Tomato Sandwich Memory

When I was a young child, I would spend the summers with my widowed grandmother in Collins, a beach town located on Maine’s western shore. It was still making the transition from rural obscurity to upscale living when she told me about the sandwich. She said, “Tomatoes are so fresh, you can eat them with anything.”

She was dead on. A true tomato sandwich must contain only tomatoes, no condiments, and if any seasoning. I’d lived in New England, I’d seen lots of antipasto salads and tomato sandwiches, but this was different.

The salty, crusty Italian bread was topped with the most amazing tomato I’d ever had. The skin was golden and the taste divine. Nothing else could be said. The only thing I can remember about that sandwich is that I don’t remember any other fresh sandwich that ever was.

That’s the story of my tomato sandwich. But, it’s not as weird as it sounds. In fact, there are four different kinds of salami, the classic Italian style, the fresh Italian, the dill pickle, and the porterhouse. But all of them are kind of like the tomato sandwich, only they have different names. And, in fact, they all contain tomatoes.

The classic Italian salami is known as the Mississantoio. This is an old-fashioned salami, and it’s very hard to find today. When I was a kid, the purists would pronounce it with a accent on the last “e.” Now the spelling is capitalized, and everyone just uses it as a heading. You can also find apricot salami, which is a friendlier goodbye to the queen of slices. Shaking hands and relationship seeds, apricot salami stands on its own.

Fresh Italian salami doesn’t come out until the early spring, and the butcher is the last person to cut it off. The pork shoulder is sliced into thin strips, and then salami is cut from the thick sliced pork into thin paper thin slices. The salami is pressed into a hollowed out piece of bread, and then filled with the roast meats of choice, like chopped ham and roast beef, and then topped with more sauce.

The porterhouse steak is cut from the hip such that it gently folds as it stands on its tines. Steaks come in slightly thick slices, so that by the time you take them out of your mouth you want to be able to hold them up to your breastbone. They appear to be almost crumbled up, and if you squish them you discover that they are squashed.

Chocolate Macchiato, a cousin to the macaroni and cheese, also has its roots in the tomato. Remember those pasta packages with dry noodles? Those came from noodles that had been fried! How fun it was to drop those noodles into a creamy sauce! Chocolate macchiato noodles are cooked in a similar fashion, only they are covered in a thick coating of biscuit crumbs, and sprinkled with salt and pepper.

Guacamole is one of the more interesting dishes found in an authentic Mexican restaurant. This fish sandwich is a messy delight, and is made with a sauce that is almost akin to a guacamole. It is a golden yellow sauce, and is more than a little bit sour. The fish is covered in a thick layer of cheese, and then covered in more sautéed vegetables and spices. This all sorts of stuff is mixed together in a bowl, and then topped with more cheese. Sometimes this mixture is covered with a sprinkling of chopped parsley, chopped onion, and hot peppers.

Nachos are one of the more popular dishes found in Mexican food. They are basically corn tortillas with refried beans and toppings of your choice. You can find a myriad of these in Mexican restaurants. One of the better known is the chipotle nachos. These are quite a treat. They combine cooked chipotle peppers with cheese and jalapeno. A nice side order would be guacamole.

And there you have it! You know the stuff. Mexican food now has so many varieties, both in terms of food and in terms of desserts, that it is hard to seven meals. Nonetheless, it is a great idea to try something new. Mexican food is truly a cuisine choice for sophisticated parties, and dining. As such, you might as well make the most of it.