I love sandwiches. Below are some of my favorites and why.

First, a few constraints I will impose to keep it to a reasonable number of sandwiches: these are limited to New York (not that I haven’t had amazing sandwiches elsewhere), sandwiches I’ve had at least 3 times, excluding burgers (are burgers sandwiches?), excluding falafel sandwiches (not that I don’t love them but I can’t pick a favorite spot and also then we get into wrap territory which is going to introduce too much scope creep), and excluding chain restaurants (not that I won’t crush a Subway or Potbelly sandwich if the mood strikes me).

Okay, here I go.

Sandwich #1

Pastrami and pepper jack on a roll with lettuce, tomato, hot peppers, pickles, mustard (hot) from the deli across the street from the medical center where I did my surgery residency

This is the sandwich I have almost certainly consumed the most number of times in my life. I don’t know how I decided on this particular sandwich, but I did. I’ve eaten this sandwich for lunch, dinner, at 2 am on call, in the deli, on the street on the way back to the hospital, in the call room, et cetera. One time I gave my medical student $10 and asked her to go to the deli and ask the deli man to make the Kwon sandwich and that he would know what it meant. I wasn’t actually sure he would, but a big part of being a surgeon is saying things with extreme confidence even if you’re not actually certain about the thing. In this case, it worked out (as a general rule, you’d be hard pressed to find someone more reliable than a deli man), and the student came back with my sandwich.

I think more than the sandwich itself I am fond of the deli and the people there because it was often a bright spot at a stressful and dark time in my life. One time I was on call overnight and somebody came in with a rectal prolapse, and one of the tricks to reducing a prolapsed rectum (and avoid surgery) is to cover it in sugar before attempting to push it back in (the sugar osmotically draws water across the rectal wall which reduces the swelling). The hospital cafeteria was closed so I went to the deli and asked if I could have as much sugar as they would give me. The (overnight) deli man didn’t blink an eye or ask any questions, just brought me a bunch of sugar packets and charged me nothing. (Maybe I wasn’t the first resident to have that request.)

Anyway, wasn’t this supposed to be about sandwiches? I digress.

Sandwich #2

House special banh mi, spice level: spicy, from the banh mi shop on Broome and Grand

I had this sandwich a lot during the depths of the pandemic and recently went back and it was just as good as it was then. The guy behind the counter is really nice and when it’s summer and I wait outside for my sandwich after putting in my order, he comes out and brings it to me when it’s ready, which I think is a nice touch because he could just yell for me to come pick it up like a lot of other delis (which is also fine!).

Sandwich #3

Italian sub, Faicco’s Italian Specialties (there is an outpost on Bleecker Street, but the original deli is in Brooklyn)

This is just a giant sub that could probably feed 4 people. When I was younger I could eat the whole thing by myself sitting in Washington Square Park which is a short walk away.

Sandwich #4

Fried eggplant, prosciutto, mozzarella, roasted peppers, Defonte’s sandwich shop in Red Hook

This is the sandwich that made me like eggplant.

Sandwich #5

Reuben sandwich, Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop

This was one of my frequently ordered sandwiches at my first job after leaving medicine. I didn’t realize this place was such an institution until after it closed. Apparently it reopened under new ownership, though I haven’t been back yet.

Sandwich #6

Sausage-egg-and-cheese on an everything bagel (toasted), any reasonably reputable bagel institution

The correct way to order is with sausage-egg-and-cheese as one word, and to basically almost shout it (don’t worry, nobody is going to think you are rude, but they will get slightly annoyed if they can’t hear you the first time). I don’t order bagel sandwiches that frequently (hot take, but I just think a lot of bagels are too big and too bagelly), but sometimes I get in a mood where I need one, often on a Saturday morning. This is also my breakfast sandwich order at any deli (on a roll if they don’t have bagels).

Sandwich #7

Vegitalian (roasted butternut squash, greens, and a bunch of different cheeses on a hero), Court Street Grocers

Sometimes when something sounds too weird, you just have to try it. This sandwich is one of those things for me. It’s also the only vegetarian sandwich that made this list. I would not liken it to an Italian sub because it’s an entirely different vibe, but it’s a delicious sandwich. The bread-to-filling ratio is a little higher than I generally prefer but all in all it’s a great sandwich and it’s always nice when the vegetarian option is just as tasty as carnivorous counterparts.