Extremely amazing, but maybe not best, sandwich ever.

The other day I went to my local farmers’ market and got all the stuff you see over here——-> Which is, in clockwork order, A loaf of sourdough, a snap dragon, a jar of kim chi, some wild watercress, codfish, radishes, eggs, gluten free coffee cake, blue cheese, a donut, goat cheese, a bag of muffins, and some spring garlic.

Awesome, right? It gets better. So with these super fantastic ingredients I made what is said to be “The world’s greatest sandwich” also known as “The Spanglish Sandwich. Are you unfamiliar? Ok, Spanglish is this fantastic movie starring Adam Sandler – it’s not a comedy – he’s a chef, he’s married to Tea Leone, and his marriage is kind of going kablooey. He strikes up a friendship/sort of romance with his house keeper, played by Paz Vega. That’s kind of a shitty synopsis, but this is about the sandwich, right? Anyhow, in the movie Sandler makes this sandwich and it’s kind of a big deal. This sandwich was actually developed, invented, whatever you called it by Thomas Keller. You know, the famous chef. French Laundry?Author of The French Laundry Cookbook, and Ad Hoc at Home? Anyhow. I digress.

Here’s the deets: (As always my modifications and notes are in parenthesis)
Spanglish’s Sandwich
From
Thomas Keller (and me)

4 thick slices of bacon ( get the good stuff people)
2 slices of Monterey Jack cheese (extra sharp cheddar)
2 thick slices of rustic white bread, toasted and hot (sourdough )
1 tablespoon mayonnaise (Hellman’s. I’m sure Keller makes his own.)
4 tomato slices
2 leaves of butter lettuce (watercress)
1 teaspoon unsalted butter
1 large egg


  1. In a skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat, turning, until crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
  2. Set the Monterey Jack slices on 1 piece of toast. ( I toasted my bread in the toaster oven with the cheese on it so it got all melty and awesome.) Spread the mayonnaise on the other slice of toast, then top with the bacon, tomato and lettuce.
  3. In a small, nonstick skillet, melt the butter. Add the egg and fry over moderate heat, turning once, until crisp around the edge, about 4 minutes; the yolk should still be runny.
  4. Slide the egg onto the lettuce; close the sandwich and eat right away.

The KEY to this sandwich is making sure you cook the egg perfectly. You want it to be done enough so that it runs a bit, but not so runny it’s gross. The only way you will learn to do this is to make a lot of fried eggs. Luckily, they’re delicious. Oh, the other key – use the freshest tomatoes you can find. Nothing will wreck this sandwich like mealy tomatoes. I could eat one of these every day. But I won’t, because well, it’s probably a bazillion calories, and a girl needs to watch her figure. You know what, I’m going to post this, figure out the calories and then come back and add it here for you guys. See how nice I am?
    So there you have it, a damn fine sandwich. It was amazing. The best I’ve ever had? Probably not. but definitely in the top ten.

UPDATE
: Yeah, this sandwich is 756 calories. Not for every day, that’s for sure.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: