People seem to still read these posts and I even got a comment on my last one, exciting! Today I want to write about The Sandwich. Or maybe THE SANDWICH. Which is what I call my favorite sandwich, which is the
Cemita Poblana, which I tried when I visited Puebla. The thing that blew my mind about this sandwich was that it contained an herb that was entirely new to me: papalo. How often in life do you encounter a new herb?? Rarely, right? This one is very distinctive. You may ask "what does it taste like?" and I would counter "What does cilantro taste like" "what does tarragon taste like". You have to try them, they are unique, as is papalo.
I have probably posted about this before, but anyway, when I got home (I visited in 2019) I sought out papalo. I tried mail ordering it, it's hard to grow from seed. I found a guy at my community garden selling it and I was stoked. Now I know that the cool plant guy at the Sunday farmer's market also cultivates it. It is easy to grow in Sac and gets pretty tall.
I don't have a handy photo of the plan from this year, but here's the harvested papalo.
Here's the base of the sandwich. You take chipotles from the can, avo and papalo. In Puebla, the bread would be a sesame seed roll. Also, the papalo and chipotle would be more sparingly applied but I like to take it to flavortown (TM)
You can put various meats on this sandwich, but I like a chicken milanesa. In Puebla this pile of cheese would be GIANT and shreddy. I don't know how they get their Oaxacan cheese so finely shredded.
Here I am, stoked. I try to make this at least twice a year. You can put papalo in other stuff, it's particularly good in eggs. But it's really best in this sandwich.
Reach out if you want to try it.
