Grindy: St. Paul Sandwich
March 5, 2008 by Evil E
Carl Sandburg enjoyed this grindy, and so should you. Egg Foo Youngins!
I saw this grindy on a PBS documentary called Sandwiches That You Will Like.
It basically follows one guy around the United States as he searches for unique sandwich offerings. The documentary is packed with mouthwatering closeup shots, and you also get to hear from the people making and eating the sandwiches.
Let’s take a moment to pay homage to John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. Apparently, he was a big fan of cribbage, but did not enjoy getting his cards all greasy after eating meat with his bare hands.
So way back in 1762, he asked for meat inside of bread and the sandwich was born. Brilliant!
In the United States, the sandwich did not rise to fame until the early 20th century, when loaves of bread became readily available. The great poet and historian Carl Sandburg was alive at the time, but he enjoyed expanding his horizons and learning from other cultures.
In 1936, he wrote the epic poem The People, Yes. Here is a brief excerpt where he gives a shout out to…
“To the Chinese we have given
kerosene, bullets, Bibles
and they have given us radishes, soy beans, silk,
poems, paintings, proverbs,
porcelain, egg foo yong,
gunpowder, Fourth of July firecrackers, fireworks
and labor gangs for the first pacific railways.”
-Carl Sandburg
This bring us to my Grindy of the Month, the St. Paul Sandwich.
Oddly enough, the St. Paul sandwich has nothing to do with St. Paul, Minnesota. It was invented in St. Louis and is usually only found in Chinese restaurants in the St. Louis area. Its origins are unknown, but whoever came up with this sandwich deserves a “Grindy of the Month” sticker.
The “standard” St. Paul sandwich consists of: an egg foo young patty (eggs, bean sprouts, onions, your choice of meat), dill pickle slices, mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes between two slices of white bread.
To make the patty, I closely watched the documentary, used this recipe as a guideline, and made a few adjustments here and there. Here’s how I made my own St. Paul sandwich.
Ingredients (Makes 4 sandwiches)
For the Egg Foo Young patties
5 eggs
1 cup ham (can use pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, whatever!)
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
1/4 cup green onions
1/4 cup white onions
1/4 cup mushrooms (I added this)
1 jalapeno (I added this, highly recommended)
Water chestnuts (I was going to add this but forgot)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon corn starch
Cooking oil (I used a vegetable – canola – cottonseed blend)
For the Sandwich
White bread
Mayonnaise
Pickle slices
Tomato slices
Iceberg lettuce (I used a mix of field greens because Iceberg lettuce is garbage!)
My Directions
1. Leave bean sprouts as is, but chop up your meat, onions, and whatever else you want in your patty.
2. Whisk eggs in large bowl. Add desired amount of salt and pepper. Dump all ingredients in bowl and mix.
3. Heat cooking oil in wok or skillet. The recipe I linked to says “small amount of oil,” but if you want to fry these suckers right, you’ve got to use a fair amount. When the oil is hot, gently pour 1/4 of your mixture into it. In the documentary, they use a giant ladle to measure and pour, but you may have to improvise with whatever you have.
Fast Frying Tip: Scoop hot oil and pour on TOP of the patty while the bottom is sufficiently frying. When the underside browns, flip the patty over and brown the other side.
4 . When the patty is fried enough to your liking, remove from oil and place on paper towels.
5. Prep the sandwich. You can warm up the bread, but don’t toast it. Slather mayo on both pieces of bread and sprinkle some greens on there for a little leafy goodness (not too much). Make sure you use pickles! I find pickles to be overpowering in sandwiches usually, but they’re PERFECT for the St. Paul. The tomatoes don’t help the sandwich “pop” like the pickles do, so if you don’t like tomatoes, you may as well leave them out.
6. I think you know what to do next…
Grindy!
Chip Tip: If you want to kick it up a notch, eat it with these chips (which coincidentally, are going to be listed next month on my Top 10 Chip list).
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I’m surprised you shared this and didn’t save it to be unveiled at the sandwich competition! I am impressed!
Ah yes, I forgot to mention anything about the sandwich competition. Being the reigning champion, I’m not afraid to give ideas out to other people haha. When is the next comp tho? I guess I gotta go BIG!
yo E what was the winning sandwich
I won with a breakfast croissandwich.
A croissant filled with: a poached egg, bacon, tomato, avocado, HASHBROWN, basil, pepper jack cheese, and perhaps something else I’m forgetting at the moment.
It was cold by the time everyone tasted it, but I think they knew how grindy it would have been!
Holy fucking Grindy.
I’ll have to hit you up with some of my Jerky Marinades and Chicken Wing sauces. I’ve done considerable experimentation with the former. As for the latter, I just started trying these out, so I’m working through a list of internet recipes I compiled.
It’s also bitchin to see your sandwich winner up there in your comment box. I forgot about that. Now I’m gonna make one. But yeah, I think you might be forgetting something.
Damn, that looks really good…what about the sri racha though?!
Yeah, I guess I could have put Cock sauce on there! Sriracha almost deserves its own post tho…
I’m having it tonight for dinner (with Tim’s Jalapeno Chips) and I’ll be playing cribbage too. I’ll let you know how it goes.
This would be “Grindy of the Year” for me…a major step-up from my instant-ramen cooking abilities
I would not have thought of the fast frying tip on my own. Thanks for the idea!
I read somewhere that a fruity sparkling wine goes well with this type of food, especially if you substitute shrimp (tiger maybe) for the meat and spread just a few drops of fish sauce (”nuoc mam” in Vietnamese…Three Crabs brand, in my opinion, is the best) after cooking–I know this only after trying my friend’s mom’s version. If the wine is a bit too much, maybe a chilled orange-flavored (or any fruit-flavored) soda will do…
Yo Ardilla – How’d it turn out?
Yeah Steve, you gotta step up from the Ramen!
God Damnit that looks like one filthy grind. I wish they did these in the DH back in the day. Talk about setting off a post-morning workout right!
Fuck the pickles though.
How are you gonna say fuck the pickles until you try it? How are you gonna say that?
Evil went to great length to point out he doesn’t even like pickles.
I don’t do the cute shit with punctuation. You just piss me off.
WORD.
Honorable Mention for Grindy of the month?
The Los Angeles Boil I just busted! It’s Irish Day in America on MOnday! March is the unofficial Irish Awarness month in my house. Get to know your irish american history. 4 lbs of Corned Beef simmered for hours in beer with carrots, onions, celery, potato, cabbage..hmmm!
somebody told me to get all the left overs together and smash them together with a can of red beets and fry it up in a pan…I dunno about that.
just remember : Eat corned beef and cabbage.
That sounds grindy! I’m a fan of corned beef and cabbage and that sounds even better. What type of beer and how much?
you know whats up! I’m on a budget so it’s one 32oz Miller High Life and 2 bottles of water. You want to submerge the beef in liquid. It cooks for so long a lot of the liquid steams. So cover it 3 inches deep.
…yo keep the carrots to a minimum tho.
High Life is where its at!!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=c8×4nBpRlbM
I was born and raised in St. Louis and grew up on this fantastic sandwich. I’ve been in Seattle for 14 years now and no one knows what I’m talking about when I ask about it. So, I looked on-line some years ago for it and found no info. I am glad I can find it now and enjoy making it at home. Thank you!!!
That’s awesome TIV.
It kind of makes my day to hear that, and since some other friends have requested “more grindies,” perhaps it’s time for another Grindy of the Month.
Now that I think about it, I know just what I’ll do…
Gonna try this St Paul but I can’t determine what kind of pickles to use. Help!