The Anatomy of the Sandwich - IXtapa w/bacon from Buon Amici

So this is the beginning of the my eternal quest to travel the world in hopes of finding the greatest sandwich ever created.  This post will be the first of many to discuss the anatomy of the sandwich.  Great tasting food is something that many people overlook.  Especially in these "hard" economic times people are less willing to spend a little extra when it comes to food.  People have become content with the McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Domino's of the world.  Now I am not saying that I don't eat any of that stuff myself, I eat it all the time.  However, I only go to those places when I have to.  I'd rather find some deli or other food place that makes something that actually has some quality even though it might cost me a bit more to buy.  Bottom line is that good food is one of the few things in life that can bring people together and truly make people happy.   That is why my favorite hobby is eating.  Now only if I could get paid to eat then I would be golden.

One place that has quickly become one of my favorites is Buon Amici deli in Scarsdale.  A friend of mine brought me there one time, and form the beginning I was hooked. Now the sandwich I originally got was the 007, which actually wasn't too great.  This was not to blame on the ingredients individually rather just the combination.  What caught my attention however, was the bread and the way it was prepared.  The "normal" sandwiches served at Buon Amici are what I would consider panini style.  The bread is already flat to begin with, and the sandwiches are toasted by a panini grill.  What this makes is a nice hot sandwich with extremely crunchy bread which is not overpowering with respect to the rest of the sandwich. The bread by itself is what makes Buon Amici sandwiches great.  However, I cannot forget about the quality of the other ingredients and the friendly guys that work at the deli.  There is a huge selection of sandwiches to choose from, many of which will seem new to someone going there for the first time.  Not only is their sandwich list already great, but you can make any adjustments to any sandwich or create something from scratch and the guys are more than happy to make it for you.  My point is that Buon Amici is one of the best delis around, and I personally drive 20 minutes just to grab a sandwich from them.  If you have never been there I highly suggest it.  For the time being you can read these posts and build up your appetite.  Let me move on to the sandwich review because I am getting rather hungry myself.

Since I wasted half of this post with an intro let me get to the point and keep this review simple.  Now it's not that the IXtapa doesn't deserve its fair share in the spotlight its just that its so good that it doesn't really need too much explaining.  This beast of a sandwich, pictured above includes chicken cutlet, bruschetta, monterey jack cheese, chipotle mayo, and avocado.  What separates this sandwich from the rest at Buon Amici is that it uses its special bread.  The bread on the IXtapa is a round roll will jalapeños and cheese baked into the bread.  Now I basically took what is already an amazing sandwich, and made it better by doing the logical thing of adding bacon.  The IXtapa with bacon is easily one of my top 3 favorite sandwiches of all time.  The amount of flavors packed into this sandwich is amazing.  The avocado compliments the spiciness of the jalapeños and the chipotle very nicely.  The inclusion of the bacon adds a little more crunch to the sandwich aside from the crunch factor brought by the bread.  The sandwich brings just the right amount of heat, being spicy but not too spicy.  In the end, the IXtapa is just an awesome sandwich.  Just based on the ingredients alone it was always destined for greatness.  But the guys at Buon Amici took what sounded great on paper, and made it something to be talking about.

So do yourself a favor and add eating this sandwich to the list of things to do before you die.  Trust me it is that good. For those of you who don't like bacon the IXtapa without bacon is also a great choice.  But if you are looking for the full experience of having your taste-buds completely blown away then head on over to Buon Amici and get the IXtapa with bacon.  You won't regret it.