American Sandwichiana

[cowdery]

...what my Mom simply called a 'hot beef sandwich' while I was growing up in snowy, SW Michigan. Sometimes also made with turkey, it is/was an open-faced concoction made of two slices of white bread laid out on a plate, topped with sliced meat, sided by mashed potatoes (yes, Dan Quayle was both right and wrong -- the 'e' is correct, though optional!), all smothered with brown gravy.

The open-face sandwich is a diner staple throughout the midwest. I guess I just assumed it was everywhere, but is it not common in your part of Tennessee? The typical varieties are roast beef, turkey and meat loaf.

I'm a long-time fan.

[cowdery]

Another item worth mentioning for novelty's sake if no other reason is the butterburger, a variation on the hamburger that could only have been invented in Wisconsin, but the chain that originated it, Culvers, has been moving into the Chicago area. It's a basic hamburger with a pat of butter melted on top.

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

The open-face sandwich is a diner staple throughout the midwest. I guess I just assumed it was everywhere, but is it not common in your part of Tennessee? The typical varieties are roast beef, turkey and meat loaf.

I'm a long-time fan.

You know, the only place I have encountered open-faced sandwiches is one the pages of a bookor a magazine, and now here. I have never been served one, seen anyone eat one or even been told about eating one.

Ed

[cowdery]

Well, that's interesting. They are ubiquitous everyplace I've lived, which is Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. They are definitely diner fare. Maybe you just always eat in fancy places.

[TNbourbon]

The open-face sandwich is a diner staple throughout the midwest. I guess I just assumed it was everywhere, but is it not common in your part of Tennessee?..

Common, no -- but not unheard of. Biscuits are most often the 'bread' served with 'country cookin'' here, so variations of biscuits and gravy are much more prevalent.

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

Well, that's interesting. They are ubiquitous everyplace I've lived, which is Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. They are definitely diner fare. Maybe you just always eat in fancy places.

Not really, but when I eat at a diner I almost always order breakfast or a burger.

Ed

[NeoTexan]

, a variation on the hamburger that could only have been invented in Wisconsin,

Here in Akron, OH we have a local chain that puts brown sugar in the meat! What people do to good beef.
I tried them two or three times but have never aquired the taste for them. They do make great shakes! Oh, and let's not forget the Phosphates.
The best thing about it is the fact that it is still the old "drive up, turn on your headlights and get car-side" service.

Swenson's

[Joeluka]

The open-face sandwich is a diner staple throughout the Midwest. I guess I just assumed it was everywhere, but is it not common in your part of Tennessee? The typical varieties are roast beef, turkey and meat loaf.

I'm a long-time fan.

The "open faced" turkey or roast beef sandwich is a Diner staple here on Long Island. And if you don't know Long Island there is a Diner, Pizzeria, Bagel shop, Chinese Take-out, 7-11, and Taco Bell on basically EVERY street. During my wife's three pregnancies, she had me get her an "open faced" turkey sandwich from her childhood Diner almost once a week.

The Pepper and Egg hero is just what is sounds like. You sauté some peppers , onions,and garlic in Olive oil, then when they start to turn golden and soft you throw in some beaten egg's. When it's cooked you but the mixture on a hero and then eat away. There is also a Potato and egg hero next to the pepper and egg one. These are on every pizzeria menu here in NY.

[TNbourbon]

I don't know if Gary is prescient (entirely possible -- we're talking Gary Gillman here!), or if he's just able to read the TV Guide, but I'm currently watching a fascinating History Channel lineup of "American Eats". Currently showing is "History on a Bun" about the advent and importance of the sandwich on American and world culture.
Besides gaining a new appreciation of the saying "...the greatest thing since sliced bread..." (pre-WWII Wonder Bread), which authored the change for virtually every ethnic food into some sort of sandwich, I've learned that New Haven/Groton sandwich makers delivering sandwiches to WWII submarine builders originated the 'sub' sandwich, a similar story about ship-building Hog Island in Pennsylvania led to the Hoagie, and a local sandwicheria's donation of sandwiches to striking New Orleans dock-workers named the Po' Boy. Especially charming is the tangential relationship of the ice cream cone, ice cream sandwich, ice cream bar and other things ice cream to the sandwich, and how the intoxicating popularity of the accidentally-created ice cream soda led to its prohbition on Sundays -- which led, in turn, to putting ice cream in a bowl to create the ice cream 'sundae'.
Other segments highlight the rise of the quintessential American hamburger and White Castle, McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken (more outlets than McDonald's in 1969!).
Last, I find it amusing (keeping in mind the ubiquitous "Made in China" labels we see) that virtually all fortune cookies with which we finish meals in Chinese restaurants are "Made in U.S.A."

[Gillman]

Those fortune cookies are made in U.S.A. just like chop suey was. (Yes).

Thanks, Tim. I was not aware of the History Channel series you mentioned. Glad to see its interest in the subject matter, though.

One way or another, regional North American food is penetrating the urban, always status-conscious, mentality. There is a Montreal humble food, poutine (french fries, gravy and cheese curds, mixed). It will soon be offered in a ramped-up version in a Daniel Boulud gastro-pub soon to open in Manhattan. M. Boulud is from France but is inspired by his Quebec-based partners who observed the success of this dish (and other Quebec specialties) in gentrified form in my home town of Montreal.

Eh ben - la poutine - the name derives from the English "pudding" - not strange if you know Quebec - with foie gras and raw milk cheddar? Why not. Let the New Yorkers transfix on the latest transformations of good old basic Canadian and Americans foods.

Give me the loose meat sandwich though, as it comes, and on its home turf.

Gary