When I was a kid, it was a packed-lunch hack to add your potato chips to your sandwich. All the cool kids knew this trick. Hell, all the not-cool kids (*cough, cough* me) knew this trick. Even as kids with chocolate milk taste we knew a little extra salt and crunchy texture could take your turkey and cheese to the next level.
We were pre-pubescent culinary geniuses. And we felt doubly so because the adults weren’t doing this. They had their sides on the side, thank-you-very-much. They probably ate their sammies with pinkies extended too, if for no other reason but to prove that just because you’re eating something as pedestrian as a sandwich doesn’t mean you can’t also be posh while doing so.
Sure, I guess. But pinkie birdies are what cucumber sandwiches at high tea are for. Not the everyman sandwich. The everyman sandwich requires all fingers to be fully engaged in keeping the sandwich together because side-like toppings and gooeyness abound. And no sandwich has better encapsulated this feeling than our most recent sandwich-of-the-week: The Ohio Polish Boy.
Most of the sandwiches that the list has offered up as sacrifice have heavily featured one main ingredient — roast turkey, pulled pork, corned beef, lobster, etc, etc, etc. But few have gone outside the bun (sorry for the appropriation, Taco Bell) for their toppings quite like the Polish Boy. The only one that comes to mind is the Bobby. Not to take anything away from that post-Thanksgiving wonder, but it’s a sandwich of leftovers. Unless you’re a deli in Delaware or us during a pandemic lockdown with nothing else better to do, no one is making that sandwich from scratch.
The Ohio Polish Boy is different. A grilled smoked sausage topped with coleslaw, french fries, and barbecue sauce, it requires all of its ingredients to be day-of fresh. You can’t pull any of those toppings out of the fridge, slap it on top, and call it a day. (Unless you hate yourself, I guess, but I’m assuming most people reading this harness a little self-love). This sandwich is a mindful choice in both toppings and calorie consideration. It is not keto-, paleo-, weigh-watchers-, or Atkins-friendly. It exists for joy and joy alone.
The sandwich is easy to put together, but you do have to put a little effort into the toppings. Obviously, frying up the fries takes finesse and patience and skin immune to oil burns — which is why Nate was put to the task. And the coleslaw isn’t difficult to make but does need to be made with refrigeration time in mind. We used celeb Chef Michael Symon’s recipe for the coleslaw, which was spicy and mustardy and perhaps the best coleslaw we ever had. Whether or not it should have been, it was the star of the show and has ruined me for any rubbish mayo-based coleslaws.
Nate did all of the heavy lifting this week and put the sandwiches together with ease and finesse…I’m assuming. I just came home from the park and the house smelled awesome, the sandwiches were done and the kitchen was clean. I suppose he could’ve used magic, but there was no pixie dust anywhere belying this ability, so I have to assume he did it with his own two human hands.
And what a beautiful job he did with such mortal abilities!
These sandwiches aren’t first-date fodder. That is to say, they’re a mess to eat. But, messy foods also have a way of being incredibly tasty. The saltiness of the fries, the sweetness of the bbq sauce, and the tanginess of the coleslaw all complemented the umami flavor or the smoked sausage. I can see why Ohioans enjoy this sandwich. But even though the sandwich worked as a whole, it was one of its parts that really stole the show.
The coleslaw.
THE COLESLAW!
Yeah. The usually-unremarkable-after-thought-of-a-side coleslaw was the Beyonce of this Destiny’s Child dish. I’m as surprised as you are. We’ve made coleslaw multiple times on this sandwich journey, both as a side dish and as a topping, and I’ve never really given it much thought after the meal was over. But this coleslaw had a little something extra to it that made it the unquestionable star of the show.
I’m not sure that’s the intended takeaway of this sandwich, but for us it was. It was nice to have a sandwich that dared to be so different from any of the others on the list. I’ve never had a sandwich like it. And while it was tasty, it was a lot. So much like jumping out of a plane, I’m glad I did it and have no regrets, but feel no need to ever do it again.
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