August List Sandwiches and July Wrapup

It’s August 1st, and you know what that means here at the Tribunal, a new month of sandwiches revealed! Hot days are ahead, sure, but hot days are behind us too, and August brings many benefits as well, such as the most perfect tomatoes of the year. Can’t wait to rub some tomato pulp onto a crusty crostini, or slap a slab of beefsteak between two slices of squishy white bread with a slathering of Duke’s mayo! Of course, neither pan con tomate nor the classic Southern tomato sandwich are on our radar for August–those sandwiches would be strictly extramural. Before we look at what the Tribunal is covering this month, let’s recap the Tribunal’s July.

We started July with the Cachitos of Venezuela, mildly sweet crescent rolls stuffed with ham and sometimes other things. They were tasty, but a lot of work, which is why there are Venezuelan cafes in Chicago where I can simply buy them instead of making them again. Next, we looked at the Cheese Rolls of New Zealand’s Southland region, which are simple enough and tasty enough that I don’t mind making them! Though I wouldn’t mind a trip down to Middle Earth either. Then there was a two week lull, weekends that Jim spent riding bikes and traveling for work before buckling back down and finishing the month with the Chicken Fillet Roll, a staple of Ireland’s convenience stores and chip shops that you rarely see on the menu of an Irish pub around here. Why not? It’s simple and tasty. Get with the times, Irish-Americans!

OK now let’s take a look at what’s coming up for the Tribunal in August.

August is chili pepper season as well as tomato season, which bodes well for our first sandwich, a chili pepper and cheese-topped snack popular as both a street food and a homemade snack among South Asians variously called chilli cheese toast or just chilli toast. A spicy rarebit? I’m sold! Next we’ll be trying the more prosaic yet still delicious-looking chipped ham sandwich popular in the Pittsburgh area, sort of like a crockpot pulled pork only with shaved ham instead of pork butt. I can get behind that. Finally, spoopy season comes early this year as we try to replicate a Taiwanese night market specialty called Coffin Bread, consisting of a stew served inside a thick, hollowed-out slice of toasted bread. As usual, we don’t have the budget to go to Taiwan and get the real thing so we’ll have to try and make it ourselves!

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to all three of these sandwiches, and the timing couldn’t be better for chilli toast, so it ought to be a pretty good month!

Changes to the List

Wikipedia List

No real additions or subtractions in July–cosmetic/formatting changes only.

Our List

I have a couple of items that have come to my attention but haven’t pulled the trigger and added them just yet. Soon!