Once again, it's time for the World Wide Food (WWF) Smackdown - a totally unscientific, wholly biased and completely personal, opinionated, non-blind taste test between some Chicago places I tried on a recent trip and relatively similar places in LA. If you've been following along, you know Chicago is up 2 to 1 for both Rick Bayless' kicking the Too Hot tamales' butts, and PJ Clarke's beer battered vegetables stomping all over Finn McCool's calamari. LA's one point comes from Pink's, though they might have to surrender that point since Portillo's just opened in Orange County.
Today, beef sandwiches go head to head in a battle of epicurean European proportions. The West Coast offers Philippe's in downtown LA, the home of the original French Dip, and the Midwest doesn't hold back with Italian beef from Mr. Beef in Chicago.
The French Dip is sliced roast beef on a French roll that has been dipped in the juices that have dripped into the roasting pan. The meat at Philippe's was a little dry, but balanced by the uber-juicy bread. Addition of spicy mustard sent a wicked burn up my nostrils that made me weep with love and adoration.
Italian beef from Mr. Beef is a super thinly sliced, almost shredded beef that's served on an Italian roll with giardiniera, a spicy pickled mix of chopped vegetables. The Italian roll, though not dipped in any sort of jus, still soaked up the juices from the beef, and the giardiniera added a unique texture and moistness as well.
The two are very different, but in the end, the Italian Stallion won out by a thin margin - thinly sliced beef margin, that is. I preferred the Italian beef's paper thin slices to the slightly thicker cuts of roast beef. The curliness of the meat held more tightly to the juices of the meat and the giardiniera, and let's face it, I'm a little partial to spicy pickled vegetables.
Now toss some of that hot mustard on an Italian beef sandwich....
Chicago 3, LA 1.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-11-2006 @ 4:15PM
Tony said...
Actually you can get your Italian beef dipped as well. When you order one, they'll ask you if you want it "dipped" or they may ask if you want it "juicy." I prefer mine un-dipped as there's usually enough residual juice dripping from the beef to moisten the sandwich sufficiently. Otherwise the bread sort of disintigrates into a beautiful mess (which is not a bad thing).
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1-11-2006 @ 5:56PM
Mike said...
I love french dip, but Italian Beef is what all good french dip sandwiches secretly aspire to be. And the article didn't even mention the "italian sausage hiding in the middle of the beef" option. That can really put it over the top.
I try to get my share when I visit Chicago. It used to be when changing planes at Ohare that you could get an italian beef at "Butch's" that was near American's concourse ( Gate K1 if I remember )While changing planes I almost missed my connections a couple times when I was trying to get back through security with my hot sandwich. A few years back I was passing through again and was crushed to see the little diner-like Butch's replaced with Wolfgang Puck and other annoying chain places.
Now there's no reason to get excited about a 45 min layover there.
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1-12-2006 @ 2:14AM
sarah said...
holy smokes.
i can't even imagine what would have happened to me if i had gotten the italian beef dipped.
i might have just let my return ticket to LAX go to waste :)
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1-12-2006 @ 11:46AM
Ed said...
Mr Beef isn't even the best beef in the city. You could have headed south to Taylor St. and hit up Al's, or you could have gone further afield and hit Chickie's or Johnnie's.
And yes, it's almost blasphemy to not get a beef dipped. A whole different beast.
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