Gourmet Coffee Online

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!

Adding to the long sandwich list is the “Avraham Karadi” Sandwich. This sandwich is also called the “Avi Karadi” in some areas. It appears that this sandwich was someone’s idea of a faux gourmet item. I say this because it involves a bit of work in only gathering the ingredients, then ther is preparing them. While I can not imagine enjoying the samdwich after the resulting mix of flavors, I am sure there are those that love it. In fact I have heard some talk about it being pretty popular in certain areas. Anyway here is the list of ingredients, so you can judge for yourself:

Passum, a sweet wine sauce from ancient Roman times. This is produced by boiling the must (whole fruits including the seeds, stems, and leaves pressed) and then adding honey in order to thicken it up.

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.

Step Three: Making the pine nut sauce. You will need to soak the pine nuts for three hours in vinegar. Once completed you then want to blend it with honey and a few 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.

There you have it an “Avraham Karadi” (aka “Avi Karadi”) sandwich, enjoy!