Originally read at the 3-Minute Sandwich Stories event hosted by Vol. 1 Brooklyn. If you read it aloud it will take you exactly 3 minutes. I timed it.
Growing up in New York City, there was no dearth of good sandwiches. I was 10 blocks from Katz’s, 5 from David’s bagels before they moved further uptown, and a block from an Italian goods store that’d make you any hero you wanted if you asked nicely. Any of these sandwiches could have been the sandwich, my sandwich. But they weren’t. Instead, it was Subway’s Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki.
The first time I tried the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki was at the Subway up on Houston Street. I’m not sure when it was, or why, though I vaguely remember some friend suggesting that I’d like it, like that friend who eggs you on the first time you smoke pot and is telling you if you just hold the smoke in a little longer it’ll start working. They were right, the sandwich worked. The sweet onion teriyaki sauce was the first time I understood the transformative power of food. It was like that scene in Ratatouille where he puts two flavors together and fireworks happen. Had I ever enjoyed red onions before? Had I ever craved lettuce? And of course I was powerless to the Subway bread smell, and remain a little angry that all other breads don’t smell that way. I usually ordered it on the asiago bread, because I’m a monster.
Let’s remember that I was still a child and not immune to fast food. I always thought the best part about visiting my grandparents in Jersey wasn’t my grandmother’s Indian food, but the treat of going to Pizza Hut, and once in high school I left a friend’s birthday party at a vegan restaurant to get fries at McDonald’s. However, I was also of the age where I was starting to understand being a “New Yorker” as not just an adjective, but a weighted concept. New Yorkers did things certain ways. They had opinions about food and transportation and real estate. A place like Subway, from Connecticut no less, would never stand up next to even the crappiest deli. At least they would put more than a slice and a half of cheese on your hero. Anyway, if I wanted to be a real New Yorker, which, seeing as I was a native New Yorker I certainly thought I should be, I knew my secret love had to stay a secret.
It was easy to swing in the other direction and loudly judge anyone who’d listen for expressing even the slightest sympathy toward Subway. It was trash food and had no place in a city with such exacting standards, I’d say. If you ate there you were the type of person who wants Manhattan to be like more like your hometown, because invariably you were not from here, and I had no time for you. I was that New Yorker. But there I was, sneaking Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyakis on my lunch breaks, convincing myself it was only because it was nextdoor to where I was waitressing, and I was sick of the staff meals.
I like to think I am no longer that New Yorker, though on many days I am. I still think you can get a better sandwich at any deli, and it still breaks my heart when a Subway, or a Starbucks, or a Trader Joe’s, or a Chipotle shows up and makes the city look a little more like everywhere else. I have not had a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki in a few years, and a subway ad I saw in Paris that pointed out their grilled chicken strips were only “mostly” chicken makes me think I won’t be eating one anytime soon. But for a while it was my favorite, and it reminded me that everywhere else isn’t so bad.
Tags: my ideal sandwich would really just be that sauce smothered on red onions between bread, subway, sweet onion chicken teriyaki, what did they put in that sauce
When NYC got its first Dairy Queen last year, a lot of people were SUPER disdainful about it, and I can’t fault them for it, because there are SO many other exceptional places to get ice cream made with real ingredients and interesting flavor combinations. These establishments are, objectively, WAY better.
But secretly, a little voice in my heart whispered, “yessss, precious, we can go get Blizzards now.”
same same same same forever same
Since moving to the city I do miss Dairy Queen. Yes, I know, there are a zillion local-independent-gourmet ice cream shops I could go to. But I want a Blizzard, dammit!
(Allegedly there are a grand total of three DQs in the city limits. I have yet to find them.)
I hate fast food on many levels – moral, aesthetic, and intellectual – but you can have my sausage, egg, and cheese McGriddles when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.
literally. yes. thank you.
(I’m hoping that this talked-about revulsion will develop naturally once I OD on them….but I don’t know if this is going to happen.)
I also secretly love subway, because I associate it with the family road trips of my youth, where we would get to drink coveted soda and eat grinders on the grassy verge of Route 5, smelling the hot asphalt and pine trees, thrilled with the endless sense of possibility out-bound journeys bring. Also, my parents rarely sprang for cold cuts, so I wasn’t all that discerning.
McDonald’s is my secret shame food – the one on Steinway is atrocious but the one near Ditmars is at least passable, if not outright good – because the nuggets and fries are exactly like my suburban childhood. And I’ll always have a soft spot for Taco Bell, because once as a teen I ate it for lunch every day for an entire summer and actually LOST weight. (I assume it was because of a tapeworm, but when you’re 16, who cares?)
Oh and once I was on a date at the Met, and we were walking back to the subway when we passed a building under construction and a Panera: Coming Soon sign… I freaked out so joyfully that I think he was a little concerned for me. We dated for like 2 months after that, so I’ll count that as an “all’s well that ends well,” plus I got Panera in the City, so an overall win.
Paneras instantly make me more at ease with myself and my surroundings and life in a way that I can’t articulate and a therapist should probably look into. 😛
It’s OK. Taco Bell is what kept me from starvation in college. The bean burrito was the cheapest item on the menu and I ate at least 4 every week. With green sauce.
Uhh I’m eating a McDouble RIGHT NOW
Correction: Ate
My official position on Subway is that it’s not great or gourmet, but seriously, if you don’t want a fried thing or a pizza thing, it’s a good option. It’s fine. It’s got lettuce. Not great lettuce, but it’s scary how few veggies I eat sometimes.
I ate them at an intense rate once I got introduced by my ex for a few years, and then grew so I couldn’t stand them. Now I’m swinging back slowly.
I ate a shameful amount of Subway during the degree I just finished (I’m so glad it was only two years long!) and now I can’t stand the idea of eating it. I’m sure I’ll go back, though. It’s so cheap and they’re literally everywhere in Toronto now, and plus I have two gift cards that I need to finish…
GUESS WHAT MY LUNCH PLANS ARE NOW.
(having just moved to a place known for it’s restaurants and foodie culture, this makes me feel a little better about my secret fast food favorites. 🙂 )
At least it was the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, which is legitimately really, really good, and not, like. The meatball sub. Which I’ve had multiple times and probably will again, but it is not a good sandwich, let alone a good meatball sandwich.
That’s almost exactly my guilty pleasure *and* drunk food staple *and* the only thing I can stomach when I’m nauseated: Teriyaki Chicken on asiago bread, but with Caesar salad sauce. Ever tried that?
It’s not the most… delicate fragrance around, especially when you factor in the red onions.
As a former Subway Sandwich artist I can tell you that you’re not alone. The sweet onion chicken teriyaki was our second most popular sub, right behind the Chicken Bacon Ranch.
Now I really want a sandwich.
Although I notoriously hate and avoid all fast-food chains, I can admit here that I’m super excited that Dunkin Donuts is *finally* coming to San Francisco!! Chocolate-glazed donuts all around!
I love McDonald’s chicken mcnuggets. They don’t taste like chicken. They just taste like Mcdonald’s chicken nuggets. I’m pretty damn snobby about my food… but I will always love mcnuggets.
My kid probably gets way more mcnuggets than she should because I am easily suggestible at lunch time. “Mom can we go to Mcdonalds?” “OK sure! Let’s get some nuggets!”
This reminded me that the only thing standing in the way of me recreating the Spicy Italian sub the way I like it in my own kitchen is my failure to find a suitable substitute for sub sauce. I mean, I HAVE all the Italian cold cuts and the cheese and the fixings that I get when I go to Subway. That is the ONLY MYSTERY THING. Anyway I googled it and it gave me a copycat recipe for the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sauce instead, so CLEARLY YOU WIN.
http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Subway-Sweet-Onio…
This reminded me that the only thing standing in the way of me recreating the Spicy Italian sub the way I like it in my own kitchen is my failure to find a suitable substitute for sub sauce. I mean, I HAVE all the Italian cold cuts and the cheese and the fixings that I get when I go to Subway. That is the ONLY MYSTERY THING. Anyway I googled it and it gave me a copycat recipe for the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sauce instead, so CLEARLY YOU WIN.
http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Subway-Sweet-Onio…
See you in line the day it opens!
I live in Paris, which some consider the culinary capital of the world, and I still get Subway sometimes, so….
My classmates & I were in Paris for THREE DAYS and they still decided to go to a Subway. I was and am still very ????? about it.
The best Dominos pizza I ever had was one I got in Paris.
I used to go to the Subway on Rue Vavin way too much! Ah, memories…
I went to Tokyo, and ate at Subway a LOT. In part because my sister is vegetarian and not very adventurous, but also because Japanese Subway is, for some unknown reason, amazing.
I went to Tokyo, and ate at Subway a LOT. In part because my sister is vegetarian and not very adventurous, but also because Japanese Subway is, for some unknown reason, amazing.