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Hold the Bread: KFC’s Double Down Reimagined

It’s funny, I think of KFC’s Double Down as such an aberrant thing, such a weird one-off American and specifically Midwestern goof of a food dare, but it is hardly unique in its strategy of taking a dish of meat and bread, and replacing the bread with more meat.

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Pumpkin Spice Bologna

I don’t know whether to call this an early Christmas present for you, Tribunal readers. Perhaps it is the coal in your naughty stocking. Only you can decide, I suppose. But just a couple weeks ago, while we were still in “pumpkin spice season,” a random encounter with a meme on a friend’s Facebook page gave me the idea to make Pumpkin Spice Bologna.

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Put Dabeli in Mah Belly

The dabeli at Swagat come packed individually in a simple plastic clamshell. When I first started buying them there, they came wrapped in aluminum foil. Regardless of the wrapper, what’s inside is a simple bread roll, possibly a hamburger bun, spread with chutney and stuffed with a sweet and aromatic and spicy mix of potatoes.

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Cutlet Sandwiches

In any case, with regard to the Italian-style cutlet sandwich as it exists in America, these seem to be more prevalent on the East Coast–New York, New Jersey, et al. Many an Italian deli or sandwich shop menu in those areas boasts multiple sandwich options featuring chicken cutlets or even veal cutlets. By far the most common type of Italian-style sandwich featuring any kind of cutlet in the Chicago area is the Chicken Parmesan sandwich. Chicken Parm for short.

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Japanese Korokke Pan, or Croquette Sandwich

Korokke Pan, or korokke sando consist of traditional Japanese korokke–potato, or meat and potato, or potato and vegetable–in a long thin bread roll much like a hot dog bun, with shredded cabbage, some combination of sauces likely to contain Japanese Worcestershire and/or Tonkatsu sauce, and is garnished with a sprig of parsley. They are sold in prepackaged form at Japanese conbini, convenience stores like 7-11, which I am told have a much tastier food selection than the 7-11s around here.

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Paneer – India’s Cottage Cheese

Paneer is a fresh cheese made and used in the cuisine of India. Similar to ricotta or cottage cheese, it is made by heating milk and introducing acid. These conditions cause the milk solids...

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Taking a Whack at New York’s Chopped Cheese

We had a lot of good sandwiches on that trip, but something about that Chopped Cheese sandwich had captured our imagination. It had some kind of alchemical magic about it, a combination of simple ingredients that was greater than the sum of its parts. We tried for months to make our own version at home. We got pretty close. But I think part of the magic of the sandwich is the locality of it, the immediacy of it. To be able to walk into a corner store, order a sandwich, and just a couple minutes and a couple bucks later walk out with a chopped cheese–that’s a magic that isn’t available outside certain parts of New York.

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Chutney Baby One More Time

Chutney. It’s an Indian condiment. It might be made with herbs, or fruit, or chili peppers, or vegetables, or just about anything. It can be sweet or sour, spicy or refreshing, pungent or zesty,...

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I Dream Of Cheeses

This sandwich is an umami overload. Would it be improved by a better bread? Maybe just a touch. But the bread isn’t really the point here.