American Sandwichiana

[Sweetmeats]

Open faced sandwiches are rare out here on the West Coast. I remember my boss taking me to a fairly nice restaurant and being disappointed that the Steak Sandwich didn't have a top bun. That's about the only open-faced sandwich I've come across.

[gr8erdane]

To me, the sandwich I crave most these days is one I grew up with in the sleepy little town of Fredericktown, MO. A small drive in simply named The Pig has been serving their smoked pork shoulder sandwiches for a LONG time (my dad carhopped there in the 50s). They smoke the pork shoulders in the pit style and slice them up thin. Then they put it between plain old white bread and brush butter on the top and bottom and heap em up on a tray. As needed, the sandwiches are given one (regular), two (double) or three (triple, my favorite) squirts of their "hot sauce" which isn't really all that hot and then toasted in a sandwich press that makes them look much like a toasted cheese sandwich. Oh, and a slice of american cheese added is called a combination (coming also in regular, double or triple). Carhops still wait on drive up diners but there is also a small inside dining room. Every time I go to see my dad, that is a shrine I must visit. The Pig was always the turnaround spot for weekend cruisers when I was in high school and a great place to grab a quick triple or Lottaburger or Mincemeat sandwich. Boy, do I miss that place way out here in Colorado.....

[BobA]

One you'll often find in the coastal South, esp. along the Gulf, is the fried grouper sandwich. Now usually served on a bun (although the first I remember was on sliced bread) or hoagie type roll, it differs from the fast-food fried fish sandwich primarily in the use of real fish.

Bob

[Gillman]

Bob, thanks, one time in Florida (different parts including Clearwater area) I noted many signs in the country advertising smoked mullet for sale. I think that is a fresh water fish. Is smoked mullet still prevalent in the South, if so, is it a coastal thing mostly?

Gary

[BobA]

Not as prevalent as I'd like; smoked mullet a favorite of mine and declining in availability. The roadside stands are going the way of boiled peanut stands; just fewer all the time. Can still find some in seafood stores or a guy smoking them at a marina or something, and sometimes even a Publix grocery. And it is mostly a coastal thing. The mullet is a saltwater fish that is usually taken from more brackish, estruarine waters. Although some claim success with hook and line, it eats vegitation, I believe, and is mostly taken by cast nets thrown from small boats, in fairly small creeks, etc. So it is the kind of thing where a harvest will be a guy with an 18' jon boat and four full coolers, which doesn't lend itself to the sort of commercial distribution that goes on today.

I have to admit, I have no clue as to the current mullet regs in FL, or anywhere else. When I was a kid in the 60's and 70's, I don't think I ever heard of there being any.

Bob

[cowdery]

There is a fascinating area in Southern Illinois, a strip of land between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, that obviously gets increasingly narrow until the two converge. It is interesting because there are a wealth of Mississippian and other Indian sites there, and its present day culture is interesting because it is rural and somewhat isolated, bridges being infrequent. There are still several ferries in operation.

I had a unique fish dish there in a diner a few years ago. I don't recall the species but it wasn't catfish. When breaded and deep fried, it looked like an Outback Bloomin' Onion, each petal a perfectly cooked morsel of fish flesh.

Louisville, presumably because of the Ohio River, is a great town for fried fish sandwiches.

Mike Linnig's, on the far outskirts of town, is a one-of-a-kind place right by the river that specializes in fried fish, cold beer and turtle soup. In the summer, most of the seating is out of doors. It's a restaurant, but it feels like a county fair.

Cunningham's, downtown, is not the original location, which was a notorious saloon, bordello and betting parlor, established in 1870 and destroyed by fire in 2001. Still a local favorite, and now entirely respectable, they have a complete menu but the fried fish sandwich and turtle soup are the traditional picks.

There's also a local fast food chain called Moby Dick that has a mean fried fish sandwich, a large fillet served on rye bread with tartar sauce, hush puppies on the side, just as God intended.

[Gillman]

Around Lake Huron and maybe Lake Ontario in Canada, yellow perch are still fished commercially and for sport. In the towns along the lake, this is fried and often served in a sandwich with cole slaw. I know in Buffalo, New York, Friday fish fries were very common, and maybe still are. One time I had a great fried fish on a bun in Dunkirk, NY (west of Buffalo on the Lake). I was looking for a small, old-independent brewery called Koch's. By the time I got there, Koch's had closed but some of its beers were still in the stores. I drove there myself during a weekend to see this. I talked to the local people and one man told me, mix Koch's porter with its lager, 1:2. I still do that with porter and lager sometimes and just had one with dinner, except I did it 50/50. I had as much fun on that trip as if I went, say, to Cannes. Its bouilliabaisse is great but the meal I had in Dunkirk was just as good. Scenes on the beach maybe would give Cannes the advantage but never mind.

Gary

[cowdery]

Fried Lake Erie perch was a favorite from my childhood which, apparently, is once again available. I had some here in Chicago at the Hopleaf.

[TNbourbon]

...yellow perch...

Not a sandwich story, specifically, but your mention of yellow perch harkens back to some of my best memories of childhood -- our trips to fish with cane poles off the South Haven, Michigan, pier for yellow perch out of Lake Michigan.
We'd waken well before dawn, pack and travel the 50 miles to the lakeshore, and catch 10-12-inch perch from the big lake's waters using 'mousies' as bait on a simple bamboo-cane pole and line.
The perch were/are great-eating fish and, though sometimes found in the area's inland lakes, were a dinner-table treat pan-fried after such a trip.
Good times, good memories.

[JeffRenner]

One you'll often find in the coastal South, esp. along the Gulf, is the fried grouper sandwich. Now usually served on a bun ..., it differs from the fast-food fried fish sandwich primarily in the use of real fish.

Sadly, it seems that it might not really be grouper. I know I was disappointed in the grouper sandwich in a restaurant on Anna Maria Island (sear Sarasota) last month. I suspect now that it wasn't really grouper.

The grouper nuggets at our "regular" restaurant down there seemed good, though.

Jeff