PEC Challenge: Bagel International

Get ready folks because I have about nine pork rolls that I'm about to dump on your heads in the next few weeks.  So if you missed the PEC's and are sick of looking at sandwiches without pork roll on them this is your time.  Bagel International is right on Main Street in Bradley Beach, about five blocks from the beach.  With flags from about 20 countries and a tag line of "Everything On A Bagel", you can literally get whatever you can think of and put it on a bagel sandwich.  We can save those options for another time like maybe when I've eaten all the available PEC's in the state of NJ (5% complete, by the way, moving faster than the government can vaccinate us, no big deal.) Until then, we are continuing on.  Two more PECs this week, a Brennan's ranked at the end of the week, and a special Kansas sized sandwich coming this weekend (because I don't have a smoker to use during the week). 

Bread Rating: 7.8/10 (Very solid bagel. Fluffy inside, perfectly toasted outside.  Not internationally imported though as the name suggests.) 

Pork Roll Rating: 7.6/10 (Thinly sliced pork roll, which might not seem like a lot in the picture but the full flavor was definitely there.)

Egg Rating: 7.9/10 (Hidden in the cheese is a very good fried egg.  Thinking the griddle here might have been internationally seasoned.)

Cheese Rating: 6.8/10 (Pretty average cheese, melted on the bottom, and the top ticks up the score.)

Sandwich Composition: 7.5/10 (A really nicely put together sandwich.  No slide, which is typical of bagels, and the SPK ratio was right on.)

Overall Rating: 7.52/10 (Another excellent Jersey Shore pork roll, no bias here as a Shore resident but all of these "beach" PEC's have been good.)

Price: $6

Bagel International is located at 48 Main St, Bradley Beach, NJ 07720

Top 25 NJ Sandwiches 2021 Challenge: Rose's Special, Carmen's Deli

 You might have missed the NJ.com article last week "New Jersey's 25 Greatest Sandwiches, ranked" or maybe you are not a subscriber.  Well, despite clearly ripping off my Talercio's Sandwiches, ranked (and my upcoming Brennan's, ranked blog coming this week) I'm happy Jeremy and Pete did the heavy lifting for me.  That's because starting this week, I will be driving my hot girl Jetta to all of these locations and trying the sandwiches myself under the anonymity of a small-time blogger and because I don't write for a media corporation, you can trust me.  "So how did you like the 25th ranked sandwich from Elsie's?" Funny story, since I'm clearly a professional, I (a very dumb person) didn't check to see if Elsie's was even open on Sunday's (spoiler: they aren't), so you can imagine how hard I was laughing at myself after driving an hour and 20 minutes to Haddon Township.  Luckily for me, Elsie's isn't South Jersey's only deli, so I called an audible and headed 2 miles down the road to Carmen's Deli, which is number ten on this list.  So excuse me for swapping these two, you live, you learn.  Carmen's almost always appears on "Best Of" lists not only for NJ but for the entire country, so I was pretty excited to go in there for the Rose's Special, named after a former owner.  Carmen's Deli opened in 1966 in the bizarrely named Bellmawr which you might recognize as the location of the bearded gym owner who defied the Governor's order to close this year.  Unfortunately, I didn't see him in the deli while I was there, and it seemed like Carmen's might be going through some renovations as they share the building that's basically branded with nothing but Dominos signs (back off, Dominos, everyone knows who you are). 

The Rose's Special features all the Italian meats (capicola, prosciutto, soppressata) along with not one but two different provolones (regular and sharp), roasted red peppers, onion, and an oil and pepper blend.  I have to admit to all of you that I'm not really a big fan of provolone, especially when it's sharp, but this is a really good sandwich and I'll tell you why.  The bread was absolutely elite, and the cold cuts were as fresh as you can get.  They call it a hoagie roll, but you will never catch me dead using that word.  If you like Italian meats and provolone, though, you have to absolutely try this sandwich, you can tell when a place really knows what they're doing, and Carmen's nails the sandwich execution. The subs here are $12 but they are big enough for 2 so you are really getting two for one, or if you are me, lunch and dinner.  So there you have it number 10 on the list opening up this exciting new feature, which I will be dropping every Monday until August. 

Carmen's Deli is located at 42 E Browning Rd, Bellmawr, NJ 08031

50 States Sandwich Challenge: Iowa

 Is it a hamburger? Is it a Sloppy Joe? Nope, the name is somehow even grosser. In Iowa, they lovingly call their sandwich the "loose meat."  If you're an old like me you probably remember this sandwich featured in the hit 90s show "Rosanne." (I never watched a second of that show in my life.) But this sandwich has midwest roots going all the way back to the 1920s where, as legend tells it, a Sioux City tavern owner invented "The Tavern Sandwich" to go along with the already popular Indiana invention The Pork Tenderloin.  The most popular and iconic of the loose meats come from the regional fast-food chain: Maid-Rite, founded in 1926 in Muscatine by Fred Angell.  How does it differ from a sloppy Joe, you might be asking? Well, there's no tomato sauce so while the meat is loose it isn't entirely sloppy.  We'll cover the Sloppy Joe in more detail when we get to North Dakota (I'm sensing a large midwest proclivity towards meat sandwiches) but until then enjoy this Loose Meat delicacy of Iowa.  The recipe I used was a Maid-Rite copycat so I'm going to assume this is what I'd get if I'm ever in Iowa. 

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef 

1/4 cup water

1TBL yellow mustard

1TBL granulated sugar

1/2 cup chopped onion

Salt

Pepper

Hamburger Buns

Ketchup, mustard, mayo, pickles for serving.

1. Combine the beef, water, mustard, and sugar in a large skillet. Simmer over medium heat until beef is cooked through while breaking up the clumps of meat with a spoon.

2. Stir in onion, salt, pepper. 

3. Serve meat on buns with ketchup, mustard, mayo, and pickles.

50 States Sandwich Challenge: Indiana

 We're going to be sticking primarily to the midwest for the next month or so, so get ready for some gluttonous sandwiches.  This week, Indiana.  I've spent exactly (1) weekend in the state of Indiana for a really lovely wedding in South Bend (if you don't know that's where Notre Dame is).  I woke up that Saturday morning, turned on the TV at the Marriott, and you'll never believe what was on; Rudy.  I couldn't believe the coincidence of the story of an undersized man who fought his way onto the field for a legendary college football program was on TV the same day I was only steps away from the campus.  Then I dug a little deeper.  I searched my local listings back home for the same station and saw they were playing terrible Taylor Kitsch action movies all day.  So that means, every Saturday morning, in South Bend only, the local cable system shows Rudy on TNT.  Just a fun fact for you on a Friday.  Now to the sandwich.  The pork tenderloin sandwich (similar to the Weiner Schnitzel) is incredibly popular with the highly Germanic immigrant groups that originally settled in the midwest.  Instead of pan-fried, the pork is deep-fried (America, baby!) with cracker crumbs instead of the traditional breadcrumbs you'd typically fry with.  Founded in 1908, Nick's Kitchen in Huntington, Indiana (hometown of former Vice President and comb-over specialist Dan Quayle) claims to have made the original and from what I've seen in my 10-minute research, no one disputes it.  Without further ado, here is the Hoosier Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. 

Ingredients: 

2lbs of center-cut boneless pork tenderloin

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 sleeves of saltines

2 cups of instant flour 

Oil, for frying

Hamburger rolls

Mayo

Yellow mustard

Iceberg lettuce, shredded

1 tomato, thinly sliced

Sliced pickles

1. I bought my pork tenderloins already cut and thinly sliced because I'm lazy.

2. Whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt and pepper, cayenne in a shallow bowl, and place the pork inside.  Marinate that overnight or at least a few hours.

3. Pulse the crackers in a food processor or just crush them all up in a bag with a mallet, whatever it takes.  Pour the flour in one dish and the saltine crumbs in another. Dredge the pork in the flour, back in the marinade, and then coat with the crumbs.  If you've been making chicken cutlets for years you know what to do. 

4.   Heat oil in a deep skillet over medium-high heat until the thermometer reaches 360 F.  Fry your pork in batches, about 3 minutes per side, and then let it drain on a paper towel.  

5. Spread both sides of your bun with mayo and mustard.  Layer the bottom bun with lettuce, tomato, and pork.  Put some pickles on top and there you have it.  

PEC Challenge: Grateful Deli

 You may have noticed a drastic downtick in my PEC posts and that is because around 4-5 weeks ago I caught COVID. (I've used instacart to deliver my groceries for my 50 states sandwich challenges)  I didn't really want to make a big deal of it and honestly wasn't even going to mention it.  I guess the feeling surrounding catching this thing at this point nine months into it is "you aren't being careful enough."  Well, fuck that.  Here was my experience with it.  I didn't really get much sleep the weekend of November 13th.  I drank outside at my friends barn and then proceeded to play golf in 50 degree weather Sunday and Monday morning.  Predictibly, I was pretty worn out Tuesday but felt more fatigued than usual.  Weird.  Took my temperature and had a fever of 100.4.  Sweet, that's what I get for hanging out outside in the cold three days straight.  This continued for three days until I lost smell and taste over the weekend.  An extra garlicky pasta and meatball Tupperware dinner on Sunday night dropped off by my mom started to restore these functions and my fever was gone.  Still felt weird through Thanksgiving and then got two negative tests in a row exactly two weeks after my symptoms presented.  Other than being gripped by anxiety over long term effects on my cardiovascular system or committing mass murder upon leaving the house, I felt pretty back to normal three weeks after symptoms. And now I'm back on the pork roll beat and will be posting three this week starting with this one. So I guess I should be grateful that my immune system was able to handle COVID.  But this deli is not grateful in the way you think.  It is entirely committed to paying tribute to the band The Grateful Dead.  Pictures of the band and fellow dead heads are all over the walls.  It's off the beaten path, right outside the Asbury city limits in Loch Arbour about 4 blocks from the beach.  It's a solid spot and would highly recommend.  What I would not recommend is catching COVID.  0/10 on the experience both mentally and physically. Being stuck inside all winter might be for the best but the minor inconvenience of staying in and watching Netflix is taking away the thing I love to do most; living.  So you might see me make some outrageously long trips for pork rolls in the coming weeks to so I can keep some semblance of my sanity. Buckle up because its about to get real weird. 

Bread Rating: 7.2/10 (A pretty standard hard roll.)

Pork Roll Rating: 7.6/10 (Pretty thick-cut slices here and a ton of it.  Flavor was good, maybe needed another minute on the grill)

Egg Rating: 6.9/10 (Very cheesy egg, but unfortunately not much of it.)

Cheese Rating: 7.4/10 (A lot of cheese in this one as you can see, in between the slices and mixed in with the egg.)

Sandwich Composition: 7.1/10 (A standard composition with the egg on top of the mountain of pork roll.  Will never complain about extra cheese. A little ketchup heavy.)

Overall: 7.24/10 (Solid PEC spot right next to Deal Lake, about 4 blocks from the beach.)

Price: $5.75

Grateful Deli is located at 541 Main St, Loch Arbour, NJ 07711

50 States Sandwich Challenge: Illinois

 Here's a sandwich that might be a little familiar from a previous state.  But instead of a French Dip, today's sandwich is an Italian Beef, the pride of Chicago, Illinois.  Like the French Dip, Italian Beef is a simmered chuck roast served with provolone BUT instead of French bread, it is put on Italian bread.  And, because Italians like to add a little extra flavor to everything, we're going to put some hot giardiniera (Italian relish) and pepperoncini pepper slices.  Full disclosure that should come of no surprise to anyone, but I loved this sandwich.  The exact origin is unknown, but its believed to be created by Italian immigrants who came to Chicago to work in the slaughterhouses of the early 1900s.  (Not every Italian in Chicago is linked to Al Capone).  Because Italians were the new, fresh immigrants to treat like shit, the factory bosses would send them home with the tougher, less desirable cuts of beef sold by the company.  To make the meat better to eat, it was slow-roasted in Italian-style spices and herbs.  It rapidly grew in popularity and eventually became one of Chicago's most famous ethnic foods (at the time): the Italian beef sandwich.  The recipe was popularized by Pasquale Scala who started small beef stands in Chicago and in 1938, the now-famous Al's Beef opened where 70 years later was named "the best sandwich in the Midwest" by Adam Richman (who has probably eaten more sandwiches than me).  Anyway from now on if you refer to this sandwich as just a roast beef sandwich or cheesesteak I will be writing to the American Italian Anti-Defamation League.  Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

3lb chuck roast

1 envelope of Zesty Italian salad dressing mix

8oz pepperoncini pepper slices

8oz Giardiniera (Chicago-Style Italian sandwich mix)

14.5oz can beef broth

Provolone

Italian bread (I got mine at Livoti's because they make the best bread in the world)

1.  Put your roast into a crockpot and season with the salad dressing mix.  Add about half the pepperoncini peppers, a splash of the juice from the jar, Giardiniera, and the beef broth.  Cook on low for 9 hours. 

2. Put the beef on your Italian bread and add provolone cheese.  Top with pepperoncini peppers and Giardiniera.  

50 States Sandwich Challenge: Idaho

 Idaho may be known for their potatoes, Napoleon Dynamite, and boasting a college football field with entirely blue turf (Boise State) but none of those things factor into their state sandwich.  I, admittedly, know next to nothing about Idaho.  It's a mystery land, I think purposefully, rich in an outdoors culture that would seem pretty foreign to most of my East Coast Metropolitan followers.  A common sight in the mountains of Idaho is huckleberries, so popular in the state that in 2000 they were named the state fruit.  The huckleberry is considered a finicky fruit, as it only grows between 2,000 and 6,000 feet and can take up to 15 years to yield mature berries for consumption.  Idahoans (and the substantial bear population of the region) have been loading up on the fruit every July and August (huckleberry season) since humans first arrived in the area 14,000 years ago.  Multi-day huckleberry festivals happen in almost every town and city in Idaho, usually in the first or second week of August, and are a component of many foods and drink from pies to cocktails.  Today, however, we will be using a huckleberry jam (which I had shipped from Idaho, no big deal) to make the classic American sandwich, the peanut butter and jelly (in this case peanut butter and huckleberry jam). This summer treat has been gracing lunches since the original Lewis and Clark expedition came through Idaho in 1806 so I guess you can call it a pretty iconic sandwich to Idaho.  I don't really know, I did about 30 minutes of research on this so if anyone from Idaho wants to chime in, now is your shot.  Another really easy sandwich for those still following along. The huckleberry jam was a little sweeter than your typical jelly you'd find in a PB&J but ultimately, this tasted like a regular PB&J to me.  Not the sexiest sandwich but still a classic.

Ingredients:

Wonder Bread

Peanut Butter

Huckleberry Jam 

1. Spread peanut butter on both sides of the bread.

2. Spread the huckleberry jam on both sides of the bread.

3. Put the bread together and now you have a sandwich.