A couple of recent sandwich revisits for a nice Sunday.
San Diego Bakery & Café:
"FOY" SomTommy recently mentioned that the prices for the formerly $5 Bolillo at San Diego Bakery & Café had gone up substantially over the last couple of months. It had been a while since I last visited, so I decided to drop by after doing my regular Saturday morning shopping.
I easily found parking and waltzed on into the rustic shop at around 845 and took a look at the chalkboard menu and yes, prices have indeed gone up!
The last time I'd had a breakfast bolillo here it was $5, it was now $6.50. Whoa, a 30% increase in the last five months! I know times are tough and there's all that inflation and stuff, but wow!
I decided to get the A la Mexicana.
Man, this had a good amount of jalapenos! It was quite spicy. The bolillo is nicely toasted and light, though up to the task of handling the eggs, beans, and stringy cheese.
While there has been a 30% price increase, with Banh Mi now going for seven bucks and up, I guess this still falls into the "inexpensive" price range? What do you think?
San Diego Bakery & Café
6959 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Banh Mi Express:
Speaking of Banh Mi. Just a couple of weeks before, I was having coffee and breakfast at Finjan (I need to make another visit before I post), when it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't been back to Banh Mi Express in a while. I was aware that the shop now opens at 8am on Saturday, it used to be 10am when they first opened. So, I decided to drop by.
Taking a quick look at the menu, I noticed that prices hadn't gone up since my last visit here.
I decided to get the Banh Mi Thit Nuong ($6.99). Interesting thing, while the prices remain unchanged, the bread looked totally different from when I last had a banh mi here.
The bread looked like a rolled French Baguette. It was quite crusty, though a bit more dense then what I'd call a typical banh mi. The jalapenos were really mild. There was a thin sliver of cucumber….though I must say that cucumbers are MIA in many banh mi's these days. There was a good ration of pickled veggies to mayo to pork.
The only issue I had….and it's quite an issue was with the pork which was super dry and hard; like jerky.
I'm thinking I need to order a different banh mi next time. This would have been a good sandwich, if the protein had been better.
Banh Mi Express
9353 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92123
Knowing what kind of mess I'd be making, they kindly provided a knife to slice the sandwich and a ton of napkins. I truly had my doubts, thinking the flavor of the fonduey cheese mixed with beer and other seasonings might interfere with the sandwich. But, it actually made it better, adding more savory tones, and a pleasant creaminess to things.
Opening the sandwich up, the first thing I noticed was how much shredded lettuce there was. So much iceberg that it could have sunk the Titanic. Also, I remember Grab & Go as having some of the messiest, sloppiest sandwiches and this definitely lived up to that rep. One of the reasons I enjoy this sandwich is that it’s toasted, the bread was yeasty-crackley-crusty goodness. Also appreciated that the Provolone was melted. The jalapenos added some heat though not a huge amount. The oil and vinegar dressing is perfect for this sandwich; mayo would be overkill in my opinion.
Well, so that gentleman I ran into while 
Well, my favorite sandwich here is the Chinese Sausage Sandwich ($9.99), I get it with a fried egg ($1.50), easy on the mayo, extra toasted. While it's on the "bready" side, getting the roll extra toasted enhances the crustiness and diminishes the potential for sogginess as Tadian, even when I ask for easy on the mayo will have too much of it. I enjoy the meaty lup cheong, which has a nice salty-porky-sweetness. The egg adds more savory tones and the avocado tempers things down. To me, the onions add a good pungency and is necessary, as is the mild sweet acidity of the tomato. Everything has a part to play here.
Step inside, order, pay and your name will be called. There are 18 seats inside and tables out in front.
The Monte Cristo Breakfast sandwich ($14.99) is served with warm syrup and a side of fruit. 
Made with Boar's Head oven roasted ham, Havarti cheese, mustard and mayo on egg-dipped white bread which is pan fried, this hefty sandwich is enough to share. 
There are four soups available daily, all home made: tomato basil, chicken noodle, clam chowder and chili (Cup $5.49-5.99, Bowl $7.49-7.99). The clam chowder is my favorite, although all are wonderfully flavored.
The cheesy flatbread ($11.99) is a meal in itself. A thin, made in-house crust topped with roasted garlic tomato sauce, provolone and mozzarella. Simple and good.
The garlic-cilantro jumbo shrimp plate ($16.99) includes a cup of soup or small salad, sautéed broccoli and asparagus and ten jumbo shrimp which are marinated in the house garlic and pepper sauce and lightly cooked (still meaty and firm).
On the bottom of the wall menu there is a section "Pepper Farm Special" ($7.99). A choice of four cold half sandwiches, chips and a fountain drink. (for $11.99, you can get a choice of four hot half sandwiches, chips and a drink). This is the Bovine: roast beef, havarti cheese, garlic aioli, mustard, red onion, tomatoes, banana peppers and spring mix on a hoagie roll. It's a large half sandwich. 
There are desserts, too.
All sandwiches come with a pickle wedge. This was a straight forward, no-nonsense 3 meat (Salami-Mortadella-Cappicola) on a French Roll. There provolone, with Italian Dressing and mayo. I enjoyed that the sandwich wasn't over-dressed. It was a bit too much bread to "stuffs" ratio. I prefer the almost same version of the sandwich is better at 
Not sure about the how or why the name of the sandwich was earned. But this was a turkey and mortadella on sourdough. I enjoyed the heat brought on by the jalapenos, but it was over-dressed, with too much "chipotle" (only in spirit) aioli. Again, the amount of protein was decent in proportion, though folks wanting a super stuffed sandwich would not be satisfied….but really, would you get one for under ten bucks these days?
So, the rye bread was nicely toasted which held up to the generous amount of Thousand Island dressing. In keeping with the previous sandwiches; this was quite simple. Corned Beef, mild Sauerkraut, Swiss on Rye. It's a sandwich that one might think is on the smallish side, but it was enough for me. The proportion of savory, salty, earthy, worked fine. The toasty bread held up fine and this did the trick as a light lunch. 
