Tag: sandwiches

06/05/19 1:21pm

Farine’s Lobster Roll is a Luxurious Harbinger of Summer

Lobster rolls have come to Jackson Heights, thanks to Farine!

I’m not typically a brunch guy, but I’ve been known to make exceptions. M. Wells for one with Hugue Dufour’s decadent creations like foie gras and oatmeal, and now Farine. I’ve been meaning to try the lobster roll from the brunch menu, but I’m averse to weekend crowds.

On Monday night I stopped by to introduce a friend to Michael Mignano, the man behind the hot new Jackson Heights eatery. I’d forgotten it was the last night of Ramadan and the last night of Farine’s Iftar dinners. Every table was filled with joyous Muslim families all tucking into spicy fried chicken sandwiches and fruit plates.

“We’re going to have it tomorrow as part of an EID brunch,” Mignano told me when I asked about the lobster roll, which I’d been seeing on the gram for weeks.

(more…)

EID, Farine Baking Company, iftar, Jackson Heights, lobster, lobster roll, Michael Mignano, Ramadan, sandwiches

04/10/19 10:23pm

Behold The Best Fried Chicken Sandwich in Queens

Farine Baking Company, fried chicken, Jackson Heights, Michael Mignano, sandwiches

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Farine’s fried chicken sandwich is top flight.

As food writer I’m often loathe to throw around superlatives even though I’ve been called upon by Grub Street to do so in recent months. All that said, I have no problem calling the spicy buttermilk chicken sandwich at the newish Farine Baking Company in Jackson Heights the best fried chicken between bread in Queens.

At $16 Chef Michael Mignano’s chicken sandwich is isn’t cheap, but it’s worth every penny. It’s insanely crunchy and juicy and packs a nice kick from a Sriracha honey glaze. It is a gloriously messy sandwich requiring removal of both wristwatch and rings. The secret behind this marvel is twofold: first the chicken thighs luxuriate in a mixture of buttermilk, fresh thyme, rosemary and garlic for two days. Then they’re fried twice first at 325 to seal in the juices and then at 375 to get a nice crust.

If this method sounds a lot like Korean fried chicken, that’s because Mignano borrowed the technique. “I’m not using a Korean chili paste, but I am borrowing the double fry technique and the breading mixture is very similar,” he said. For the record his favorite KFC can be had at the H Mart off Route 100 in Hartsdale.
Farine Baking Company, 74-24 37th Ave., Jackson Heights

04/03/19 9:26am

Tortas Neza’s Chivas is a Big League Breakfast

Behold, the mighty Tortas Chivas, CDMX’s answer to the NYC breakfast sandwich.

“They’re all pretty big,” I said to two recent guests on a World’s Fare Eating Along the 7 food tour. We were about an hour into our trek and had already enjoyed delicacies from Joe’s Steam Rice Roll and Soybean Chen and had just arrived at Tortas Neza, which specializes in comically huge Mexican sandwiches. I was doing my best to steer the two ladies toward a carnitas taco, but l knew they really wanted a sandwich.

The gargantuan 7-ingredient Tortas Puma named for the owner’s favorite Mexican soccer team was out of the question. So I scanned the roster of 20 creations, each named for a different team, and settled on the Chivas, which listed only three ingredients: huevo, quesillo, and chorizo.

As Galdino “Tortas” Neza prepared the sausage omelet on the plancha I told the guests it represented just one component of his biggest sandwich. “We can handle this one, it’ll be like a Mexican breakfast sandwich,” I said with a chuckle. (more…)

breakfast, Corona, food tours, Galdino Molinero, Mexican, Mexico City, sandwiches, soccer, street food, tortas Neza

01/09/19 7:36pm

Soup & A Sandwich Tibetan Style at Lhasa Fresh Food

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Soup and a sandwich via Lhasa, Elmhurst, and Instagram.

There are some who say Instagram—with its over the top milkshakes, noodle pulls, and levitating food—along with Yelp and the other usual suspects—is just another sword in the slowly dying animal that is food writing. I am of the opposite opinion, if you know where to look Instagram is actually quite inspiring. Which brings me to the subject of this post, a beefy soup and sandwich combo inspired by Tibet and one of my favorite places to look: self-proclaimed prolific eater @nigelsie. (more…)

Elmhurst, Lhasa Fresh Food, Nigel Sielegar, noodles, sandwiches, soup, thentuk, tingmo

10/24/18 10:23pm

Hendu’s Pork Belly and Egg is Not a Breakfast Sandwich

Better for a late-night megasnack than breakfast.

Even though it sports two eggs and pork belly—not unlike a certain New York City coffee cart staple—Bill Henderson is quick to point that Hendu’s pork belly hero isn’t a breakfast sandwich.

“You’re not going to have a very long day if you eat that for breakfast,” he said of his creation which features thinly shaved pork belly, two fried eggs, and redeye gravy. The latter—a combination of tomato, veal stock, and coffee—was not quite to Chef Hendu’s liking so he had taken the pork belly off the menu when I stopped by last night.

Nevertheless he was kind enough to make this glorious sandwich, a favorite among some Per Se chefs, who like to stop by the sandwich shop that operates out the kitchen at Dutch Kills Bar. It was stupendously good. I can’t wait to taste it when the gravy is really on point. If you’re reading this right now, do note the kitchen is open late.

Hendu’s Sandwich Shop, Dutch Kills, 27-24 Jackson Ave, Long Island City

Bill Henderson, breakfast.cocktails, Dutch Kills, Hendu’s Sandwich Shop, pork belly, redeye gravy, sandwiches

09/12/18 9:12am

Behold the Best Sandwich from Pig Island 2018

This past Saturday I had the privilege of judging Pig Island, a festival of fine swine hosted by my dear friend Jimmy Carbone. The pork was provided by Flying Pigs Farm, and much of it took the form of ribs. As anybody who knows anything about barbecue and cooking it in a festival setting, it’s very easy to screw up ribs. You can take a perfectly good smoked rib and ruin the texture by grilling it afterwards. The best ribs come straight from the smoker, or in the case of my dear friend Rodrigo Duarte, straight from a pig bladder. (more…)

Flying Pigs Farm, Jimmy Carbone, Pig Island, ribs, Rodrigo Duarte, sandwiches

09/05/18 11:34am

What’s The Proper Form of the Patty Melt?

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Bellwether’s patty melt is lovely, but it’s more of a cheeseburger.

Sometimes I wish my dear departed friend and meat maven Josh Ozersky was still with us. Partly so I could take him to dodgy Chinese restaurants, but mostly so I could ask him questions about burger lore, like the one in the headline.

I came to the patty melt late in life. I didn’t try one until my late forties. And I suppose that the one I tried, which I believe was at Tower Diner, formed my impression of what a proper patty melt should be. It was composed of a medium rare patty swaddled between two crisp pieces of rye bread along with melted Swiss and caramelized onions.

It was more of of a grilled cheese than a hamburger, and I have it on good authority that that’s how it should be. Most of all it was a messy sandwich oozing an amalgam of beef drippings and fat from the Swiss, what Ozersky would have lovely called “greeze.” (more…)

Bellwether, hamburgers, Josh Ozersky, Long Island City, patty melt, sandwiches

07/04/18 12:49pm

Behold Gramercy Park’s Best Breakfast Biscuit

Simply called ‘salsiccia,’ Maialino’s breakfast biscuit is far from simple.

When it comes to breakfast sandwiches I used to be an old-school bacon-egg-and-cheese man. For the past year or so though, I have been leaning toward the BEC’s heftier cousin, the sausage egg and cheese. There used to be a coffee cart down the street from my house that made them, but one day in April it vanished. So when a pal said I had to try the sausage and egg sandwich at Roman cuisine specialist Maialino, I made it my business to head to the Gramercy Park Hotel for breakfast. (more…)

biscuits, breakfast, cotechino, Gramercy Park Hotel, Maialino, pork, sandwiches

06/27/18 3:40pm

Showdown in Whitestone: Cherry Valley vs. Cristina’s