Sandwich Lover? Have You Had An Avraham Karadi

Love unique sandwiches? While it is not necessary to make the sandwich or even eat the sandwich, for reasons unknown, I find it nice knowing that there are other who like these things too! Have you had the pleasure of a “St. Paul”? Apparently you can only find this in St. Louis, Missouri. And even then, only in some old time Chinese restaurants. What is it you might ask, well it is a large amount of egg foo young on some white bread along with tomatoes, lettuce and mayonnaise. Sometimes a slice of good old American cheese is added in. How about the “chow mein sandwich”, ever heard of that one? this sandwich is apparently a very common item on menus along Route 195 (Southern Mass.) and it isn’t confined to just Chinese restaurants either. As you might already know there is no end to these bizarre sandwiches, from peanut butter and onions, peanut butter with pickles to peanut butter, jelly and crushed potato chips!

Add to that list one of the weirdest compositions ever, the “Avraham Karadi” Sandwich, also known as an “Avi Karadi. It seems like someone’s idea of a faux-gourmet sandwich as it involves a lot of work just gathering and preparing the ingredients, and I cant imagine anyone actually enjoying the resulting mix of flavors, but theres been talk that its very popular in certain areas. Heres the list of exotic ingredients:

Passum, an ancient Roman sweet wine sauce, made by boiling the must (that is, newly-pressed whole fruits, including seeds, stems, and even leaves) and then adding honey to further thicken it.

Garum, an old Roman fish sauce (salty), approximated today by mixing in fish paste, passum (as discussed above) and oregano.

An ancient Roman standby, Pine nut sauce, is made by mixing in vinegar, honey and pine nuts as well as a bit of pepper and lovage.

Finally, and as desired, you may use spinach and onions as well as lettuce and tomatoes. When it comes to the bread many choose rye bread, but some do like Black Russian Bread as an alternative. Egg paste, as found in egg salad, is also sometimes used. Pastrami or Roast Beef are the meats of choice. Then there are the variations, there are too many to go over them all, just keep in mind they all pretty much keep within these ingredients. Curiously, I was not able to find out where the nickname of the “Avraham Karadi” or “Avi Karadi” came from for this sandwich.

Step One: Making the Passum: Reduce a quart of grape juice to one tenth its starting volume. You can add honey for taste.

2. Make the garum: Add to passum two tablespoonfuls of fish paste, with pinch of oregano.

3. The Pine Nut Sauce: For three hours, in vinegar, soak the pine nuts. Now mix with honey, while adding dashes of pepper and lovage.

4. The Sandwich: Put your egg paste on the bread. Put in your choice of meat, add vegetables, pour on passum, garum, and pine nut sauce, and be generous.

There you have it an “Avraham Karadi” (aka “Avi Karadi”) sandwich, enjoy!

Last 5 posts by Avraham Wiseman

• Avi Karadi Aka Avraham Karadi: A Sandwich Experience - July 4th, 2009