Free Gruyère

One of the things we really loved about our long layover in Geneva was relaxing by the lake and taking in the city. We watched the marathon and the marathon "cheering" groups, looked at the boats on the lake and enjoyed using the free city wifi. (Why can't we have that?) At one point, we noticed a large crowd of people and went to investigate.

Lots of people were grabbing small samples of cheese that this man was chopping:


So we got some too.


We later realized he was also cutting up blocks of cheese that people were buying. I guess these were samples to try to entice you to buy Gruyère.

It seemed like there was a big Gruyère festival as there was also a band there...


... playing the theme song from "The Rock." (Love that movie, but no idea what it has to do with Gruyère.)

Around the back of the exhibition, more promotions for Gruyère:


And in the cooler, more free samples that they gave away to passersby:


We were super excited to get free Gruyère! If you're not familiar, Gruyère is a Swiss hard yellow cheese, and because of controlled origin, it can only be made in Switzerland. The samples were as good as any Gruyère we've had, or even better, since it didn't have to travel far. Authentic Swiss cheese for our day trip to Switzerland!

Katchkie Farm's Awesome Sandwich

I don't think we have ever introduced you to one of our favorite sandwiches: the turkey and cheese sandwich from Katchkie Farm.

The sandwiches come in all different shapes and sizes
Katchkie Farm shows up at various greenmarkets with items for sale (like produce or jars of pickles or sauces) as well as ready-made meals (sandwiches, cold soups, pickles, beet chips). A few years ago, I happened upon their booth at the Rockefeller Center Greenmarket, got both the vegetable and turkey sandwiches over the next few weeks, and haven't been able to get the turkey sandwiches out of my head since then. Unfortunately, the RC Greenmarket is only around for a month each summer, but Katchkie started going to Port Authority on Thursdays for their mini-greenmarket, so whenever I'm lucky enough to have time to walk at lunch, I can venture over there year-round. Being at Port Authority also means that A was able to try their sandwich, which he also really likes, so now we both can enjoy it!

So what's in this awesome sandwich?

I want another sandwich just looking at the photo...
Turkey, cheddar cheese, greens from the farm, caramelized onions and bread made by Bread Alone. You have to try it. One of my favorite turkey sandwiches ever. It's really the ingredients that make the sandwich, as the combination of turkey, cheese and onions isn't exactly revolutionary. Their ingredients are just that good!

Migros

I love how European airports have full supermarkets and not just newsstands with snacks. While in Geneva, we spent some time sightseeing at Migros. A few photo highlights:

variety of pizzas

vegetable combinations made easy - wish we had these

tarte flambee - a special place in our hearts because of db bistro, so we love tarte flambee

not just food but cute stuffed animals for souvenirs too

the sour gummy candy we bought
There was a surprising lack of gummy candy in Geneva and I noticed there was no Haribo (my favorite brand) in the stores we visited. We tried the Bizzl mix here which was some sour fruit-flavored gummy candy, but it wasn't that sour or that fruit-flavored. It was fine, but not Haribo.

Do you know of any US airports with full grocery stores inside? I don't think I've ever seen one!

Aux Bonnes Choses

We arrived in Geneva and one of the first things we did was grab a snack. We checked out a few places and decided on Aux Bonnes Choses (which I think means "good things" in French). It was located in the railway station that was connected to the airport and had various snacks and pastries (croissants, quiches, sandwiches) that all looked good.

We picked up a peach iced tea, which in Europe, tastes sweet just like gummy peach candy:


For snack, we split a tomato mozzarella focaccia sandwich. I thought they were going to give it to us cold, but they put it on a panini grill before serving it, so we got a warm and toasty grilled sandwich:


It wasn't a very thick sandwich, as you can see from this side view, but it was tasty:


The sandwich tasted rich and buttery (probably from the bread). It tasted like it was lined with a pesto before the tomato and mozzarella were added. Once melted together, it all tasted really good. With a snack in our bellies, we investigated more of the airport before heading out to explore the city!

EWR to GVA

We started our honeymoon journey on a cramped overnight flight from Newark to Geneva. As we mentioned before, we weren't sure how good the food would be on the flight so we got a snack from Smashburger before leaving. That turned out to be a good idea because the food was mediocre.

A and I got different entrees (there were two choices). But otherwise, both dinners were the same. They each came with a salad:


As you can see, it's a rather boring salad. Mostly iceberg lettuce, with some tomato, cucumber and carrots. The only thing that made it less bland was the dressing. But the only dressing option was an unhealthy caesar dressing. Neither of us really thought too highly of the salad.

The meal also came with a cold boring dinner roll and a package of milano cookies. A likes milano cookies, so I gave mine to him.


A's entree was chicken with tomato sauce and green beans over rice. It wasn't too bad. Relatively healthy and way better than mine. At least it had flavor.


My entree was not very good at all. I got spaghetti thinking it would be a safe option. It shouldn't be that difficult to make a good pasta (or at least a decent one). I also figured that, since the meals were probably sitting for some time, pasta might be a better choice since the chicken could easily dry out. I was so wrong.


The dish was flavorless. There wasn't much tomato sauce at all and what was there didn't have very much flavor. It felt like eating just for the sake of eating, without enjoying the actual food. The meatballs were dry and didn't add much flavor either. How can meatballs have no flavor?! I ate the whole thing because I was hungry for dinner but it was so bland.

Throughout the entire dinner, I just kept thinking about how our last flights had much better food. The last time we left NYC for Europe, it was on KLM and we had this fantastic and healthy chicken curry meal. I was not impressed by Continental's dinner. A had a better meal, but was still not that impressed.

If I was not impressed by dinner, I was even less impressed by breakfast.


Breakfast consisted of a croissant, some canteloupe and honeydew, and a little packet of strawberry jam. Not healthy at all! We already have such a reputation in the US for eating complete crap, and the airlines can't even serve a healthy container of yogurt? (That's what we had on KLM last time.) It was mid-May and the height of allergy season, so I couldn't eat the melons either. All I ate was the strawberry jam. Woohoo, that's a great breakfast. Although A didn't have as many issues with it as I did, he still thought it was nothing special.

This flight, combined with the next 4 flights on non-US airlines, confirmed what we had already been thinking about flights. The food on the non-US flights is so much better. Lesson learned!

Cafe 45

It was 103 degrees when I went for lunch today. Too hot to trek too far for lunch, but I still took a walk around the block before stopping at Cafe 45, a new midtown deli that opened this week. (For those unfamiliar with what these generic delis are, they're those "one-stop" places you can go for lunch to pick up sandwiches, paninis, salads, soups. Many are owned by Asian people and have Asian food counters like udon, etc. They usually also have a hot/cold bar.)

I think the balloon people are cute
I don't usually go to the generic delis because they're not that exciting, but a 50% off grand opening special will draw me in. I got a salad (always craving those in hot weather), which is $6.95 for the small size.

The giant spinach leaf blocks everything else
For the base price, you get the greens, 1 item from group A (meats), 1 item from group B (nuts) and 3 items from group C (your regular vegetables). I don't put nuts in salad so I was able to switch it for 1 from group A and 4 from group C. Group C is cheaper so they were better off anyway.

I got a spinach salad with spicy chicken, chickpeas, onions, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. It was fine. Nothing special, but good for a hot day like today (and for under $4, even better!). I did like that the vegetables all seemed very fresh, especially the onions. Some of the generic salad counters have veggies that are just OK.

Cafe 45 also has some Asian options like bibimbap. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Cafe 45 is on 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues (closer to 5th).

Coolhaus

When word that LA-based truck Coolhaus was bringing its ice cream sandwich slinging ways to NYC, there was definite excitement within the food enthusiast (M and I don't like the term "foodie") community. This truck was especially exciting for me as I love ice cream. It could be 30 degrees below 0 and I would still go out and eat ice cream. In fact, I think I may have done that in the past...

Anyway, months have since passed since their trucks started hitting the NYC pavement, and many glowing reviews have been written. M and I had still not had a chance to locate and consume their delectable frozen treats, though. My coworker R and I had made a previous attempt when they were parked right down the street from our office, but when we got there the truck seemed to be having issues, and no one was serving.

This time, we got much luckier. R and I made the trek over to Bryant Park in search of an afternoon snack. We approached the beautiful pink, slanted-topped truck with excitement as there was only one person in line reading the menu. I opted for the special of the day: peanut butter cookies with bananas foster ice cream.

Coolhaus Truck

Ice Cream Sandwich

The sandwiches are by no means small. Two cookies roughly 3.5 inches in diameter sandwich a giant glob of ice cream between them. It all comes with a piece of edible paper surrounding them so you can eat the drippings that are caught. Oh, and there will be drippings. These sandwiches get pretty messy.

Luckily, R has started buying into my blogging so he offered to take a picture of me eating the sandwich. I happily accepted.

Cramming my face

That initial bite into the sandwich wasn't the best. I was expecting a softer set of cookies since my idea of a peanut butter cookie is soft and chewy, but these were a little on the harder side. Added to my mistake was that I took a pretty big bite. Walking in near 90 degree heat and then taking a huge bite into ice cold ice cream really didn't feel good on my mouth. Flavor-wise, it was amazing. Feeling-wise, my teeth froze in ways that I never knew they could.

After the initial pain subsided, I started to think about the flavors I had swirling in my mouth. The cookies, even though they were harder than my normal preference, had all of the wonderful peanut butter flavor you would want. The ice cream was subtle in its flavor, but you could definitely taste the banana as well as the caramel undertones you would expect out of bananas foster. Overall it was an amazing sandwich. Perhaps the one benefit of the cookies being slightly hard is that they kept squishing ice cream out the sides whenever I took a bite so it slowed down my eating. That allowed me to savor the sandwich for longer as R lamented that he had eaten his too quickly.

I really hope to visit Coolhaus again, and next time I'm hoping M can come as well since I know this is something she would enjoy.

Around the World

The original idea behind this food blog, and the impetus for us to start, came during the 2010 Men's World Cup. We had made the plan to attempt to eat at a restaurant in NYC representing every country participating in the tournament. It was a daunting task and one we knew that we had virtually no chance of completing, but it certainly gave us a reason to start chronicling our eating adventures. In the end, we were able to eat 17 out of the 32 countries.

As the World Cup ended, we realized that we couldn't just make this an every 4 years type of blog, that wouldn't work. We had always planned at some point to start an exploration of the world's food. After all, two things we both enjoy are eating and traveling. In the end we opted to try and eat food from a restaurant representing every country.

Originally, we were going to do this alphabetically by country. But, thinking about it further, it seemed like that could be difficult to do sometimes. Some restaurants specialize in regional cuisine or the cuisine of more than one neighboring country. Do we count that for country A or country B? Can we go there more than once if it's the only place? What if we get stuck on someplace like Kiribati or Nauru? (That could still happen with the way we're going to do it, but at least we get to face this all at once.) Doing a "walk" around the world seemed like a better idea.

So that's what we're going to do. A walk around the world. The only "rule" for a restaurant to qualify is that it has to be outside the country it represents. (For example, we went to a Cypriot place in Santorini, Greece, so that would count.) Old visits don't count. We have to go to each place at the time it comes up in our "walk." And we'll go to as many restaurants per country/region as it takes to explore the region, instead of just crossing it off our list. We're also not going to do this exclusively. We still plan to eat at all types of restaurants, just make a special effort once in a while to tackle this walk around the world. This could take us a very, very long time. We're ready.

We're going to start with our neighbors to the north - Canada. It's harder than you think trying to find Canadian places other than Tim Horton's (but we still may go for some timbits). Then we'll go through Central America, the Caribbean, South America, the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, Asia, Middle East, Europe and then, finally, Africa. We'll tag all the posts with WorldEats so join us in our journey!

Salted Caramel

The Friday custard flavor of the month is salted caramel.


We tried it tonight but were both underwhelmed. I'm not a huge fan of caramel to begin with, but thought I might like this because a couple of weeks ago I tried Pinkberry's salted caramel yogurt and liked it. I think the problem here was that there was a lot of caramel and no salted flavor. All you could taste was caramel. Although he likes caramel more, A was also a little disappointed by it because it was just caramel and not salted caramel. If you like just caramel, you might like it more.

(Ending this post now because I don't think I've written the word "caramel" so much in my life.)

Salted Caramel
A's rating: 5.5/10
M's rating: 4/10

Flying Elephants

We just returned this morning from a long weekend in Portland, Oregon. (Now we have another trip to write about... although this one is shorter and had more home cooking, so hopefully it will be quicker to blog.)

We flew out of PDX, Portland International Airport, which has, in previous years, been voted one of the nation's best airports. It really has a lot going for it - clean, eco-friendly, free wifi, retailers (including food outlets) have to charge the same prices they do outside the airport, no lines to check in, no lines for security, quick moving TSA screening, spacious and not very crowded. After the misery that is the JFK JetBlue terminal, PDX airport (like the non-humid air in Portland) was just so refreshing.

Before we left PDX, I made a pit stop for some soup at Flying Elephants Delicatessen (the airport version of Elephants Deli, with several locations in Portland). I wasn't feeling too well after several cases of motion sickness over the weekend (sigh, minivans and traffic) and needed something to calm my stomach. I was originally going to get Wendy's nuggets but this was the healthier choice.


The deli had a lot of options, including selected items (not mine) for 50% off, since it was the end of the day. There was a sandwich of turkey and Tillamook cheddar (Oregon-based) that looked really good, but I was more queasy than hungry, and a sandwich would have been too much.

They had 4 different kinds of soup - a summer corn chowder (sounded delicious, but wanted to avoid bacon and cream before a flight), a chicken soup (same thing, also had cream), the soup I got (more later) and a fourth soup that I can't remember.


I got the summer vegetable soup, which consisted of carrots, celery, turnips, potatoes, fennel, white wine, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, lima beans and fresh basil. It sounded so healthy and looked great. The soup came in 2 sizes. I got the large and it was $4.50. It came with bread, but that was nothing special (would have preferred the saltines that came with the small size).


Tomatoes probably should be listed as the first ingredient since the soup is predominantly tomatoes. All the vegetables tasted so fresh and tomato soup is soothing, so this was the perfect pre-flight snack for me. PDX has a lot of options that look good, but I would recommend Flying Elephants if you're looking for soup, sandwiches or salads.

Happy Birthday Shake Shack

This past weekend, one year ago, was a big weekend. The long-awaited Shake Shack Theatre District finally opened (after many days of me walking by and checking on status) and the World Cup ended, officially marking an end to our eating challenge. What a great summer.

To celebrate Shake Shack TD's first birthday, they had some specials at our local Shake Shack - a deli dog topped with pastrami (that I guess we had before but only A remembered that) and birthday cake concrete (which I had once before in November and loved). We were waiting for a sofa to be delivered at home so I went out to see if I could bring Shake Shack home to commemorate the occasion.

It was packed and the line was down the block. After all, it was a Sunday in the summer. C-line (the line for cold food only) was the way to go.


The birthday cake concrete consists of custard plus cake. The one I had last November had vanilla custard with chocolate cake, marshmallow sauce and rainbow sprinkles. This one was a little different, but I'm looking at this picture now and realizing they never asked me vanilla or chocolate for the custard. They seemed a little overloaded (more on that coming up).


This custard didn't have chocolate cake but it was like they mixed in a real birthday cake with the icing and everything. The green icing with the custard was probably my favorite part.


But do you notice anything off with this picture? Maybe something that says that they were rushing through the orders and didn't care as much?

We love Shake Shack, but where is the rest of the concrete? That concrete isn't even close to full. I thought maybe I just forgot how much they fill it up but I went back to look at photos of old concretes. While the fill level varies from concrete to concrete, they all had more than this. How disappointing, especially when birthday cake concrete is my favorite of them all. Unfortunately since I got it to-go, I didn't notice until I was picking up lunch elsewhere and almost home.

In any event, happy birthday Shake Shack! If you see this, can we please get another half concrete to make up for this empty one?

Babbo: The Beginning

New York City has so many amazing restaurants. There are so many that we still haven't been to and that we want to visit, and before tonight, Babbo was on that list. Babbo is Mario Batali's (very) popular restaurant in Greenwich Village near Washington Square Park. It's one of those places that is in such demand that you often have to call a month in advance to get a weekend reservation. We had a gift card from A's brother and his wife from Christmas, so we called up a month before our engage-a-versary* and claimed a spot.

* We celebrate multiple anniversaries a year. Even though we're married, why should we stop celebrating other special occasions that we've celebrated throughout the years, like our dating anniversary and our engagement anniversary? It's always better to make time for happy things (in my opinion) so we continue to celebrate all the anniversaries.


The townhouse where Babbo is located was apparently formerly a restaurant called The Coach House, as signs in their bathrooms (at least the ladies room, not sure if it's in the men's room since they don't have a bowl of lemons either) tell guests. Considering I love looking at old ads, I enjoyed seeing the ads for dinner starting at $3.75 and about giant lamb chops, and newspaper reviews describing $2.50 complete dinners.

The dinner started a little oddly as the person seating us said he would seat us on the ground floor so that he could "see" us. It was a little strange. We weren't even sure what that meant. I was also a little sad because the lighting upstairs looked so much better for pictures. But other than that (which wasn't bad, just odd), the service was great. They were attentive but not smothering, which is the perfect amount.

We decided to order the pasta tasting menu with wine pairings. To extend the experience even further, and so that we actually end up posting something about Babbo instead of never finding the time, we're going to post about the tasting course by course.

The meal started with the amuse bouche - Babbo's signature chickpea bruschetta.


The chickpeas were mixed in an olive tapenade. The bread was perfect - not too soft or soggy and not too hard to bite in half. We love chickpeas so this was a great start to the meal.

Coming up: the pasta parade begins!

Film Center Cafe

Last night, for a late dinner after the gym, we went over to Film Center Cafe. This place has been in our neighborhood for years, and we've even seen it undergo a renovation, but we've still never eaten there. I've gotten delivery at work, but this was the first time we actually went through the door. $5 off thanks to LivingSocial Instant Deals didn't hurt!

A got a pulled pork sandwich which came with seasoned fries:


He thought it was just OK. Not a lot of sauce, a little salty, and just OK. The fries weren't too bad.

I got the Maryland crab cake burger with cajun sweet potato fries:


I also thought this was just OK. The taste of the patty wasn't bad but it wasn't that seasoned. The sandwich fell apart a few times because of everything in it. Also, crab cakes that come in circular patties are just a little strange to me, but I guess that's why it was a "burger" and not just a crab cake sandwich? I like the one from Dalton's down the street better. As for the fries, they were fine but only if you thought of them as just sweet potato fries. There wasn't really anything cajun about them. But since this was post-gym, sweet potato fries were definitely a better idea than regular fries.

The atmosphere was more fun than the food. There were people singing and dancing along to the dance songs that were playing, and the bar was pretty lively. We would go back, since the food was OK, but maybe try something else. Maybe brunch - seems to be popular for that.

Cheese Help

I enjoy eating cheese but I am the first to admit that I don't know that much about it. I grew up on regular grocery store cheese, like cheddar, provolone, pepper jack, munster, mozzarella, American cheese, string cheese. I try different cheeses from cheese plates but often have no idea what I'm eating. (It doesn't help that most cheeses look the same and that cheese platters aren't labeled.) The first time I saw the lengthy cheese menu (a menu!) at Artisanal, the adjectives used to describe cheese both amused and confused me. Who chooses cheese that is "unctuous" or has a "yeasty aroma" or is described as "lactic" or "pungent" or has "hints of sour milk"? What do some of the descriptions even mean? It was like a different world.


Maybe the reason I don't eat a ton of cheese is the lactose intolerance that runs in my family (and that I'm hoping to avoid by continuing to eat cheese). Or maybe it's because one summer day five years ago, I went to Artisanal with some co-workers and all we got was fondue and cheese plates, and later that day, I was laying on the bathroom floor with severe stomach pains and cheese coma. I had been running around and cleaning the apartment after our late lunch unlike the rest of the group which just went home and slept off the cheese coma. I learned some lessons that day - cheese in moderation and nap (don't go for a run!) after eating a lot of cheese.

But what cheeses did we eat that day? No idea. There were some runny cheeses and maybe a Spanish cheese. That's about all I remember. Generally, the only cheeses I remember the taste of right now (outside of the "common" cheeses) are Greek cheeses, like anthotiro and mizithra. So good on salads. And gouda. Good memories of Holland. I realize this post makes me sound a little ignorant about cheese, but it's true. I am. After all, most of us can't really know everything about everything.

I go through all of this to explain why I need your help - what is the cheese on the left side of the picture? The cubes were pink and yellow marbled and I have no idea what they were! I am so curious and keep wondering about it, but don't know where to research it. I ate the other two cheeses on the plate (cheese platter we got at work) (honestly, can't remember what those were either). But the pink cheese? First time I've ever seen that. Can anyone tell me what that is?

Fat Sals

Continuing my lunch adventures with R, we went to Fat Sal's on 9th Ave one day a couple weeks ago. Fat Sal's is known as a pizza joint, but I've had better luck with their sandwiches of late. So it was on this day that I got a chicken parmesan sandwich.


When I think of chicken parmesan sandwiches, I think toasted baguettes, delicately breaded and fried chicken, lots of tomato sauce, and a covering of gooey cheese. Fat Sal's does not fail to deliver in one bit. The bread has a nice crustiness from the oven toasting, but it keeps the chewiness of the baguette. The chicken is crisp and tender, the sauce is balanced between being tangy and sweet, and the cheese is plentiful and well melted.

I do think the sandwiches are better than the pizza at Fat Sal's, but that's not to say that the pizza is bad. I just really like sandwiches.

Chivito d'Oro

July 4th weekend last year was all about the World Cup. We made a lot of progress on our World Cup challenge - hitting up places representing Uruguay, Paraguay, Korea and Greece. (And China too, but they weren't in the World Cup.) To kick off the weekend, one year ago today, we went out to Jackson Heights in search of the only Uruguayan restaurant I could find online, Chivito d'Oro.

When we got there, it was packed. Tons of people hanging out in the street, waiting for tables, eating happily in the restaurant. The atmosphere was festive. Uruguay had beat Ghana earlier in the day (yay) and everyone looked like they had been there all day partying. There was lots of blue and one guy even had his own World Cup replica:


There were Uruguay football shirts hanging up all over and lots of Uruguay pride:



At one point while we waited for a table (and here, I was willing to wait), the power went out and the entire place, without any prompting, broke out into a song to which everyone (but us) knew the words. I looked it up later and it's a championship song (which I cannot seem to find on youtube, unless I just can't remember how it goes). It was stuck in my head for days. We were so happy to be there in the midst of all the happy Uruguayans. It was definitely an unforgettable experience and a perfect example of why we wanted to do our World Cup challenge in the first place. It's too bad our country doesn't do this for World Cup celebrations. Seeing all of that Uruguayan pride was awesome. This place had so much pride that they were on the news, where the media filmed everyone celebrating during the game.

We had no idea what we wanted to get, but looking around, it looked like the place for grilled meats. Platter after platter of grilled meat arrived on the table. I was looking for something a little lighter so I investigated other parts of the menu. To start, each table got a basket of grilled bread:


It was nice and warm, with a crispy exterior. A good start to the meal.

A also decided to go for the beer that everyone was drinking - Pilsen, an Uruguayan beer:


All the entrees came with ensalada rusa:


Ensalada rusa (technically translated as "Russian salad") is a potato salad with carrots and peas. I think sometimes other ingredients are included too, but this version just had carrots and peas. Not sure if this is just a South American thing, as we have also had it in Colombian restaurants.

If at a grilled meat place, we should try the grilled meats, right?


The plate included skirt steak, short rib and chorizo. A loved his feast. The meat was perfectly grilled, full of flavor and very juicy. He said he would definitely get it again. I tried the chorizo. It was great. They also have grilled meat plates with blood sausage and other types of meats, so there are plenty of options.

I wasn't in the mood for a plate full of chorizo (and don't eat steak) so I went for a chicken dish, pollo al champignon:


I ordered chicken and mushrooms thinking it would be something like a marsala, so I was surprised when it came out in a cream sauce. Add that to the ensalada rusa and it was a lot of creamy food. So filling. Half of it came home with us and made for some tasty leftovers.

Our experience at Chivito d'Oro, along with lunch later in the weekend at I Love Py, were two of our favorite World Cup outings. The food was excellent and the meals were just so much fun. I hate how fast time goes by but I am anxiously anticipating the next World Cup. I wish it happened every year!

Combo Wins

I've previously written about the baked chicken sandwich from Sophie's Cuban. Somehow I haven't been back in almost 6 months (not sure why, since I really liked the sandwich), but I wanted a tasty sandwich from somewhere close and Sophie's fit the bill.

Sorry for the mess on my desk behind lunch...
Last time, I only got the sandwich, but this time I got the combo. The sandwich is $6.95, but the combo - which includes a bottle of water (or soda) and soup (or rice & beans) - is only $8.99. To me, soup and a bottle of water for about $2 wasn't a bad deal.


The soup of the day was beef soup. I don't really eat much beef, so most of it ended up going to waste (although I did eat some small pieces). But I liked the flavoring of the broth and the soup came with tons of vegetables. I was glad I got that instead of rice and beans, which would have been much heavier.


The sandwich was actually better than I remembered. The mayo and onions add good flavor and texture, and I love how the baked chicken gets pulled off the bone and put right into the sandwich. My only regret was that I forgot about the green ("spicy") sauce until the last minute. I guess that's a compliment to the flavors of the chicken and other sandwich ingredients that I forgot about the sauce, unlike A's goodburger ketchup drowning.

Sophie's has a bunch of combos, depending on whether you're getting a sandwich or other food. The grilled chicken looked pretty good today, but I was in the mood for a sandwich. Craving satisfied.