly, and civilly. Such are the tribulations of a sandwich eater.
