Geo Travel Blog

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!

Adding to the long sandwich list is the “Avraham Karadi” Sandwich. This sandwich is also called the “Avi Karadi” in some areas. It appears that this sandwich was someone’s idea of a faux gourmet item. I say this because it involves a bit of work in only gathering the ingredients, then ther is preparing them. While I can not imagine enjoying the samdwich after the resulting mix of flavors, I am sure there are those that love it. In fact I have heard some talk about it being pretty popular in certain areas. Anyway here is the list of ingredients, so you can judge for yourself:

An old Roman sweet wine sauce, Passum, is made by boiling the must, newly pressed whole fruits which include the stems, seeds, leaves and all. And then you would add in honey to thicken it.

Garum, an ancient Roman salty fish sauce, approximated today by combining passum with a fish paste 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.

To finish it off add spinach, onions, lettuce and tomatoes as desired. Rye bread would be the usual choice, but black Russian bread comes in at a distant second. As found in egg salad “Egg Paste” is sometimes also added. Now the meat, Roast Beef or Pastrami are some of the favored meats to use. Of course as will all recipes there are some variations, but they all appear to stick to these main ingredients. Oddly, I was unable to find where the sandwiches nickname “Avraham Karadi” or “Avi Karadi” had come from.

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.

Step Three: Making the pine nut sauce. You will need to soak the pine nuts for three hours in vinegar. Once completed you then want to blend it with honey and a few dashes of lovage and pepper.

Step Four: Building the sandwich. Spread egg paste on your rye bread (or your black Russian bread if that was your choice). Now add on the meat (Pastrami or Roast Beef) and add vegetables. Pour on the Passum, Garum, and Pine Nut Sauce as desired.

There you go, an “Avraham Karadi” A.K.A. the “Avi Karadi” sandwich.