Subway

Ah, Subway. You may not know this, but I really like the place. Just by using the Google search on the right-hand side of this blog, I notice that I have never really said anything in praise of the place, just mentioned it a few times in relation to other places (often saying that Subway is better and cheaper).

But I have been eating there for more than two decades. When I was a kid, maybe 11 years old or so, I would often accompany my parents to the Rose Bowl for UCLA games. (This is back when UCLA was in the top-20 every year and games were actually fun.) They would load up on things at Bristol Farms for a pregame picnic outside the stadium: fancy cheeses, pâté, cold cuts; all things that sound great to me now but repulsive then. So we would always go by Subway and get a sandwich (or two; I was a growing boy) for me.

When my friend Tom and I drove around the country together almost a decade ago, a trip I have referenced here many times, we decided in advance that whenever we were in the middle of nowhere and hungry and fast food was our only option, we would eat at Subway instead of any other fast food chain. (We only violated that once - a McDonald's outside Cooperstown. Somewhere in my closest I have a list of every meal I ate on that trip.)

These days, Elizabeth and I go there about once a month. It's never something we decide too far in advance, it's just always a great option when we can't decide on anything else. It's never great but it's almost always good, it's half a mile away, and dinner for the two of us - always two footlongs, usually a couple bags of chips and frequently a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie - is thirteen bucks and change. You can't really beat that. Here are some of the sandwiches we've had:

 Elizabeth's Sandwich

I often vary what I get, but this is what Elizabeth orders 100% of the time (it's also the top picture of this post): turkey, American cheese, lettuce, cucumbers, red onion, olives and honey mustard on honey oat bread.

My Most Frequent Sandwich

This is the sandwich I have eaten more than any other by a wide margin: the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. Sometimes I get it on wheat, sometimes white. And always with the chicken, red onion, lettuce, cilantro, banana peppers and a little bit more of the sweet onion sauce than is necessary.

I have eaten this sandwich in many states, and dozens of Subways, and with only one exception (a Subway in the middle of Utah that had just opened and was obviously using not-terribly-fresh stuff leftover from the day before) it has been great. 

 Chipotle Chicken

It seems like Subway is often promoting their chipotle chicken sub. (Maybe it's only once a year, but it sure feels like a lot more than that.) So I decided to try it once, on flatbread instead of a roll. I received heated chicken and asked for cilantro, banana peppers and red onion. The girl assembling my sandwich put on a tiny squirt of chipotle sauce and I asked for a little more. She then squeezed a deluge of sauce onto the sandwich. That'll teach me.

But even with way too much sauce, I still enjoyed the flavors.

 Buffalo Chicken

Another promotion that looked good was the Buffalo chicken sandwich. I again requested it on the flatbread. It has nothing to do eating healthier - shocking, I know; at any rate Subway isn't exactly upfront with the caloric info on the flatbreads, so I'm betting it's no healthier than their rolls - but I think flatbread complements some of the sandwiches better than rolls.

I got the spicy chicken backed with jalapenos, red onion, lettuce, bell peppers, and extra buffalo sauce. It was surprisingly spicy. No, it wasn't like eating a taco from my nearby taco truck with the "extra spicy" hot sauce, but for a fast food sandwich, I was impressed with the heat. Both the chipotle chicken and buffalo chicken sandwiches were nice, but I did not like them anywhere near as much as my usual Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki.

Intermission #1

Sometimes I get these chips at Subway, and sometimes a few even make their way into my sanwiches. 

 Pastrami Sandwich

I'm not going to lie: I have very low expectations for Subway's pastrami sandwich. I can't think of a pastrami sandwich I have ever purchased for five bucks that was any good, and this was certainly no exception. The pastrami was flavorless. I wish I'd asked for extra pickles and onions. Even though there was a fair amount of mustard, I would have liked even more. I ate half of this and stuck the rest in the fridge, neither sure nor caring if I would eat the rest.

The next day, however, I baked it in the oven for five minutes and added cole slaw and Russian dressing. Was it better? Yeah. Barely. 

Intermission #2:

"Give me some of that Subway sandwich!"

"Thank you!"

Oven Crisp Chicken

Subway introduced their oven-crispy chicken sub with a tagline along the lines of "experience deep-fried flavor without the deep-frying." It's not true, but then again I didn't expect it to be. I ordered the sub with banana peppers, lettuce, red onion and chipotle sauce. And overall it was fine. I mean, it tasted like chicken.

But there was nothing crispy about it, so the breading was unnecessary. There is no reason I would ever get this again instead of just having turkey, which I like much more than chicken anyway.

Turkey and Salami

I was pretty hungry on my last trip to Subway so I decided to double up on the meat. I ordered oven roasted turkey and asked the girl to add salami, as well as my usual assortment of veggies (plus pickles). This is close to the sandwiches I used to get when I was a kid (although I would have gotten almost no veggies on it and probably plenty of cheese) and I loved it.

With the exception of the pastrami, I liked all the sandwiches here, although I think the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki will always be my favorite.