Ham and Cheese War

Two popular DC lunchtime eateries that I've mentioned and touted before: The Breadline and Cafe Phillips. One sandwich, the classic ham and cheese – one of my absolute favorites. Who wins the ham and cheese war? We shall see.

In general, both places can be fantastic, but both definitely have their down days, so this is not a battle of the establishments. That would have to be a longer discussion.

The Ham: Breadline's is Madrange French ham, a thinly-sliced, deli-style ham with a lot of smoky, savory flavor. However, once or twice the the ham tasted old, and that's a real turn off. Usually it's moist and very flavorful though. Phillips' ham is made in-house, fresh-daily along with their turkey and roast beef, and is carved thickly and generously as you order it. It is moist and very flavorful but is not sweet at all and still has that deli smokiness. This is a must. ADVANTAGE? Phillips.

The Cheese: A deep, pungent and high-quality Swiss cheese is the only option they give you for this sandwich at the Breadline, and it is a very nice one. The powerful flavor of the cheese works well with the tang and smoke of the ham. At Phillips, the cheese is your choice of a menagerie of pre-sliced, deli varieties including Swiss, Provolone and Muenster. None are too exciting, flavorful or memorable. ADVANTAGE? Breadline.

The Bread: The most underrated portion of a great sandwich, Breadline realizes this, and true to its namesake bakes a great assortment of breads fresh each day. The ham sandwich comes on half of a French baguette. Crusty and flavorful outside with a moist, fresh inside, it is a great bread. It's never stale and plays well as a house for the rest of the sandwich. You have to be ready for a lot of bread though, as the bread-to-innards ratio is pretty high. At Phillips, the bread is not baked fresh there, but it is usually fresh and not packaged-tasting if you choose the right one. The hoagie roll, sub roll and Ciabatta are a sampling of the good bets. I get it on the Ciabatta, and it was surprisingly good bread, crusty and tasty. Plus it packs its punch while still being only a thin layer compared to the rest of the sandwich. ADVANTAGE? Breadline.

The Condiments: The Breadline keeps it simple and French and serves it to you with a small amount of some high quality butter. And that's all. This is certainly a tasty and rich addition, but not something I look to eat all the time. At Phillips, they offer to cover your sandwich with any of probably 20 toppings, but only a few usually look that enticing. I like the hot, whole-grain mustard. Theirs isn't that hot, but it’s a nice calorie-free complement to the ham. ADVANTAGE? Phillips.

The Cost: Breadline's notoriously high prices do not bypass the ham and cheese. At roughly $9, that can be a little steep for a sandwich, no matter how good. Phillips' ham and cheese runs around $7, which seems like an overall more reasonable price for a sandwich, especially considering they do their own ham. ADVANTAGE? Phillips.

The Size: Both sandwiches are huge. Big enough for two lunches, and I'm not just saying that. I almost always save the other half of either for another meal. ADVANTAGE? Push, but with a slight lean toward Phillips due to theirs costing less.

The Verdict: While both are terrific sandwiches that do the ham and cheese proud, Breadline's occasional dud (due to non-fresh ham) and higher cost despite overall slightly higher quality is enough for Phillips the Underdog to pull ahead and squeak out a win in the Ham and Cheese war. Ham & Cheese ADVANTAGE? Café Phillips over The Breadline for the title.

Pleasant Surprises

It's nearing midnight on a work night and I'm dead tired. Julia enters the scene.

J: I'm gonna stay up and watch the Olympics.

M: Cool, I'm going to sleep.

J: Don't you need a lunch for tomorrow?

M: I guess. (Thinks fondly about going out to Phillip's tomorrow instead.) You wanna pack it for me? (As cutely as possible.)

J: Oh, I thought you were gonna take care of that. (With sarcasm.)

M: Nope, nope I was not.

J: Ugh, well what do you want then?

M: Anything.

J: Whole wheat bagel again?

M: Ugh, carbs sound hideous at the moment.

J: Well everything sounds bad, you're full from Don Pablo’s! I'm making you the bagel with cream cheese and tomato (as I see her already slicing a tomato and having pulled out the reduced fat cream cheese and toasting a bagel).

M: Okay, if you insist (less indignantly).

J: What else do you want? How about these strawberries?

M: Strawberries always make everything else in the lunch smell so fruity. Plus those don't look so hot. How about something fun?

J: You're crazy. They're not that old. They're fine. You want something fun, you think of something!

M: Ooh, how about a strawberry smoothie or shake or something. That would be fun, use up the berries, not smell -- perfect.

J: Yah, I could make you like a strawberry frap in our [mini blender].

M: Oh yah, that'll be good. Let me help.

J: You're quite welcome to. (Starts hulling eight or nine strawberries.)

M: (Looking in the emptyish fridge.) No milk left, but we do have that soy milk with fiber. Hmmm and OJ. Would sour cream go in that?

J: No! (Putting the strawberries in the 16-ounce blender cup and pouring in some of the fiber milk.)

M: Hey, not too much of that. I want to fit in all these other ingredients so it actually tastes good.

J: Who is making this?

M: Me! (Giggling.) We can save the rest of the fiber milk to even things out later.

J: Whatever you say.

M: Ok, now put in two fingers of OJ, two fingers of this pomegranate juice, this Fiber One vanilla yogurt and a couple splashes of this lime juice.

J: Ok sir, this is getting kind of full. Anything else?

M: Nah, let's whazz it up.

J: Man I'm so excited about Coal. I can't believe we got him. (As blender is going.)

M: Yah, what a pleasant surprise. We need those sometimes. I’m glad we’re able to rescue him. (Julia stops blending.)

J: Wow the consistency seems perfect. (As I am already fishing a spoon in to get a taste.)

M: Whoa! You have to try this! It’s like the perfect combination of tangy and sweet, and it has great texture.

J: Yah, good call on the lime and Pom.

M: Good call on NO sour cream. (Laughing as I put away the ingredients and Julia puts the stuff into a lunch bag.)

J: Good call on the smoothie – I didn’t even know you liked them or I’d make them more often. They’re so easy.

M: I do like them. And this one is super healthy! There’s no fat in the yogurt and 5 grams of fiber. No fat in the strawberries, OJ, Pom or lime juice but there’s a lot of potassium and antioxidants in there. Oh yeah, and the milk has 3 grams of fiber and only 1.5 grams of fat.

J: Wow that’s like no fat and tons of fiber, and it tastes awesome. You should blog about this.

M: Yah! Never thought this lunch-making session would be so “fruitful”. Another pleasant surprise!

J: Haha, very “punny”! A very pleasant surprise indeed. Ok, I’m going to watch diving. Go sleep, sleepyhead!

M: Don’t you love how the readers have no idea who Coal is?

J: Well, my Mom probably does.

M: Maybe I should post a picture.

J: Yes, but then they’d have to go all the way to the site to see it instead of just reading it in their e-mail or on Facebook.

M: Well I think they can manage to type in autofoodography.com in to their browsers.

J: This part of the conversation didn’t really happen. And even though I, Julia, am not really saying this since this part didn’t happen, I wouldn’t completely believe Mr. Wise Guy’s take on precisely how the real conversation (above) went down. But it’s close enough.

PS: GO VOTE IN THE EGG SCHOOL POLL!