Pepper and Egg sandwich

I usually make my own for breakfast every morning. I have a 5" cast iron skillet that is as smooth as a silk. Toss in a tablespoon of lard, 2 eggs, break the yolks, salt and heavy black pepper. When browned I flip and baste with Gwiv's chili oil and toss between 2 slices of white toast.

Max's beef on N. Western also does a good pepper & egg.

Best,
EC

Hi,

I always consider Pepper and Egg sandwiches as something to eat during Lent when there are no-meat days, such as Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday and Holy Friday just before to Easter. When I was young and every Friday was no meat, dinner was always fish sticks and mac n'cheese. I never even heard of Pepper and Egg sandwiches until the last few years. I didn't realize until today they were available throughout the year.

Live and learn.

Shecky

I second Max's, but pair it up with some ghetto fries!

John

JSM wrote:ghetto fries

Isn't Max's the place on Western Avenue? Did you try the ghetto fries or are you captivated by the name? Early reports indicated those ghetto fries were not worthy, what do you think?

Thanks!

Not worthy??

How can decent fries,topped with beef juice,Merkt's chedder cheese sauce,BBQ sauce, Max's paprika enhanced giardinare and chopped onions not be worthy?

Max's also makes a darn fine beef.

Max's Beef
5754 N Western Av.
Chicago

Hi,

I guess 'not worthy' sounds like it emanated from a rec room very local cable tv studio. However, the very original thread on these ghetto fries from reliable people didn't sound encouraging. So to read your endorsement tonight is a surprise. Maybe they improved their technique?

Cathy

I've found over the years that the words reliable and people should rarely be used in the same sentance.Especially when it comes to ghetto fries!
Perhaps your sources just weren't worthy of the experience

It's lilke the man once said "There is no accounting for taste"

John

JSM wrote:It's lilke the man once said "There is no accounting for taste"

John

John,

Actually, Cathy's 'source' may be me.

Max's Italian Beef is right up there and their giardiniera is a favorite, but the Ghetto fries just didn't do it for me. Might be that I'm so fond of the regular fries, crisp, dunked in giardiniera that I just couldn't see the joy of ghetto fries.

Max's Giardiniera


Enjoy,
Gary

Max's Italian Beef
5754 North Western Ave
Chicago, IL 60659
773-989-8200

I generally find that the ghetto fries at Max's fall into what I call the "disgustingly delicious" catagory.Trying to explain them to someone is a tough sell but one taste usually closes the deal.

The first half of the order is the best as the fries at the top of the basket tend to be hot , crispy and well cheesed,but by the time you reach the middle the entire texture and apperance of the dish take a mighty downward plunge causing you to wonder "what the hell was I thinking?"

Splitting an order is usually just right.

John

Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood Park has a great pepper and egg sandwich! Their pepper and egg combo (with sausage) is outstanding.

Johnnie's Beef
7500 W. North Avenue
Elmwood Park, Il.

I also was not enamored of the ghetto fries. I found them soggy, greasy ( not in a good way), and flavorless, surprisngly. I'd take the regular fries over them any day.

KatyK wrote:Johnnie's Beef in Elmwood Park has a great pepper and egg sandwich! Their pepper and egg combo (with sausage) is outstanding.

Johnnie's Beef
7500 W. North Avenue
Elmwood Park, Il.

You know what's odd (or perhaps not so): the pepper and egg sandwich at Johnnie's tastes like Italian beef. Perhaps from griddling on the same grill, or maybe just from passing through the same atmosphere.

Hammond

I'd reckon that just about any sandwich shop, Vienna Beef joint, etc. that wants to cover its costs on Fridays will at least have pepper & egg sandwiches available then.

Alas, Hank's Franks on Michigan, near my office, closed up some months ago; I found it a great place to go to on Lenten Fridays, as ordering an Italian combo guaranteed very fresh ingredients (nothing sitting on the grill waiting to be warmed up) and often much larger portions too.

Just curious: In the predominantly Italian neighborhood of East Boston, the typical sandwich was potato & eggs with peppers. Are there any places around here known to do that? The potatoes were generally American fried style (a large dice; best example I can think of around here is Joanne & Sons on Sunnyside & Ravenswood).

Bob S. wrote:Just curious: In the predominantly Italian neighborhood of East Boston, the typical sandwich was potato & eggs with peppers.

Joe's in Tri-Taylor (SE corner, Claremont and Taylor) offers pepper-and-egg and potato-and-egg sandwiches as parts of their daily menu all year round. Just ask and I'm sure they'd make a pepper-and-potato-and-egg sandwich. I'm confident one could make the same request (at least during Lent) at Ganddaddy's (or is it just Granddad's?) and Rick's Cafe on the same stretch of Taylor by Western.

Not that "pepper-and-potato-and-egg" strikes me in any way as odd and I'm sure I've had that combination more than a few times, but in the very Italian family and area (Jersey) that I grew up in, the norm for such things was either pepper-and-egg or potato-and-egg, as here in the formerly almost completely Italian Tri-Taylor neighbourhood. Maybe that East Boston neighbourhood just developed it's own preference in this regard.

Antonius

I've always found Roma's Italian Beef and Sausage (east side of Cicero, just south of Montrose, or, from another perspective, just north of Six Corners [Irving Park, Milwaukee and Cicero]) to be a mighty fine and consistent source of Italian beef, Italian sausage, Maxwell St.-style Polishes, and, yes, pepper-egg sandwiches on Friday.

Recently, without any hue or cry, they quietly added another Friday-only special: a pepper-egg-sausage sandwich. As I understand it, this rather defeats (or negates) the idea behind the equation (Friday+egg+peppers+bread [-meat]), but the sandwich is a wondrous thing. A charred Italian sausage is nestled inside a chewy French roll, then blanketed with a mountain of fluffy, perfectly scrambled eggs (just right: not too wet, not too dry) married with strips of green bell peppers (again done just right: cooked, but not to a state of limpness). The combination of consistencies is magical (chewy, crunchy, and soft), and the taste is heavenly.

It's one of the few sandwiches that brings tears to my eyes and evokes an involuntary "mmm" at first bite. I've been known to buy several on the way home from work on Fridays so I can dole them out to myself through the weekend and early part of the week.

Roma's Italian Beef and Sausage
4237 N Cicero Ave, Chicago
(773) 725-5715

Cheers,
Wade

waderoberts wrote:Recently, without any hue or cry, they quietly added another Friday-only special: a pepper-egg-sausage sandwich. As I understand it, this rather defeats (or negates) the idea behind the equation (Friday+egg+peppers+bread [-meat]), but the sandwich is a wondrous thing. A charred Italian sausage is nestled inside a chewy French roll, then blanketed with a mountain of fluffy, perfectly scrambled eggs (just right: not too wet, not too dry) married with strips of green bell peppers (again done just right: cooked, but not to a state of limpness). The combination of consistencies is magical (chewy, crunchy, and soft), and the taste is heavenly.

Wade, eating egg and meat together always seems a little "exotic" to me, though as the pix from Lascher's demonstrate, it's not at all uncommon in Europe (those platters of egg-topped German chow looked incredibly good) or Asia (when I used to eat a lot of Bi Beam Bop, before I found out it was a "woman's dish," I enjoyed that big soft fried egg on top of the meat and veg).

I've lived in Chicago for a long time, and I don't remember seeing the sandwich you describe (a new innovation at Chicago beef stands?), though I will try it the next opportunity that arises.

Hammond

Bruce wrote:I usually make my own for breakfast every morning. I have a 5" cast iron skillet that is as smooth as a silk. Toss in a tablespoon of lard, 2 eggs, break the yolks, salt and heavy black pepper. When browned I flip and baste with Gwiv's chili oil and toss between 2 slices of white toast.

where do the peppers come in?

La Roc's on Grand (R.I.P.) used to make a nice one that is sorely missed. I did notice last week that Bari is now doing them on Fridays during lent. Didn't try one, but I'd bet my lunch money they're good. Do they do this every year?

Bari Foods
1120 West Grand Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
312-666-0730

On the BLTH board we debated the merits of fried to order pep & egg (the only way, as far as I'm concerned) versus the steam table version that is the norm here in Chicago. I can't stomach curdy scrambled eggs, overheated until the eggs "break," the liquid separating from the proteins.

My dear cugina and comare Jeannie Carbone made the best at her place in PA. She'd never think to use green peppers, only red, and would schiv' the idea of steam table pep and eggs. What's so hard about frying an egg to order?

One place where they do it well is Marianao. But it's called pan con tortilla.
I hear Mangino's is good. And I must say, steam tray or not, a sandwich I saw but did not taste from Pompei looked awfully good. I can see Johnnie's being good, mostly because of what I expect to be very high turnover.

Here's a peek.

Cheers,
Wade

A fine pepper and egg sandwich, made freshly to order at Grandaddy's in Tri-Taylor, was my lunch today. The price was $4.05. At Grandaddy's, it is only a Lenten offering.

Antonius


Grandaddy's
2343 West Taylor Street
Chicago
312-243-4200

10 a.m. - 5:45 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Sat.
Closed Sun.

JeffB:

I don't know, I like my eggs cooked with the peppers, not just omelet style with the peppers laid in or on. The pepper and egg I grew up with on the east coast were almost like a pipperada or revuelto, where everything melded, the eggs were soft, distinct curds but fully flavored with the peppers throughout.

Although I agree with you about eggs just held on a steam table, but the "just scramble some eggs on the griddle and throw some peppers on" keeps me searching, here in Chicago, for the right balance.

I've got some good peppers in the fridge, just might have to make my own tomorrow....

Oh yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that the eggs be cooked alone. To be precise, the way we we did it growing up was to sweat some garlic in olive oil, remove it, then add the peppers, then the beaten eggs to the fresh "sofrito"-like peppers.

I will give credit to Chicago for one important improvement: hot giardiniera.

David Hammond wrote:

waderoberts wrote:Recently, without any hue or cry, they quietly added another Friday-only special: a pepper-egg-sausage sandwich. As I understand it, this rather defeats (or negates) the idea behind the equation (Friday+egg+peppers+bread [-meat]), but the sandwich is a wondrous thing. A charred Italian sausage is nestled inside a chewy French roll, then blanketed with a mountain of fluffy, perfectly scrambled eggs (just right: not too wet, not too dry) married with strips of green bell peppers (again done just right: cooked, but not to a state of limpness). The combination of consistencies is magical (chewy, crunchy, and soft), and the taste is heavenly.

I've lived in Chicago for a long time, and I don't remember seeing the sandwich you describe (a new innovation at Chicago beef stands?), though I will try it the next opportunity that arises.

Hammond

Iam surprised by that, BTW. I havent lived in Chicago nearly as long as you,
Id suspect, but I *have* seen the above before, and consumed it, fairly
often.

For example, Johnnie's has it - always had. They do the "pepper and egg"
sandwich only on Friday's thru the year (and every day during Lent). But,
for at least a few years, one could do a "sausage combo" with it - that
is, the sausage-pepper-and-egg sandwich that is described above.

Personally, I think Johnnie's does sausage brilliantly well - and so I
*always* do this combo when Iam there (and have for at least 2-3
years now). When Iam there on a non-Friday, I do the combo-juicy-hot;
when Iam there on a Friday I do the pepper-egg-combo-hot. And it
has always been a quite terrific sandwich IMHO. I dont know if its a
popular choice per se - after all, the point of the sandwich on Fridays
(and during Lent) is to avoid the meat But if one isnt avoiding it,
its a very good sandwich.

Do many stands not do this? I know Ive had the combo at at least a few
other stands I think (though I cant even remember which they were now) -
but the best of the kind (and most memorable) was at Johnnies.

c8w

An egg-pepper-sausage sandwich is offered at Salerno's (southwest corner of the intersection of Grand and Racine). For those fasting, I'm sure they would make it sans sausage.

They improvised a fried eggplant sandwich for me the other day and it was pretty good and, theologically speaking, kosher for Lent.



Antonius

I had lunch yesterday at Portillo's in Forest Park, and there were prominent signs offering pepper and egg sandwiches on Fridays during Lent.

no contest. best pepper and egg is Bombacigno's J&C inn, 500 block of w. van buren. warning, the place is run like a 3 stooges episode. they approach it like a @&^* hobby. only open between 11:45 am. and whenever they feel like closing--ususally about one pm.
wunnerfull italian beef. everything very good. great "red gravy."
often out of many items.

I agree with El Panzone.

I have the fortune (and my gut the misfortune) of living right across the street from Bombacigno's, and eat there a few times a week. I've tried just about everything on the menu, and have never had a bad meal.

Freddy's in Cicero makes a great pepper and egg sandwich. They also have fried shrimp and fish on Friday's during lent. Their homemade giardiniera is great on the pepper and egg.

It's been pretty crowded since they've been on Check, Please, but the quality hasn't changed.

Saps