Barbecued Ham at 9th Ave. Grocery and Deli, and catching up

Our sandwich adventures have taken us to the sequel list: 15 More Must-Have Sandwiches of Madison County, starting with Barbecued Ham at the 9th Avenue Grocery and Deli. (We did miss a few on the original list, basically anything that's not available Tuesday at 11:00. We plan to go back for the schedule-challenged at the end. Thus, on to the Barbecued Ham.)

This reviewer was a bit dubious about the day's offerings. First of all, the sandwich is served on the mass-produced Wonder Bread variety of bread. Although choices included whole wheat and others, it was all still the spongy, non-bakery sort of bread I generally scorn. Then, the meat appeared even sketchier. Given the title "barbecued ham," I expected cut up ham heated in barbecue sauce or something along those lines, but instead the sandwich was built on an odd barbecue-sauce-impregnated "ham" sort of lunch meat. It did not have the appearance of something that would bear close scrutiny.

To this doubtful beginning was added a slice of orange American cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion, salt, pepper, and piles of pickles and jalapeno peppers. It should be noted that this reviewer is not a pickle fan and hates jalapenos but went along with the default sandwich mainly to be a good sport, planning to try it as built and then pick off all the yucky stuff when I hated it.

However, the sandwich completely surprised me by being pretty darn awesome. The pickles and jalapenos provided a strong, flavorful counterpoint to the meat, and the flavors all went well together and balanced nicely. It's certainly not a gourmet sandwich, but I would rank it above the ordinary sandwiches we've had (ex. the Reuben, the Philly) and some of the others as well. This was a surprisingly good sandwich, and when you figure in the price ($2.35!!!), it's unbelievable. I'm not sure it would be a healthy regular addition to my diet, but I expect I'll be back to buy this sandwich again in the future.

A few other sandwiches never quite made the blog, so here's a little catching up.

Chicken Salad on Croissant at Duffy's Deli

Nothing too colorful to say about this one: it's exactly what you'd expect from chicken salad on a croissant. This reviewer found it a bit on the sweet and pickley side, but we are in the South, and that's Southern chicken salad. It was not nearly as sweet and pickley as most Southern chicken salad, so I was pleased. The other folks liked it quite well.

We also tried some desserts: a chocolate chip cookie that was exactly as expected, and a piece of baklava that was so unappealing as to go unfinished. (Yikes!) Stay away from the baklava, but if you're in the mood for chicken salad, Duffy's is a standup choice.

We also detoured to pick up one from the new list, since it was being offered only for a limited time.

Fried Green Tomato BLT at Phoenix Bistro

This sandwich was crazy friggin' good. Loved it!

The sandwich is composed of fried green tomatoes, bacon, lettuce, and a remoulade sauce, on a toasted hoagie roll. It also came with potato chips made in-house, which I think is very cool.

Frankly, the last time I ate a fried green tomato was when I was three, and I absolutely hated them, so my expectations were low for this sandwich. Also, when it came out, there were only two pieces of bacon on the sandwich, crossed in an X. This looked like a major shortfall of bacon to me. "Bah!" I thought.

Besides that, the dining experience was a bit on the odd side up to that point. When we arrived, there was a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the table, but enough time passed for me to seriously ponder why it was there, before some bread finally arrived. When it did, it was remarkably burnt on the outside, yet not fully cooked on the inside. Our lunch had been delayed by a long-running meeting, and we were ravenous, so we devoured it anyway, despite it being the worst example of bread I've ever seen. We ate it all except one last very charred piece. This we saved for questioning the waiter, who reluctantly acknowledged that most of their bread is served less black than this, and eventually produced a defense that can be summarized as "I know this bread is terrible, that's why I gave you an extra piece! Do you want some more? Is that what you want?"

However, all was forgiven when I tasted the sandwich. Unlike my recollection of fried green tomatoes, these were flavorful and tomatoey with a crisp, delicate breading. Also, to my surprise, the bacon turned out to be quite sufficient when aligned with the bread, and the sauce united everything into a masterpiece of a sandwich. For this reviewer, it shot to the top of the list, right behind The Godfather and Carl John's Fried Bologna. My only regret is that the sandwich is a seasonal offering, so I can't go back and get another one right now.