Cold meat on bread is a staple of mine. Oh sure, there was a chunk of my existence where I needed sandwiches warmed in some fashion, either via a conventional oven or one of those toaster oven things like you see at Potbelly. But I live in the now, which are simpler times, and cold meat on bread is usually what’s for lunch.
I’m not talking just any cold meat on bread. I’m talking the Gypsy & Danish Bacon, Boiled Ham sandwich from Fumare Meats in the French Market. Check out that picture and tell me it’s not a thing of beauty. At Fumare Meats they do it right so many different ways that it may take a few posts to sort through them all. And if you work in the loop and you’re not making multiple trips a month to the French Market, you’re missing out.
From what I can tell, here are the ingredients:
- Gypsy Ham
- Danish Ham
- Boiled Ham
- Lettuce
- Tomato
- European Butter
- Roll
They give out spicy mustard on the side, which I add prodigiously.
There are a few keys to the sandwich. First, the roll is chewy but fluffy on the inside (I think it’s a ciabotta). Chewy enough that you have to hold it strategically when you get to the ends so the ingredients don’t squirt out the side. I’ve had this sandwich maybe 20 times in the last few years and every time the roll has been perfect. They may buy them from someone else in the French Market the day of. They’re always fresh.
Second, the ham is flavorful but not overpowering. You get a hit of bacon flavor so you know it’s there, and it’s enough to augment the boiled ham, but the meat doesn’t star in a sandwich like this. This sandwich is a symphony, no single ingredient will blow you away, but everything works together perfectly.
Lastly though, if I were to pick a star, I’d go with the European butter. If you look closely just underneath the lettuce, you can see a thin layer of butter. Butter? Yeah, butter. They just say butter on their menu, but when you ask them they refer to it as European butter, which, I’ve heard, is popular in Europe. It finishes off the texture of this sandwich perfectly. You have the chewy bread, the cold meat, the crunchy lettuce, the spongy tomato, then the dense creaminess of the butter. Amazing for such simple ingredients.
It’s a $7 sandwich and worth every cent.
So this thing is great, but there’s more. Don’t even get me started on the pastrami done in the Montreal-style. We’ll save that for another time my friends, another time.