While researching the poorboy steak sandwich from the southwest suburbs of Chicago in early 2022, Jim noticed a sandwich he’d never heard of in 2 different Chicago menus from the 1950s and went down a rabbithole researching the sandwich and its origin. The result is this piece that he wrote for Chicago-based culture site Newcity.
In Chicago, the cabaret’s namesake ballroom and sandwich have slipped unnoticed into obscurity. But let us for a moment be the Freegans of culinary history, dumpster-diving this sandwich out of edible oblivion to judge whether it deserves to live on, if only in our kitchens.
Jim wrote a piece for pop-culture foodie site The Takeout championing many of the carb-on-carb sandwiches that he’s written about for this site, and a few that have yet to appear here! Though carb-on-carb sandwiches have not always been treated well in our writeups, they are undeniably a popular comfort food.
The warm, soft embrace of a pillowy roll, or a crusty baguette, or even a simple slice of white bread not only gives a stationary snack its walking papers, but also adds a new, starchy element to a dish, changing its essence, often for the better.
The Chicago FoodCultura Clarion, a collaboration between Spanish artist Antoni Miralda and the Anthropology department at University of Chicago, published its 4th and final issue in November of 2021, distributed as an insert in the Chicago Reader. The central 2-page spread of the issue was an article by Jim about the sandwiches of Chicago, with a focus on the South Side, with tips for where and how to order them. The Anthropology department is apparently a completely separate unit from the Archaeology department but this is the closest Jim will ever get to being Indiana Jones so he’ll take it!
You have stumbled onto an embarrassment of riches, friend. See if they have a Freddy on the menu. This is a hot grinder made with an Italian sausage patty, marinara sauce, cheese, and sweet peppers. Eat one whenever you have an opportunity and spread the gospel; these sandwiches are a dying breed.
Michigan Country Lines magazine licensed a photo Jim took of his own attempt to create a Cudighi sandwich from several years ago, to publish alongside a recipe for Venison Cudighi as part of their piece “The Call of the Michigan Wild.” Another photo credit for Jim! At this rate, the site will have paid for itself in another few centuries!
This spicy Italian sausage is an Upper Peninsula staple, and if you’re like the guys from Michigan Wild, you enjoy utilizing your own venison and reliving memories from deer camp.
Thrillist linked to Jim’s article on Finnish Porilainen in their “Summer of Sandwiches” roundup “Around the World in 80 Sandwiches.” They also referred to Jim as an “enterprising investigative sandwich blogger,” causing no end of bigheadedness.
…an enterprising investigative sandwich blogger named Jim did an incredible job breaking down said sandwich’s mysteries and recreating it in America and basically came to the conclusion that it’s actually very similar to bologna
The Guardian linked to Jim’s piece on the Portuguese steak sandwich Prego in a piece called How to Eat a Steak Sandwich. While the author was clearly correct in feeling inspired by this sandwich, he did also express some profoundly misguided culinary takes.
Adding more meat (eg smoked bacon) is gormless gluttony, as is loading your steak sandwich with cheese, be it ostensibly sensible contenders such as parmesan and mature cheddar, or bizarre suggestions such as mozzarella (a stringy, textural misstep) and that godforsaken culinary bully, stilton… it goes without saying that the privet hedge cuttings otherwise known as “rocket” have no place in a steak sandwich.
Teacher Created Materials, an educational publisher, licensed Jim’s photo of a fried brain sandwich for their middle school reader, Surprising Things We Eat by Monika Davies. It’s a cool little book, and Jim’s name appears in the photo credits!
World Food Guide used our Bauru photo to illustrate their page on Brazil’s Bauru sandwich. They were also kind enough to post a link back to the source page on our site. Thanks, that’s all we ask!
A popular Brazilian sandwich. The traditional recipe calls for cheese (usually mozzarella) melted in a bain-marie, slices of roast beef, tomato and pickled cucumber in a French bun with the crumb (the soft inner part) removed.
Gourmandize used one of our Fischbrotchen photos in their “Around the World in 30 Sandwiches” listicle, and were kind enough to link back to the page (thanks guys! That’s all we ask!). MSN then aggregated the article on their site.
Fischbrotchen are traditional German sandwiches made with fish (pickled or smoked), pickles, and salad.
From burger to vada pav: This group is on a mission to eat 185 sandwiches around the world by Jane Borges for Mumbai, India periodical Mid-Day profiles the Tribunal, including interviews with several members.
Necci gives sandwiches a more fitting tribute. “It’s pretty much the best compact, portable, edible food delivery system we’ve created as a culture.”
The 21 Best Longform Food Stories of 2015 by Helen Rosner includes Jim’s An Edible History of the Club Sandwich
“An exhaustively researched, guffaw-inducingly no-bullshit history of America’s foremost triple-decker sandwich, from the nineteenth century to today, complete with taste tests.”
You’re gonna wanna getta muffaletta from J.P. Graziano by Mike Gebert namechecks Jim and the website in a story about our friends’ February special.
But that was before I saw the Twitter exchange between Jim Graziano, of the much-loved J.P. Graziano, and Jim Behymer, cofounder of the admirable Sandwich Tribunal blog, discussing Graziano’s special of the month: a muffaletta.
32 Delicious Sandwiches From Around The World by Chelsea Pippin links back to Jim’s story about the Austrian Bosna, though it does not reference the site in any other way.
Called the bosna or bosner in Austria, this hearty sausage sandwich is popular in street markets, and pairs great with an Austrian beer.
After Jim’s story about the Chilean Barros Jarpa, a journalist named Ignacio Molina interviewed him for a brief piece in Chile’s Diario Las Ultimas Noticias. The piece appeared only in their online mobile version and the link is no longer working but we’ve archived the story here.
.Jim, administrador de redes de 44 anos de Chicago, que tambien fabrica cerveza y que se parece un polo a Zach Galifianakis…
Alana Dao for Huffington Post interviewed Jim about ancient sandwiches and ended up cobbling together a very brief quote for their linkbait-titled piece “These Are Some Of The Oldest, Weirdest Sandwich Recipes Ever.” Still, it was fun that they thought of us .
Have you ever wondered what the original sandwich tasted like? It seems like sandwiches have been around forever, and when you think about food wedged between something starchy or bread-like, every culture has a version.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO USE A PHOTO FROM OUR WEBSITE, just don’t be a jerk about it, huh? Give us proper attribution and a link back to the page you got the photo from. Check in with us. Let us know.
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