New York: ed's lobster bar

Ed's lobster roll

Imagine shopping in SoHo with one of your closest friends. Then imagine stopping for lunch, to eat the most delectable sandwich on the face of the planet. Oooohhhh, and then imagine eating crispy french fries drenched in malted vinegar. Even if you're not in SoHo, run to Ed's Lobster Bar for lunch or dinner. Just make sure you keep shopping, I mean walking, to burn off the calories!

vegetarian sandwich recipe

When in need of a seriously fast, reasonably healthy meal I think...grilled vegetable sandwich.

Ingredients

• 2 zucchinis
• 1 small eggplant
• 1/4 cup of pesto
• 8 pieces of torn buffala mozzarella
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 small focaccia buns
• extra virgin olive oil

Slice the veggies and brush with olive oil. Grill. Take grilled vegetables off the heat and quickly grill the buns. Rub half a clove on garlic on the toasted bun. Top with grilled vegetables, pesto, a few pieces of cheese. Drizzle with olive oil. Eat. Serves 2.

shrimp shack

Inspired by David's recent trip to Martha's Vineyard, we had a casual east coast supper on Saturday night with our friends Lisa & Greg. Greg's a meat and potatoes kinda guy; it was fun to encourage him to try something different!

Tomatoes with dill

Shrimp sandwiches with tarragon-caper mayo

~I grilled the shrimp and used hot-dog buns~

Corn on the cob with lime-chive butter

You can make this meal in less than an hour. And, it certainly beats the monotony of hamburgers and hot-dogs at this time of year!

P.S. We washed down this meal with St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale and Daniel Lenko's Unoaked Chardonnay. Two of our favourite summer drinks.

P.P.S. The shrimp sandwich and lime butter recipes were both from Bon Appetit! One of my favourite magazines!

grilled chicken sandwich with charmoula mayo

Often I read recipes and think "why didn't I think of this myself?"

Recently, we tried grilled chicken sandwiches with charmoula mayo. After a quick google, I found out that charmoula is a marinade generally used in Moroccan cooking. In this recipe, you mix it with mayo (I chose low-fat, olive oil mayo) to top a brown-sugar rubbed, grilled boneless skinless chicken breast. At the suggestion of recipe author Bonnie Stern, I also grilled a large red onion and red pepper which complemented mix of sweet and spicy.

While the chicken was cooking, I put some corn on the cob in boiling water and made a simple salad. Everything was washed down with a bottle of Ironstone Obsession Symphony, which I know didn't "match" but we didn't care. Actually upon reflection, the wine pairing wasn't too far off since the sandwich had a bite to it!

By the way, for my vegetarian friends, charmoula (minus the mayo) is typically used as a marinade for fish or seafood dishes in North Africa. I suggest that you try a version of this sandwich with a fresh peice of halibut or swordfish.

Do you have any sandwich recipes that you think I must try? I'm always game.

my favourite sandwich

Last night our Aunt Teri joined us for a late dinner. In my mind, we required a decadent meal that would come together quickly.

So, what did we have? A seared salmon sandwich with a fennel, arugula, goat cheese salad washed down with a bottle of 2006 Cuvaison Chardonnay Napa Valley Carneros.

Honestly, what's better than seared salmon topped with dill-caper mayo sandwiched between buttery garlic bread? In terms of 'wich craft, this is perfection.

P.S. The photo above was stolen from Wish.ca and originally appeared in Wish Magazine, September 2007. Just so you know, we put WAY, WAY, WAY more dill-caper mayo on top!