The First Sandwich After Pesach

No bread for a week!  It’s tough for those of us who consider the sandwich to be in a food group of its own.  In fact, it’s downright cruel!

But for those of you who want a little extra inspiration to get through the next few days, we’ve assembled a brain trust of five "experts" to tell us what your best options are as soon as it becomes kosher (or in some cases, stays unkosher) to put slices of meat and/or cheese between two slices of chametz.

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Aaron Lefkove of Disgusting Things I Have Eaten, and the bands LiveFastDie and Liquor Store picked… Matt’s Bar is a Twin Cities institution. Local folklore has it that no less than Bill Clinton himself visited while in office to enjoy one of their signature Juicy Lucy burgers. For those uninitiated the burger, or B’lucy as the locals refer to them, has a gob of molten cheese cooked inside the patty. Payne’s in Memphis, TN is little more than four concrete walls, a couple picnic tables, and a roaring oven. This no-frills BBQ joint put Memphis on the map as BBQ-central with their chopped pork sandwich and cardiac inducing coleslaw. Shhhhh…we won’t tell your Nana if you don’t! When a fistful of matzoh isn’t cutting it head over to WaWa’s (with locations throughout the greater Northeast) and hit up their patented touchscreen Built-to-Order® sandwich robot because the novelty of an automated sadwich machine coupled with an endless selection of trimmings will never wear thin. And of course should you choose to stay on the straight and narrow and keep the faith there is always my own patented Passover Banh Mi. Start with two pieces of shmora matzoh topped with charoset to offer that rich sweetness on which any banh mi worth its weight in BBQ’d pork is built on. Next you add the meat off of the shank bone (or substitute brisket if you’d like) as the savory then top it off with a nice portion of horseradish for spice. Garnish with parsley dipped in salt water. Hillel himself could not have imagined a better sandwich.

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Adam Lustick of comedy duo Snakes picked… Anything on tiny bagels The star of your shul’s post-services buffet, tiny bagels are great with anything from egg salad to grape jelly. And they’re tiny. Hilarious. Reuben / Rachel Sandwiches with human names are obviously great. Sandwiches that sound like friends of my Aunt Carol in Fort Lauderdale are best. Buffalo Chicken with Pepper Jack cheese Have the grey and white kosher-for-Passover foods dulled your taste buds? Kick them squarely in the ass with this tornado of a thing. Bring water. Turkey, Brie, Sliced Apple A light, breezy affair that feels like a brisk jog. The apple provides a crunch that lets you know you’re alive. Chicken Cutlet, Mozzarella, Roasted Red Peppers A deceptively simple sandwich that reveals a certain sophistication about the eater. The New Yorker of sandwiches.

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Adira Amram, entertainer extraordinaire picked… My favorite sandwich is from my husband and he’s from Holland.  It’s the perfect post Passover/hangover/carb-adelic experience. It’s alternating layers of whole wheat bread, Dutch rye bread, wheat rusks, smoked ham, Gouda and butter. It will fuck you up.

++++ Erica of Fucked in Park Slope picked… My fave sandwich lately as the Aguacate con Queso Torta at La Esquina. For those of you not in the know, La Esquina is a mexican restaurant in Soho that is so fucking cool, in order to gain entrance, you have to walk through an "employees only" door in the take out section that looks like a broom closet (yes, I am so completely serious). Anyway, for the purposes of my sandwich, you don’t need to be that cool. Just walk up to the counter (or the window on a nice day), plop down your cash, and then wait 10-15 mins for the magic to happen. This thing has: avocado, queso (i.e. CHEESE) fresco, black beans, lettuce, tomato, onion and chipotle mayo. The onions are raw, and as far as I’m concerned, if you can’t handle raw onions on your sandwich, you’re a Grade A pussy. Also take note carnivores: I order my burgers rare, so I feel ya on the meat front, but for some reason this veggie-friendly option is totally kickass…just trust. Also, they won’t do this shit on matzoh…I already asked. Good Pesach, bitches!

++++ Jeff Newelt AKA JahFurry editor, Pekar Project; comics editor SMITH, Heeb, Royal Flush magazines picked…

My favorite sandwich is so not Kosher for Pesach. It’s a straight-up prosciutto di parma & fresh mozzarella hero with a touch of olive oil. No garnishes, no balsamic, no lettuce, no nuttin, just the meat, cheese, bread and a lil drizzle. You can get a fantastic one any number of places, but the best one I ever had was from Melampo (now Alidoro) on Sullivan St, served to me by Allesandro, AKA the sandwich Nazi (if you didn’t order the sandwich by name, NO SANDWICH FOR YOU!!!!!) who recently sold the jernt, but I hear its still the real deal. I’ll tell you what sandwich I won’t be eating, one made with Boar’s Head prosciutto. Its a sham and just plain ham. Not knocking their provisions in general, they make a quality product, but they should ditch whatever #SKU represents their attempt at my beloved uberthinly sliced aged cured porcine delight.