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2016-10-14
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Ultimate Smoked Pastrami & CheeseRye Bread, Cheddar Cheese, 40 Days Cured Smoke Brisket, Smoked Bacon, House Thousand Island dressing and fried American eggI’ll admit that I was least excited by Morty’s entry in this competition. First of all, I’d already had a pastrami sandwich at Morty’s, and it was fine and everything, but there was no way I was going to give that sandwich the title of Ultimate Sandwich. What’s more, I don’t even like Thousand Island dressing, and I certainly don’t like runny
Rules: I just made up these rules, but I abided by them throughout the contest. Rule #1: Only one sandwich can be crowned The Ultimate Sandwich, and it must be one of the eight entrants. While Crave magazine is giving the award based on sales, my award is completely subjective, based on my own opinion. Rule #2: I must eat the sandwich exactly the way the restaurant serves it, with no additions or subtractions (unless they’re explicitly offered as a choice point): no sauces from the table, no salt, no pepper, nothing. Rule #3: Only The Ultimate Sandwich deserves a smiley-face review. If a restaurant pretends it has The Ultimate Sandwich, but then just has a regular old sandwich, then that restaurant is ipso facto only OK at best, and perhaps frowny-face at worst.]
Ultimate Smoked Pastrami & Cheese
Rye Bread, Cheddar Cheese, 40 Days Cured Smoke Brisket, Smoked Bacon, House Thousand Island dressing and fried American egg
I’ll admit that I was least excited by Morty’s entry in this competition. First of all, I’d already had a pastrami sandwich at Morty’s, and it was fine and everything, but there was no way I was going to give that sandwich the title of Ultimate Sandwich. What’s more, I don’t even like Thousand Island dressing, and I certainly don’t like runny eggs on my sandwich, so by my lights they just took their other sandwich and made it worse. But everybody deserves a fair shake, so I managed to make it to Morty’s on the very last day the sandwich was being served.
I came on a holiday (Chung Yeung), and I called ahead to see if they were open. Morty’s was closed a prior time I tried to go for this contest (on National Day—don’t know why I always want holiday pastrami), but open for Chung Yeung. It wasn’t as crowded as last time I was here, and the server seemed not completely overworked. We ordered two of the Ultimate Pastrami & Cheese sandwiches, and some coleslaw. I won’t review the coleslaw, as I already did that, but I will note that now they have two kinds of slaw: vinegar and creamy. I recommend vinegar, though I haven’t had the creamy.
Here’s the sandwich. First of all, it looks good, and it doesn’t even seem all that different from the promotional picture. If you lift the top, you see that there’s only a little bit of bacon, some small amount of cheese, and Thousand Island dressing. My egg was decently cooked—a little bit runny but not enough to disgust me. I’m fine with a fried egg on things, but I like my yolks to stay put. There were several improvements to the prior sandwich I’d had at Morty’s. First, the bread was toasted, and that was a nice touch. Second, there wasn’t the extra slice of bread in the middle that only got in the way. Third, the meat was distributed evenly around the sandwich, rather than being piled all at front so it seemed like more than it was. From looking at some other review photos, these changes seem to have been generally implemented, not just for the competition sandwich, and if so I applaud Morty’s for improving their products. The pastrami is obviously the star of the show. I remember liking it, but this time around I was really into it. Maybe it changed, but probably this just shows how much one’s individual mood goes into the taste experience. It’s possible that it was different pastrami. If you look at Crave magazine’s description, it says “40 days cured smoke [sic] brisket.” On Morty’s menu, it says the meats are “cured between 5 & 21 days.” No claim is made on Morty’s promotional poster for the sandwich about length of curing time. If I had noticed the discrepancy while at the restaurant, I would’ve asked, and I’m kind of too lazy to email them now.
Anyway, the pastrami carried and dominated the sandwich. With that pile of smoked meat, the bacon wasn’t really discernible. Usually bacon has the opposite effect on me, which is why I don’t tend to like it on burgers and sandwiches, but here it was negligible. The cheese was also not really noticeable; there was only a small amount of it, and it wasn’t particularly bold. I wouldn’t have minded a much cheesier sandwich. The main players were the pastrami, the egg, and the Thousand Island dressing, and I could mostly do without the last two.
Even someone who’s fine with those things wasn’t converted. My wife’s favorite sandwich is the Reuben. This was the only sandwich in the entire competition that she had with me. I asked her her thoughts and she said she thought that this was not an improvement on the Reuben. She missed the sauerkraut, and thought that Swiss cheese went better with pastrami than cheddar. We both thought the egg was a nice twist, but not really necessary on a sandwich that is already so good. Ultimately, my initial suspicions were confirmed: Morty’s Ultimate Sandwich was just a worse version of their regular sandwich.
So is this The Ultimate Sandwich? Sadly, no, although it placed a respectable #3. But don’t worry Morty’s, you had a better sandwich all along. And I’ll definitely come back. I was pretty tepid in my first review, but I was really impressed by the pastrami this time, and I’m sure I’ll get a craving for it again.
(Highly Unofficial) Ultimate Sandwich Competition Results:
1. ***WINNER*** Bulgogi Roast Beef Sandwich – Jinjuu
2. Steak in Knead – Knead
3. Ultimate Smoked Pastrami & Cheese – Morty’s Delicatessen
4. Beef Bourguignon Banh Mi - Mrs. Pound
5. The Gentleman’s Sandwich – Beef & Liberty
6. Shanghai Dip – Second Draft
7. [Did not show] – Posto Pubblico
8. HA HA Piss Off! – Bread & Beast
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