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[bk]

I got a sweet e-mail from a dad whose son is named Benjamin Kritzer.  He's going to buy the books.

[Jay]

There is a place out in Pasadena...either called The Top Hat or The High Hat or maybe just The Hat...anyway, something Hat...that serves a killer Hot Pastrami sandwich that no French loaf can contain.

It's called The Hat.  It is an extraordinary sandwich, I will grant you, though it bears no resemblance to the Jewish deli style pastrami on which I cut my teeth while growing up.

You also failed to mention that one must tend to the grease that drips off one's elbows whilst eating a pastrami sandwich at The Hat.

[bk]

More hot pies, more hot pies.  Oops (spoo, spelled backwards), we're talkin' about sandwiches.  But what's better after a sandwich than pie.  Yes, PIE.  I'm talkin' about PIE.

Favorite side dishes - I'm VERY partial to French Fries with Ranch Dressing (and ketchup - I switch back and forth, or combine), and onion rings (also with ranch and ketchup).  I love good potato salad but rarely find it in restaurants.  Also love good cole slaw but, that too, is rare.  I have been known to have a side of kishka and gravy, depending on the deli.  I love all potatoes - baked, lyonnaise (at Musso), scalloped, mashed.  Am not really a vegetable person but do like asparagus in hollandaise (I AM a sauce person), and anything with butter on it.

[Jay]

Shrimp salad on a Kaiser roll.  Now that's a fine sandwich, indeed!

[bk]

Soon I will be shorn of some unruly hair.

[bk]

Welcome ten GUESTS.  We're talkin' about sandwiches.

You like my hair, yes?  My lips, yes?  Ze sway of my how you say of my hips, yes?  Come on and play wiz me - okay wiz me - though we may not agree today - in time mais oui, we may.

[Dan (the Man)]

Let's talk about the Daddy of all sandwiches--The Primanti Brothers sandwich in Pittsburgh PA:  roast beef, french fries, cole slaw, tomatoes and onions all stuffed between two slices of Italian bread.  It's been over ten years since I've handled one of these babies.  Just thinking about them now is simultaneously stimulating and killing my appetite.

[Ben]

That egg salad on sourdough toast sounds GREAT! I love egg salad. I guess my favorite side is an order of hot, crisp fries, or onion rings. After all the main courses and sides, give me a slice of Pecan Pie. I love, love, love pecan pie. I also love rhubarb pie (even Beebopareebop Frozen Rhubarb Pie - a Prairie Home Companion reference). And with that pie I need a cup of hot joe/java/coffee, coffee, coffee.

[Jay]

I was at the historic Alex Theatre in the Dale of Glen last night, Dear Readers, for a semi-staged production of I Can Get It for You Wholesale, mounted by the Musical Theatre Guild.

It's a strange show with a strange book and strange score.  The protagonist is an anti-hero with no redeeming charms to counter-balance his relentlessly greedy business scheming.  Characters improbably show up and then improbably disappear (and vice versa.)  Is the protagonist's mother a warm-hearted balabustah or as cold-heartedly avaricious as her son?  The show concludes with a denoument that strains credibility.

Little of the score colors or develops the characters or moves the action along.  A Bar Mitzvah anthem to open Act 2?  Do we need both a klezmer-inflected song to celebrate the protagonist's devotion to his Jewish mother AND a klezmer-inflected song welcoming two new business partners into the "the family?"  The show does offer a terrific comic/novelty song, however, in "Miss Marmelstein," and Miss Bets Malone did a splendid job singing it.

[William E. Lurie]

The Subway chain is the most varied in quality of any fast food chain I have ever been to.  Some make sandwiches better than I could ever make them at home, while others are almost inedible.  And then there was the Subways I went to where the food was probably good but the staff was made up of all high school dropouts (none seemed over 18 and it was during school hours) with so many tattoos and piercings (on both genders) that I lost my appetite and couldn't eat it.

[Stuart]

Shrimp salad on a Kaiser roll.  Now that's a fine sandwich, indeed!

Is it obvious to all that my dear brother and I have different ideas about the Kashruth?

[Charles Pogue]

Jay, I must only have Guilden's mustard or a similar dark brown mustard...none of that French's yellowy yellow mustard.  The mustard that I keep trying and then forget I can't stand it is English Coleman's mustard.  Too hot.  My wife likes it though.

JRand, I saw Homicidal in a theatre when it first came out and so I was 11.  The most graphic image that stays with me and still makes me shudder today is the knife going in that fat man's belly repeatedly.  I also found it just a rather ugly, sordid little film.  An opinion that was not changed when I caught part of it on TV several years back.  Despite some of the titles of my films, I am not one who much cares for graphic horror, blood-spurting limbs, decapitated heads, impalements.  I much prefer  a classic, gothic tone to my horror...I think all great horror is ultimately about emotional or sexual repression.  My favourite horror films of all time are THE ISLAND OF LOST SOULS with Charles Laughton and Val Lewton's CAT PEOPLE.  I like the horror that sends the shiver down the spine and the psyche; not the repulsive kind that makes you throw up in your popcorn.  There are still moments in my own THE FLY that I've not seen, because I cover my eyes.

Back to sandwiches.  In high school, my best friend's grandmother lived right around the corner from the school and we'd go there for lunch sometime.  She always had Pepperridge Farm Bread and, no matter what the ingredient of the sandwich, she would "slather" each slice of bread with butter. Yum!

[Charles Pogue]

Ben, I too am an egg salad fan!  Though I am pretty particular about it...like my potato salad, I don't want it junk it up with a lot of extras...

Did someone mention PIE!  I love PIE!  I often have lunch at The House of Pies, just so I can have pie after my sandwich.  My favourite is coconut cream pie topped with whipped cream as opposed to meringue.  I have this pie every year for my birthday instead of cake.  I also like a good chocolate cream pie.

[TCB]

Shrimp salad on a Kaiser roll.  Now that's a fine sandwich, indeed!

And this is kosher, how?

[Jrand73]

Thanks DRCP....yes that was a gruesome moment in Homicical.

Mrs Fly, Geena Davis is the new mother of twins!

[bk]

Cocunut creme with whipped cream is also my favorite pie.  The best I've ever had was at Joe Allen, although it appears only infrequently on the menu.

[Jennifer]

We should not be allowed to discuss food here unless I am hand delivered each and every sandwich.

[George]

Growing up, I loved either bologna (or baloney) and mustard or cheese and mayonnaise.  I never thought about combining them until one time my sister's (now ex) husband made a sandwich for me (why, I don't know) to take to school (college, to which I drove every day).  Anyway, he made me a bologna and cheese sandwich with mayo and mustard.  It was delish!

As for sandwich (sub) chains, Subway, Port of Subs, Blimpie's and Quizo's are all very good.  I especially like Port of Subs' Smoked turkey with smoked cheddar and Quizno's turkey lite.  Quizno's for-a-limited-only Santa Fe (with turkey) was especially good!

And for sides, I love fries with ranch and ketchup combined and pecan pie is also my favorite dessert.  Pecan or blueberry or cherry, but not any of those combined.  That would be too, too unseemly! (and not in the good way.)

[Jennifer]

BK, don't you control the menu at Joe Allen?

[Ben]

Pie, Pie, Pie! When I was in Minnesota, oh so many years ago, back when Pillsbury still existed as a company, they opened a chain of local restaurants called Poppin' Fresh with a specialty in pies. It's now called Baker's Square. I have been there a few times when I go back but it's not the same. Oh, the French Silk chocolate pie was heaven. I remember to get a pie for the holidays you had to make a reservation and then to pick it up, the line (depending on your time of arrival) could be out the door and into the parking lot.

[Jennifer]

Is ranch dressing a common dressing for fries?  I have never heard of doing this.  Is the ranch dressing like salad dressing?

[bk]

Whenever I'm at Joe Allen and they DON'T have it, I ask them to send the dessert lady to me, and I do castigate her.  She finds this very amusing.

[Stuart]

And this is kosher, how?

'Tis not.  I was referring to my earlier entry in which I stated that I do not consume pork products (i.e. standard bacon on a club sandwich).  Nor would I consume my brother's favorite shrimp salad sandwich.

[TCB]

Now let me see if I understand all of this.  BK castrates the Desert Lady at Joe Allens for keeping the home fries burning?  Is that right?

[bk]

I'm not a fan of pork pork, like pork chops, but I do like my bacon and ham with my eggs and eggs.

[S. Woody White]

Eating French Fries with catsup is an American tradition.  On the other hand, I understand that in Europe they prefer mayonnaise.  Since mayo can be flavored with all sorts of other things, like basil or lemon or hot peppers, I tend to think they're onto something.

[S. Woody White]

My grandfather had several lemon trees in his back yard, which gave us bags full of fruit.  In return, my mother made lemon merangue pies which her father-in-law loved.  Her crust was flaky, the filling was both sweet and tart, and her merangue was thick and creamy, peaked and baked to a toasty golden color.  None of that Southern belle's high hair merangue for her.  She also made wonderful pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which no-one in the family has worked up the nerve to try to duplicate.

[S. Woody White]

...Anyway, he made me a bologna and cheese sandwich with mayo and mustard.  It was delish!...

I hope that the mayo was on one slice of bread, and the mustard was on the other!  It's a key part of making a sandwich with both, so that they hit your tongue separately and give a double wham of flavor.  The idea of "Dijonaise", where they are blended in a jar, defeats the entire idea.

[Charles Pogue]

I too remember the Coconut Cream Pie at Joe Allen's, BK.  When there was a Joe Allen's out here...and my disappointment when it was not on the menu...however, we must do lunch at House of Pies sometimes...the food is nothing special, but the Coconut Cream Pie.  MMMMM!

I am a huge pork fan.  Love a good pork loin.  Pork chops and eggs for breakfast. Good eating.

[Jennifer]

French fries with mayo is not popular here.  But I think I remember last time I was in California, it was very common.

Me I like fries with ketchup or vinegar.