Sandwiches and Schlesingers

The Parish Cafe on Boylston (www.parishcafe.com) is a sandwich shop that lets you choose from a list of gourmet sandwich creations from the city’s top chefs including Ming Tsai, Barbara Lynch and Jasper White. These sandwiches don't come cheap, starting at $11 and running up to $20. Despite the price tag (I mean, at its most basic, this is really some stuffing between two slices of bread), I was sufficiently curious about Parish Cafe to stop by and order the special sandwich of the week. This week's special was The Schlesinger; created by Chris Schlesinger of the East Coast Grille in Cambridge, the sandwich featured melted Monterey Jack cheese on warmed banana bread, topped with smoked ham and mango chutney. On the side, it came with some pickled ginger and red cabbage. It was an unexpected combination but it worked well for me and I enjoyed it very much!

That lunch got me thinking about other sandwich ideas and I've decided to list some of my favorite sandwich/wrap combinations:

• potato salad (here are two variants I've tried (i) with hard boiled eggs, crab meat, chopped green beans and black pepper, mustard and mayo to taste (ii) with hard boiled eggs, corn, scallions, capers, chopped giardiniera and mayo to taste)
• curried tuna salad with raisins and chopped apples
• sweet and spicy tofu wrap with carrots, corn, greens and brown rice
• hummus with cucumber, tomatoes and onions