Taking a (French) dip in au jus pool
Last week we made the decision to leap ahead. And, like daylight savings time, you can’t spring forward without inevitably falling back, so this week we’re returning to California before moving ahead to Connecticut next week.
Confusing? Then clearly you haven’t been reading this blog and have no idea what I’m talking about. Why are you starting at the end (or middle, depending on when you read this), you monster? You don’t pick up a book, turn to a random page, start reading, and assume that you’ll have any idea of what’s going on. C’mon, man.
For context, here’s where things started.
So, back to it. We’ve returned to the state of California, which just happens to be my current state of residence. According to the list, the sandwich for Cali is the French Dip which — for those of you who’ve never heard of this sandwich that everyone else in the world has heard of — is described as “A hefty serving of roast beef on a French Roll with provolone and a side of au jus.”
I was a little perplexed that this was the sandwich chosen for California. I mean, how could they choose one without avocado? Did anyone in California have any say in this? Before I could get too far into my uninformed — yet highly skeptical — pontification, my husband informed me that the French Dip was actually invented in Los Angeles.
First of all, how dare he have better trivia knowledge than me?
But more importantly, we live in Los Angeles. HOW COULD WE NOT LEAVE THIS TO THE PROFESSIONALS???
We had big, grand, huge, plans to go to Philipe’s in downtown LA, the restaurant that is the mildly disputed inventor of the original French Dip sandwich. But life has a way of giving your big plans the big finger, and getting to downtown just was not in the cards for us this weekend.
But we weren’t going to give California the ol’ heave-ho again. Plus, our kitchen sink decided to stop draining water. Instead, it was gifting us gallons and gallons of greasy water from….somewhere else? So our kitchen was pretty much out of commission until the plumber could get here. Which meant we had to order dinner in any way.
Fortunately, being in the land of the French Dip (again, who knew?), there were plenty of restaurants who, while acknowledging that they weren’t the real inventors, took 100% credit for perfecting the art. So we did a nice google search and cross-checked that with our location and delivery options and honed in on who would be making the sandwich that definitively represents California for the people who write the definitive blog* about sandwiches eaten on Sundays. And that place was The Carving Board, an LA-based deli franchise.
*That’s this blog, guys.
The sandwich was excellent. The bread was chewy, the beef was well-seasoned, the onions were full of umami and the au jus was delicate and nice. Normally I’m not one to voluntarily get her sandwich wet, but this sandwich had hearty bones (and by “bones,” I mean “bread”), so it didn’t make it a weird soggy mush pile. Instead, it gave it just enough moisture and flavor to let the sandwich do its thing.
I was very pleased with this one. Even without avocado, the French Dip very easily made its way into both Nate’s and my top three. I’m sure that’s in no small part due to the fact that someone else did the heavy lifting. Food made by someone else always tastes better, everyone knows that. But it was also a very simple sandwich made with really good ingredients. And those two things are arguably two key factors in a good sandwich. Sure, you can make a fantastic sandwich made from everything and the kitchen sink (I highly would not recommend using ours for that last bit right now), but I’d argue that a simple sandwich done well > an overly complicated sandwich.
I guess that’s one of the things we’re set to find out on this sandwich journey of ours.
But even with its simplicity and (unfair, really) advantage of being made by a professional sandwich person, the California French Dip still settles below Alabama’s pulled chicken with white sauce. That one really came out of the gates intent on winning. But, there are some tasty looking weeks ahead, so we’ll see if Alabama can continue its reign.
