Suzi’s breakfast sandwich

I think I am officially all breakfast sandwiched out. They’ve lost their charm. They’ve all started running together.

I met a little girl recently named Skye whose mother owned a small market. This little girl was friendly and talkative and I learned that when her aunt comes to visit her every year for a week, she gets to eat those cereals that come in small boxes (you know–the sugary chocolatey ones). But, she said, “I only get to eat that cereal when I am being spoiled by my aunt.” I said to her, “Well if you got to eat them every day they wouldn’t be as special, right?” She took a good 10 seconds to think about that until she answered, “Yes they would!” Cheeky Cutie.

Well, because I have eaten a breakfast sandwich every week for the past 11 weeks, they definitely aren’t as special to me as they were when I started working where food trucks lined every street. (And I highly doubt that Skye would have kept the same feelings towards the special cereal if she got to eat it year-round. Sorry, Skye.)

I went to Suzi’s this morning and decided that this sandwich was all about ratios being wrong. It tasted OK, but the egg to bacon, cheese, and bread ratio was not. I opened the foil and was scared of the egginess. I did not want to eat this sandwich.

The egg was overwhelming before I even tried it.  And how could you get proper tuckage with that much egg?  The attempt to tuck was a valiant one and even successful on one side.  Despite the overwhelming quantity, the egg was cooked fine and I liked the consistency: soft and even a bit flaky.  It was not salty enough for me, though, but I would probably eat a salt lick if it was put in front of me.

The white bread was toasted completely differently on each side.  I preferred the crunchy dark brown side as the lighter side was too mushy.  And I don’t think it was buttered at all, which made it a bit dry. I know I just said that it was mushy and dry.  But it was.

(As you can see in the photo below, I actually pulled out some of the egg.)

 The bacon was nice and chewy with a smoky flavor, but I wanted more!   The bacon and ketchup were cooked into the egg just the way I like it.

Scoring:

Overall appearance: 5

Meat: 6

Egg (quality, quantity, and tuckage): 6

Greasiness: 5

Cheese (quality and quantity): 5

Condiments (quality and quantity.): 5

Carbohydrate Delivery System (credit: Matt Palmer): 5

Price: 7 ($2.75)

Accuracy of order: 10

Overall taste: 7

Total score: 61 (tied with Adriatic Grill

Suzi’s is across from the Anderson Hall vendor strip on N. 12th St.

Adriatic Grill Breakfast Sandwich

Adriatic Grill sounds all fancy shmancy. You don’t usually find fancy shmancy on campus so I was excited to try something they served. It’s probably the cleanest food vendor on campus but the sandwich tasted really bad. All look and no substance is Adriatic Grill.

I ordered a bacon egg and cheese (big surprise) on wheat toast (wheat just escaped my lips today. Should have been white but I went with the slip.) I asked for salt/pepper/ketchup but got the damn ketchup in a packet, not on the sandwich. I have said this so many times before: it is almost breakfast sandwich suicide to give the ketchup on the side. In packets. And Hunt’s! Who likes Hunt’s ketchup? Post a comment if I am crazy and you love Hunt’s.

This might be one of the most perfect-looking sandwiches I’ve tried so far, complete with the cut in half, but the perfection ended there and I only received this superficial shell of a sandwich.

Eggs: spongy, dry, tasteless. Tuckage was great, though:

Bacon: cut in little bits but this works better if ketchup is applied to keep the bits from falling out. Not much taste but the texture was a bit like jerky.

Cheese: couldn’t taste it until half way through the sandwich and the taste was average.  The cheese was liquid while eating the first half but hardened up by the second half. A hardened, solid, glob. Look! Pathetic!

And hey you North Philadelphians, Temple students, and staff: I am running out of vendors. Let me know where I should go next!

Scoring:

Overall appearance: 10

Meat: 6

Egg (quality, quantity, and tuckage): 7

Greasiness: 5

Cheese (quality and quantity): 5

Condiments (quality and quantity.): 2

Carbohydrate Delivery System (credit: Matt Palmer): 5

Price: 7 ($2.75)

Accuracy of order: 8

Overall taste: 6

Total score: 61

Adriatic Grill is along the Anderson Hall vendor strip on N. 12th St.

Ali’s Breakfast Sandwich

There’s construction everywhere on campus. It’s like a maze. So I found my way to the most accessible eating establishments: Anderson Row. I had already tried a breakfast sandwich from Richie’s a few weeks ago. Today I stepped up to Ali’s place right next door.

For those of you who haven’t been following closely, my goal this summer is to find the best breakfast sandwich in North Philly (or at least within the Temple University campus radius). I’ve has some good and I’ve had a lot of bad. So far I’ve learned that the Carbohydrate Delivery System is one of the most important aspects of the sandwich, as well as the egg tuckage and taste. If you skimp on bacon, I may never forgive you. And I have a rubric that I use to rate each sandwich. I am giddy with anticipation for who will deserve the top spot of Best Breakfast Sandwich in North Philadelphia.

On to today’s contestant: a turkey bacon (no pork served here) egg and cheese on wheat toast with salt/pepper/ketchup from Ali’s Middle Eastern:

This is one of the top contenders. The sandwich looked yummy when I unwrapped the foil and it was cut in half (points!). I wasn’t even that hungry this morning and I couldn’t wait to dig in. There were two main areas that disappointed me, which I will get out of the way first: the egg tuckage and a slightly soggy piece of toast. The rest of it was so Ab Fab I can’t even stand it. The bacon and cheese were cooked in the egg so it wouldn’t slide out. The flavors all melded together well so that it tasted like a breakfast sandwich, and not like a bagel with egg, or just a cheese sandwich with a bit of bacon thrown in.  I couldn’t even tell that I was eating turkey bacon and it was quite a generous portion–at least two full pieces, maybe even three.  I could have used a bit more cheese, but the flavor was good and it wasn’t oozing out all over the place. 

This sandwich was just great.  I can’t wait to see where its score places it in my current standings. Scroll down to see!

Overall appearance: 9

Meat: 10

Egg (quality, quantity, and tuckage): 8

Greasiness: 8

Cheese (quality and quantity): 8

Condiments (quality and quantity.): 8

Carbohydrate Delivery System (credit: Matt Palmer): 7

Price: 7 ($3.00 is a bit much for toast but understandable for the turkey bacon)

Accuracy of order: 10

Overall taste: 9

Total score: 84

That’s 2nd place!