Three years ago, the first kosher Subway restaurant opened in Cleveland -- and even company pitchman Jared Fogle showed-up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Since then, Subway has gone on a kosher franchise binge, opening nine restaurants (11 by the end of the year) in markets like Miami, Los Angeles and Brooklyn, N.Y. Now at least four of those franchises -- Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cleveland and Rockville, Md. -- are trying to convince local religious academies to bring the six-inch sub into school cafeterias.
So far it's been slow going. In Los Angeles, kosher Subway co-owner Jonathan Sedaghat is in negotiations with three area private schools to serve Subway sandwiches on a weekly basis for as many as 300 students. Most of his school business so far has come from Yeshivas ordering heroes for special occasions like field trips, sports events and orientations. The menu consists of turkey, roast beef, salami or bologna low-fat subs (290 calories, 30 calories from fat) with sliced apples and potato chips. The franchise charges between $5 and $7 a lunchbox, depending on the order.
Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food staffer Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."
Oh, beloved pimento cheese; the Southeast's answer to cheese dip and queso.
The bright-orange spread is nothing more than extra-sharp cheddar, mayonnaise, diced pimiento peppers and cracked black pepper. Homemade pimento cheese is a snap to make and leftovers are a cracker's best friend. You could spruce up the spread with serrano peppers, garlic, cayenne, different types of cheese or even bacon. But to most, nothing is better than the classic four-ingredient mix between two pieces of bread.
The pimiento is a small cherry pepper which loses the "i" in cheese-spread form to become plain ol' "pimento." Known for its sweetness, you'll probably recognize it in the jarred and diced forms. As a relative of the red bell pepper, many cooks -- including Matt and Ted Lee -- even admit to substituting the latter for pimientos.
In "The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook", they write, "Conventional pimento cheese recipes call for canned pimentos, but we broil a fresh red bell pepper, skin it and cut it into small dice before mixing it with cheese. Sure it makes some eyes roll in Charleston, but we think this is a simple route to a more vibrant and sophisticated (less chemical-tasting) pepper flavor."
Forget Godzilla. Beginning Thursday, Burger King fans in Japan can get a mega-sized Whopper.
Microsoft is teaming up with Burger King to release the Windows 7 Whopper, our sister site Engadget reports. The burger features lucky-number-seven stacked beef patties and stands 5-inches tall.
Keeping with the seven theme, the sandwich will sell at 777 yen (or approximately $8.50) to the first 30 customers and will be available for seven days. For customer No. 31 and beyond, the tower-o-meat will sell for 1,450 yen -- almost double the promotional cost.
McDonald's at Chicago's Navy Pier. Photo: jwrb,Flickr.
A Chicago man has filed a lawsuit against McDonald's Corporation after he says he swallowed a gold earring in his sandwich.
The man purchased the sandwich on Aug. 11 from the McDonald's at Chicago's Navy Pier, according to the suit filed on Wednesday in the circuit court of Cook County, Ill.
Xoco's churros are hard to get. Photo: ehfisher/flicker.
Would you wait three days for a "Top Chef" churro?
Rick Bayless, one of Chicago's top chefs and the winner of Bravo's "Top Chef Masters," is extending his gourmet Mexican empire to street food. Last week, he added XOCO (pronounced "Sho-Co") to his string of Windy City hot spots including Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. The latest aims to bring authentic Mexican tortas and caldos (sandwiches and soups) to the masses. How did it go over with the locals? The line snaked out the door.
When Slashfood swung by for after-dinner churros -- the delectable fried-dough treats sprinkled with sugar and spices -- it took three nights of trying to get in.
Hardee's is having startling success with a humble Appalachian lunch meat long considered too provincial for nationwide tastes, and nobody's more surprised than the fast-food chain's top brass.
"We were concerned it would be too regional," Executive Vice-President of Marketing Brad Haley says of Hardee's new Oscar Mayer Fried Bologna Biscuit. "But sales have increased every week we've had it."
While bologna is a staple of lunch counters and school cafeterias across the South, Hardee's found inspiration for its menu item at a few roadside diners that sandwiched grilled bologna between biscuit halves for breakfast. For Hardee's, the preparation stood seductively close to the final meat frontier.
"We've done virtually every other meat you can think of on a biscuit," Haley concedes. "We've had country ham, chicken, pork chops, smoked sausage. We even had turkey."
Hugh Jackman in 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine.' Photo: 20th Century Fox
A New York deli known for its gargantuan sandwiches has gone the way of the summer blockbuster.
The "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" sandwich is now a fixture on the menu at the Carnegie Deli, a New York landmark on the corner of 55th Street and Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan.
The sandwich is the carnivorous wolf's dream -- and the vegetarian's worst nightmare: corned beef, pastrami, turkey, salami, tongue, American cheese and brisket on rye.
Few of us want to make a complicated lasagna for solo dining -- by day six, you'll never want to see lasagna again! In this series, AOL Food intern Sarah LeTrent taste-tests simple recipes suitable for a "table for one."
For singletons, it's pretty easy to throw together a sandwich at home. Simply consider the bread a canvas and whatever's on hand the paint. Nearly any combo could end up delicious in the hands of the trial and error gods.
As any good sandwich should, this one starts with quality bread (in this case a crusty Kaiser roll bought at the local market for a mere 79 cents.) The motivation behind the toppings were not only the existing contents of the fridge, but a recent trip to Mexico packed with plantains and pollo (chicken). If only we had a paleta around for dessert!
The Westport Flea Market's Burgermobile. Photo: Emily Farris
"Hey, that's a nice truck!" a young boy yelled at Joe Zwillenberg as he tried to park his Burgermobile at a dog show last weekend. "Where'd you get it?"
Zwillenberg didn't hear the boy. He was too busy concentrating on parking the thing. "I gotta be careful," he said. "I don't wanna scrape the bun."
Well, kid, if you're reading this, the Burgermobile is from New York City. When visiting the Big Apple in April, Zwillenberg -- the owner of Kansas City, Mo.'s Westport Flea Market Bar and Grill -- met artist Matt Targon, who specializes in promotional vehicles. While discussing Zwillenberg's business, Targon declared he'd always wanted to make a burger car. After a little negotiating, Targon told Zwillenberg, "I'm going to make you the best hamburger vehicle ever."
As far as K.C. residents are concerned, mission accomplished. Since arriving in the city's Westport neighborhood earlier this month, the Burgermobile has captured the attention of nearly every passerby, as well as their cameras. It's exactly what Zwillenberg had in mind.
Aside from bacon, lettuce and tomato, what makes the perfect BLT? Balance.
Because there are so few ingredients, each must be carefully weighed against the other: building the sandwich is not entirely dissimilar to building, well, a building. Or, if you're unlucky, a house of cards. Joy the Baker is well-aware of the perils concealed within the bready confines of a BLT, and has, if this picture is any indication, overcome the challenges to construct a real winner. Crispy bacon, thin slices of tomato, some crunchy lettuce and a smear of roasted red pepper mayonnaise on lightly toasted bread: this baby has enough balance to qualify for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team -- or, failing that, a very tasty lunch.
After sunscreen, citronella candles and heat rash, does anything say "summer" more unequivocally than a lobster roll?
This baby, captured by VirtualErn at Flickr, appears to be the lobster roll to end all lobster rolls, the embodiment of the deceptively simple art of serving chunks of crustacean, barely dressed in mayonnaise, in a bun. Note the minimal accessories: lemon slices, crisp coleslaw and a drop of mayo. The better the roll, the fewer adornments it requires. If this specimen tastes as good as it looks, it most likely calls out for little more than a good appetite -- and, possibly, a bib.
Six hours in the car on the way to Pittsburgh this past weekend gave me plenty of time to think about food for my family reunion. The menu was already set and included family favorites like hot and sweet Italian sausage cooked in tomatoes with thinly sliced red peppers served on Mancini rolls, thick baked beans with chunks of juicy ham and molasses, and stuffed shells with ricotta and loads of melted mozzarella. My task -- make an appetizer that wouldn't seem out of place on this meat and cheese-heavy table.
Get Jennifer's Pepperoni Bread recipe after the jump.
One of the simplest French dishes is also among the most surefire crowd-pleasers -- the croque monsieur. At a holiday dinner last year a room erupted into moans of pleasure when these were served. All for a ham and cheese sandwich!
The name of this crisp and creamy treat derives from the French verb "croquer," which means "to crunch," and the word "monsieur," for "mister." Together they make "Mr. Crunch," which doesn't sound nearly as appetizing as en Francais, in which seems an elegant name worthy of its flavor and Proustian roots. (The meal first popped up in literature in Marcel Proust's "In Search of Lost Time.")
When fast food joints decide to expand beyond the burger, the first place they go is typically the chicken sandwich. After all, the kids in the back of the joint can basically do all the same things, just to a different patty. (Why don't the bigwigs just pick fish? Well, you know, the whole tartar sauce issue.)
Sonic Drive-In has recently added two new "premium" chicken sandwiches to its menu: Chicken and chicken bacon ranch. Both come either fried or grilled with an option for a "wheat" bun option (that apparently, per the nutritional details, does not actually contain any whole grain). As far as I can tell the quote-unquote wheat bun and slightly larger size are what make these suckers "premium."
Between the chicken and the bacon ranch chicken, guess which one tastes better? Well, the plain chicken (which I ordered grilled) is just that: Plain. A chicken patty arrives topped with lettuce, tomato and mayo on a less-squishy-than-usual bun. Though it's not that thrilling, at under 500 calories it's one of the less-heinous fast food options out there.
Naturally, the fried version with bacon and ranch dressing is more exciting even if it could use a bit more bacon or another dollop of ranch and you'll have to scurry double-time on the treadmill later. Is it tastier than the other chicken sandwiches on the market? Eh. Sonic falls into the chicken spectrum thusly: Superior to a McChicken, worse than a Carl's Jr. and can't compete at all with chicken-specializing chains like KFC or Popeye's. On my next trip to Sonic I think I'll just stick to burgers and Java Chillers.
Got a fave fast-food chix sandwich that makes the others look like frauds? Let us know in the comments.
This photo makes us want to skip on down to Johnny Rocket's, pop the Shirelles on the stereo and sip milkshakes two-straws-to-a-glass -- all before 10am.
But of course what looks to be a simple burger and mac combo platter with a sweet side of Moxie is actually a duck-pork patty slathered with seven-pickle relish accompanied by a gorgonzola and cheddar mac 'n cheese. We're pretty sure that's not what the Fonz was noshing on back in the day. Gotta love that fresh strawberry shake served up in a laboratory glass, too. Click over to the snapshot to learn what those lunchboxes have printed on 'em, part of the cutesy theme at Seattle's Lunchbox Laboratory.
If you're not in our Flickr pool yet it's time to jump in, start tagging photos "slashfood" and show off your skills already. And tell us if this pic makes you get a burger for lunch.
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