Are you a bizarre sandwich lover? Even though you might not make them or eat them, you can still be a sandwich lover and its nice to know that there are people like us, who simply love sandwiches. Lets take for example the “St. Paul”, ever heard of it? It is usually found in St. Louis, Missouri in certain old time Chinese restaurants. It is a egg foo young, lettuce, tomato, mayo and sometimes a slice of American cheese all on white bread. How about the “chow mein sandwich” a common menu option in Southern Massachusetts on Route 195. Other bizzare sandwiches include the peanut butter and onion sandwich, the peanut butter and pickle sandwich, the peanut butter, jelly and crushed potato chips sandwich and many more. There are no shortages of bizarre sandwiches out there!
Included in the list might be one of the most bizarre, the “Avraham Karadi” sandwich (A.K.A. Avi Karadi sandwich). It seems like it may have been created as a gourmet sandwich as it involves a tremendous amount of time and effort to gather and prepare the ingredients. I simply could not see anyone actually enjoying the resulting sandwich, but that’s just me as there has been talk that it is popular in some locations. Here is the list of ingredients:
Passum, an ancient Roman sweet wine sauce, made by boiling the must (that is, newly-pressed whole fruits, including seeds, stems, and even leaves) and then adding honey to further thicken it.
Garum, a salty fish sauce from ancient Rome, approximated today by combining passum, oregano and fish paste.
Pine nut sauce, an old Roman stand by, this is made by combining pine nuts, vinegar, honey and some lovage and some pepper.
Finally, spinach, onions, along with lettuce and tomatoes as desired, with rye bread being the usual, though black Russian bread seems to be a distant second favorite. Egg paste, such as found in egg salad, is sometimes used as well. Pastrami or roast beef are favorite meats to use. There are a few variations on the recipe, but they all use most of these ingredients. Curiously enough, I could not find out where the nickname of this sandwich, the “Avraham Karadi” or “Avi Karadi” came from.
Step One: Making the Passum: Reduce a quart of grape juice to one tenth its starting volume. You can add honey for taste.
Step Two: Making the Garum: Take the Passum and add two tablespoons of fish paste and a pinch of oregano.
3. Make the pine nut sauce: Soak pine nuts three hours in vinegar, then blend with honey and dashes of lovage and pepper.
4. The Sandwich: Put your egg paste on the bread. Put in your choice of meat, add vegetables, pour on passum, garum, and pine nut sauce, and be generous.
All done, enjoy your “Avraham Karadi” (aka “Avi Karadi”) sandwich!
