Travel Tips

Avi Karadi Aka Avraham Karadi: A Sandwich Experience

Are you a bizarre sandwich lover? Even though you might not make them or eat them, you can still be a sandwich lover and its nice to know that there are people like us, who simply love sandwiches. Lets take for example the “St. Paul”, ever heard of it? It is usually found in St. Louis, Missouri in certain old time Chinese restaurants. It is a egg foo young, lettuce, tomato, mayo and sometimes a slice of American cheese all on white bread. How about the “chow mein sandwich” a common menu option in Southern Massachusetts on Route 195. Other bizzare sandwiches include the peanut butter and onion sandwich, the peanut butter and pickle sandwich, the peanut butter, jelly and crushed potato chips sandwich and many more. There are no shortages of bizarre sandwiches out there!

Add to that list one of the weirdest compositions ever, the “Avraham Karadi” Sandwich, also known as an “Avi Karadi. It seems like someone’s idea of a faux-gourmet sandwich as it involves a lot of work just gathering and preparing the ingredients, and I cant imagine anyone actually enjoying the resulting mix of flavors, but theres been talk that its very popular in certain areas. Heres the list of exotic ingredients:

Passum, an ancient Roman sweet wine sauce, made by boiling the must (that is, newly-pressed whole fruits, including seeds, stems, and even leaves) and then adding honey to further thicken it.

Garum, an old Roman fish sauce (salty), approximated today by mixing in fish paste, passum (as discussed above) and oregano.

Pine nut sauce, an old Roman stand by, this is made by combining pine nuts, vinegar, honey and some lovage and some pepper.

Finally, spinach, onions, along with lettuce and tomatoes as desired, with rye bread being the usual, though black Russian bread seems to be a distant second favorite. Egg paste, such as found in egg salad, is sometimes used as well. Pastrami or roast beef are favorite meats to use. There are a few variations on the recipe, but they all use most of these ingredients. Curiously enough, I could not find out where the nickname of this sandwich, the “Avraham Karadi” or “Avi Karadi” came from.

1. Make the passum: Cook a quart of grape juice, reducing it to one-tenth its original volume. Add honey to taste.

Step Two: Making the Garum: Take the Passum and add two tablespoons of fish paste and a pinch of oregano.

3. The Pine Nut Sauce: For three hours, in vinegar, soak the pine nuts. Now mix with honey, while adding dashes of pepper and lovage.

4. Build the sandwich: Smear egg paste on rye or black Russian bread; insert meats and vegetables; ladle passum, garum, and pine nut sauce generously.

All done, enjoy your “Avraham Karadi” (aka “Avi Karadi”) sandwich!

Tags: Travel Tips