sammies!

Whoa, another post so soon! Maybe I'll get better at this. Sadly this post will be sans photo though. Anyway, I just got back to the office after overseeing a voiceover record for this promotional video I'm working on for AZ. The production house was in the east end of Toronto, Leslieville, and when our team finished up around noon we decided we'd take advantage of all the nearby lunch options before heading back to the office. We contemplated different burger joints (including Dangerous Dan's, which I posted about before) and some patisseries before deciding on the Leslieville Cheese Market for gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

We walked about a block from where we were and into the small shop, where there were tons of lovely cheeses, deli meats (including head cheese), fancy salts (Maldon, anyone?), fresh breads, dips, jams and spreads (I saw at least 3 kinds of dulce de leche), and different kinds of fudge. Heaven! I really wish I'd had my camera! It made me feel I should have bought a place in Leslieville instead of the opposite end of Toronto :( Then again, I think I'd end up broke and with some extra poundage if I lived near this shop.

Anyway, they had 4 different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches on offer, and I chose the provolone with smoked summer sausage. While it was being grilled, the girl at the counter set up some goodies for us to sample. There were chunks of bread and spelt crisps (I think) with roasted red pepper dip and spinach dip, some diced up Genoa salami, and 2 kinds of fudge: chocolate marshmallow and maple walnut. All amazing! It made the anticipation for my sandwich even stronger!

When the sandwiches were ready, she asked us what kind of dipping sauce we wanted with them. I chose piri-piri (roasted chili pepper) over spicy ketchup, although apparently they usually also have a sweet chili sauce that's really good. I couldn't wait to dig in as we rode in the cab back to the office.

Anyway, I just had it, and as you can probably guess, it was yummy! If I'm ever in the area again, I'll drop by and get the cheddar and bacon sammie.

I must say though, I do have a predisposition for gourmet sammiches, so maybe I'm biased. One of my favourite places to go for lunch is Keep Fit Sandwich in The Grange food court across from OCAD. They are essentially a just-as-good-maybe-better, less expensive knockoff of Sandwich Box (which used to have a location near my office at St. Patrick's Market before it got forced out by high rent). Anyway, Keep Fit Sandwich has an awesome build-your-own sandwich bar featuring gourmet ingredients and breads from ACE Bakery. They also have a build-your-own salad bar, soups (one is always lentil, the other varies) and they have a few Indian dishes on offer as well. Even though there are tons of yummy options for sandwiches, I never really stray from my usual creation: roasted chicken, portobello mushrooms, brie and pesto spread on olive boule, grilled on the panini press. Once in awhile I'll switch out the mushrooms for Cajun marinated eggplant or sundried tomatoes. The sandwich also comes with a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, for only $7-8 (can't remember off the top of my head right now). I love that place!

Anyway, I'm just gonna wrap this one up by saying sandwiches are pretty much the perfect food. You can get all your food groups in there and they're fun to make and eat. For some reason, a sandwich always taste better when someone else makes it for you. And I'll go one step further and say that I think sandwiches also taste better when they're cut in half along a diagonal. NOM!