This Way. That Way. Yes Way.

I don't think I've appropriately recognized my sandwich obsession in my previous posts. I apologize, reader. My name is Laura and I'm a sammie-aholic (among other things). Like any other human, I have set some goals for myself that go beyond satisfying my basic needs and instinctual drives (sleep, eat, drink, the horizontal tango, safety, and soup dumplings). I have set myself on a quest to find the perfect sandwich. Now, don't get me wrong, I have had some beautiful, satiating sandwiches before, but none has been "THE" sandwich. With that said, the This Way and That Way sandwiches at This Little Piggy Ate Roast Beef come pretty close to perfection. This Little Piggy is open to 4am and makes for a wonderful late-night "snack".

THIS WAY: Hot roast beef, Cheez Whiz and au jus on a roll
Why care? The This Way visits the classic hot open roast beef sandwich and reconstructs it into a sophisticated mess of palatable textures and flavors.

THAT WAY: Hot roast beef, mozzarella, onions and gravy on a hero
Why care? The That Way is substantially larger than the This Way and can definitely be shared by two people -- like an extremely messy Lady and the Tramp. The gravy on the That Way sinks into the bread, complementing the textures of the beef-cheese-onion concoction. More googey and messy, but oh so good.

This Little Piggy (Had Roast Beef)
149 1st Avenue
New York, NY
(212) 253-1500‎
no website

BUTTER LANE UPDATE!

Ted Allen has named Butter Lane as one of the best things he ever ate on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate: The Classics". Congrats to my favorite cupcake place! Also, for those of you who were wondering (probably, no one) I am two stars away from a free cupcake on my cupcake card.

SMAC SMAC SMAC SMAC SMAC (EVRRYBODYYYYY!)

Reason #90,786 why I love New York: A restaurant dedicated to mac & cheese. S'MAC doesn't just try to reconstruct Kraft's Blue Box, S'MAC will set you on a mac and cheese voyage. Of course, I ordered the sampler and, thanks to help from my sister, was able to eat it all. No noodle was left unturned. S'MAC s creations are served in the skillet in which they're baked.. pretty sweet if you ask me. Here is a list and break down of the S'MAC Sampler:

• All-American: American and cheddar cheeses combine to woo your taste buds.
• 4 Cheese: Cheddar, muenster, gruyere and pecorino cheeses help save the world in this yummy dish.
• Cheeseburger: I could have done without this sample. It kind of tasted like what I'd imagine Hamburger Helper would taste. Kudos for trying.
• La Mancha: ARRIBA! MUCHO GRACIAS! TACO! BURRITO! TRES! Yes, I realize I just put a bunch of random Spanish words together. Whatever, I didn't grow up watching Dora the Explorer. I just wanted to express my love for this mac and cheese. Manchego cheese, fennel, and onions = delicioso
• Cajun: The combination of cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese, andouille sausage, green pepper, onions, celery, and whatever else is in this mac and cheese caused me to wish I was down by the bayou playing the harmonica while petting a gator.
• Napoletana: Imagine Mr. Pizza knocked up Miss Mac&Cheese. This is their lovable, but slightly mismatched bastard child. Fresh Mozzarella, tomatoes, garlic, and basil, without tasting like regular pasta... my sister raved about this mac, but I thought it too garlicky.
• Alpine: BACON and GRUYERE! The mac and cheese is cheating, and I like it. It is not possible to combine bacon and gruyere and create something unpalatable.
• Parisienne: This S'MAC creation is slightly ingenious: brie, figs, shiitake mushrooms and, rosemary. If Chuck Norris made mac and cheese, this is the mac he would make. It's that awesome.

S'MAC
345 E 12th St btwn. 1st and 2nd
(212) 358-7912

and THIS little piggy likes to go in my belly

Now, some of you may have figured out from my previous posts that I'm having an intense love affair with pork. I cannot deny that I love all forms of the pig. But when I stumbled upon this pork sandwich, I was speechless. Dear Porchetta, thank you for taking my breath away. The Porchetta sandwich consists of perfectly seasoned pork with fennel, rosemary, sage, and a few other yummy herbs/spices on crispy, delicious Italian bread. While eating this sandwich, I bit on something unexpectedly hard ("please not a filling, I don't have dental!"), however, upon further taste I realized it was a crunchy piece of pork skin! PORK SKIN, PEOPLE! The Sicilian in me rejoiced - alas, a sandwich that struck my very core. Eating this sandwich had set free some sort of familial archetype. Carl Jung, would be proud.

AND for those who support our troops overseas, read this article: OPERATION PORCHETTA

Porchetta has good food and good people. Eating anything from there can make you happy. I'm serious. The Porchetta sandwich is nature's Paxil. Don't believe me? Try it yourself.

Porchetta

110 East 7th St. (btwn 1st and A)

(212) 777-2151

WD loves me (part deux)

Below is a list of all the fantastic things I ate at WD~50, my thoughts are in parentheses:

• Everything bagel, smoked salmon threads, crispy cream cheese (Awesomeness / mind blowing ice cream made from toasted bagels, yet SAVORY!)
• Foie gras, passionfruit, chinese celery (The foie gras ball was a bit scary, since it leaked passionfruit but still amazing / dehydrated celery scrapings are one of my new favorite foods)
• Scrambled egg ravioli, charred avocado, kindai kampachi (The best avocado I have ever eaten with dinner-time eggs. Awesome. Vanessa's favorite dish)
• Cold fried chicken, buttermilk-ricotta, tabasco, caviar (Yumminess on a plate, caviar a bit fishy for my taste)
• Langoustine, red pepper, black sesame, shiso (One of the best things I have ever eaten... I'm serious. If I ever was on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate", I would divulge this culinary gem. If I am ever arrested on the LES it is because I have broken into the kitchen and stolen some red pepper licorice)
• Beef and bearnaise (TOO MANY BALLS!)
• Lamb loin, black garlic romesco, soybean, pickled garlic chive (Awesome, but I was extremely full by the time this came around. There will always be a place in my heart for the black garlic romesco).
• Vanilla-mango ice cream, yuzu, spruce (Adult creamsicle. Only 1000x better)
• Hazelnut tart, coconut, chocolate, chicory (Best Thing I Ever Ate: Desserts)
• Carmelized brioche, apricot, buttercream, lemon thyme (Oh how I long for thee)
• Cocoa packets. Chocolate shortbread, milk ice cream (MORE BALLS, WILEY?! Oh okay, these are delicious...)

The meal was a true culinary experience - red pepper strings, everything bagel ice cream, bearnaise gnocchi, adult creamsicles. We snacked on a some extremely flat sesame flat bread made to look like Kleenex before our meal arrived. I realized the moment the flaky awesomeness touched my lips that this meal was something extraordinary. Each dish forced my taste buds to embark on a new journey, some more pleasant than others (foie gras and passionfruit do not mix, Wiley!), but each remarkable. The savory highlights, for me, were the langoustine, lamb loin, and cold fried chicken dishes... although I have to say, I never thought I'd fall in love with pink chicken. I loved all the sweet courses and cannot (honestly, I can't) pick a favorite. WD~50 stretched my textural, taste, and olfactory limits. Ohh Wiley, I wish I could have told you how much I loved the meal - OH WAIT, I DID!

A special thanks to my sister, Vanessa, and cousin, Ali, for making this night possible.

WD + LC = BFF

I'll write about this later. I just wanted everyone to see this picture. I am officially the coolest person I know.

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Liquid nitrogen, agar, and xantham. Bagel ice cream and blackened garlic. Red bell pepper made into string. These are a few of my favorite things.

"Pho" Pas

Upon reading an article on nymag.com titled the "50 of The City's Tastiest Soups", I knew I had a purpose in life -> I must complete the list. I realized I had already tasted a few due to my obsessional thoughts about ramen - so what's a few more soups? After I carefully read every soup bio and cross-referenced the restaurants on yelp.com and chow.com, I finally came to my first choice - Pho Bang. I was already craving pho, a traditional Vietnamese soup, and immediately needed a bowl after reading Pho Bang's reviews. I did keep in mind that their are an unreasonable number of places serving pho in Chinatown, but Pho Bang was on The List.

Pho Bang faux pas:
1- Random white meat-thing in soup (if it is meat? maybe cow stomach?) looks like drapery
2- An uneven ratio of noodle:broth:random soup things
3- Decent pho, not too great...

With over 50 types of pho, I knew that I should have read the menu more carefully, but I choose from the nymag list. Good soup? Eh, for $5.. sure. One of the 50 tastiest in NYC? No freaking way.

NYMag, I am disappointed in you. Go sit in the corner and think about what you've done.