put together a good one last night, homemade club sandwich on white toast with smoked turkey, smoked ham, bacon, tomato, Duke's mayo, and a slice of cheese, used only two slices of bread, this was one of the best sandwiches of the year and very old-school.  It was so pretty I wanted to snap a shot of it for you but I don't have a camera.

one day however I will get a camera on a phone and then I'll shoot some stuff for us to enjoy.

upshot: don't underestimate the club sandwich.  which doesn't need avocado on it by the way.

recent roundup includes: oven-baked hot Italian sausage/melted mozzarella/roasted peppers on crispy sesame hoagie roll
                                      ham and Swiss cheese croissant
                                      Argentinian churrasco with chimichurri, lettuce, tomato on charred French bread
                                      split and grilled slightly burnt hot dog with Swiss cheese, Russian dressing, sauerkraut, crispy bacon
                                      shaved ham and Provolone with lettuce, mayonnaise, banana peppers, oil and vinegar on white sub roll
                                      chicken parmigiana on toasted sub roll

going to concentrate on sandwiches that rely less heavily on or avoid completely processed and cured meats

one certified Ivy classic that immediately comes to mind is the fried egg and cheese sandwich , which I used to get at the old Yankee Doodle sometimes for breakfast

there was only one dining hall that served good breakfast at my school and unless you were housed in that particular residence you were technically limited to dining there only a few times per month but the lunchroom ladies/gatekeepers were susceptible to flattery

I suppose I'll be checking out the uncured ham and bacon for nitrites etc. now, will report back, Ivy sandwiches suffer without them,

but grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches deliver and so does chicken salad ...

peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and banana both would do the trick

meatball or eggplant parmigiana grinders too, cemented into the annals of Ivy over the course of countless late-night food runs down to York Street and Broadway for all four years

these days the kids eat lots of chicken tenders, I haven't gotten down with that, maybe it's irrational given that I like eggplant parmigian subs and those also entail a breaded filling on bread, but that's the way it is ....

tuna salad doesn't involve cured processed meats but I eased off tuna years ago, freshly carved roast turkey would fit the bill very well but the place that had it closed last year

must find some fresh turkey and solve this problem

enjoying a range of ham, turkey, and bacon made without nitrites, sandwich fears allayed, what beats a deluxe club sandwich?

last night I got home from a mental party and managed to assemble a very nice sandwich as I was literally passing out: fresh hard Italian sub roll; uncured nitrate/nitrite-free Genoa salami; Italian provolone; Tuscan pepperoncini; crushed red pepper spread; drizzle of Italian olive oil; lots of oregano

washed down with a Mexican 7 Up in lieu of Foxon Park Gassosa

the Ivy sandwich is anything that one could and can find in a Northeast college town, my college town was famous for its Italian-American food, and Italian sub sandwiches and grinders were late-night staples .... New Haven's dives and funky eateries back in the day were second to none, I copped all their sandwich and short-order tricks, they were like classrooms to me, I really wish I could see those old guys one more time and thank them profusely for all that great food .....

Park Street Subs, Yankee Doodle Coffee Shop, so many others, there were some very talented sandwich and short-order wizards at work there, they got all my cash back then, seriously, that's what I spent my dough on, I let my friends spend their money on booze, I barely set foot inside the packie

inside the dining halls it was strictly PBJ or toasted cheese sandwiches, I could not eat the dining hall food, luckily it was always possible to rustle up PBJs and toasted cheeses, which would be supplemented by salad, yogurt, cereal, rice, ice cream, and chocolate milk

so naturally around midnight I'd be craving something hot with marinara sauce on it, or a steak bomb, or a hot grinder, or a bar burger and fries from Rudy's, or a souvlaki shish kebob pita from Mamoun's

to be fair there were a few things I could eat in the dining hall: tacos on taco night; old-school Chinese food, which was fried rice and chicken chow mein/chop suey; and roast turkey with stuffing.

Christmas dinner was a very good roast prime rib but that was only once a year of course.  it used to make me mad that they would only serve the decent stuff once a year.

There was one small residential college dining hall with a private endowment where you could get omelets made to order, but if you weren't a resident of that particular college (house) you could only eat there a few times a month, unless you sweet-talked the staff, which I always did, I needed those ham and cheese omelets.

some of the regular dishes back then were shockingly horridious: bluefish, I'm looking at you.  the scrod was very rough too.

if you've ever seen the Chevy Chase movie Nothing But Trouble, set in the mythical Valkenvania, you might remember a ghastly dinner scene involving some quivering hot dogs; that's what frankfurter night was like at Yale '78-'82.

there were some other really bad dishes, nightmarish in fact, but I'm saving those for the memoir.  cinnamon toast was one of my best friends when I was in college.