The Gorilla is one of our most widely-discussed sandwiches. It's got a blog post, a "recipe" in our cookbook, and at least one Instagram/Facebook post celebrating the addition of pickles to the sandwich. Often featuring relatively interesting, but ultimately unnecessary, historical context that meanders to discussion of several other (failed, or unrefined) sandwiches that preceded it, and lengthy explanations of the name.
Let's skip all that nonsense this time around, and get right into what makes this sandwich special:
1. The Gorilla was our first Smoked Ham sandwich. It was developed by the staff alongside NWS' first batches of Smoked Ham. It's truly a pillar of NWS culture.
2. It's a real "sandwich eater's" sandwich. Locally made rye bread (from a longtime Smokehauser's recipe), mayo, hausmade mustard, ham, Swiss cheese, lettuce. Sliced pickles were added to the recipe nearly a decade after the sandwich's conception, but are a natural fit, and play nicely with all the other ingredients.
3. Honestly, that just about covers it. The Gorilla is an easy to understand sandwich, made with excellent ingredients.
Now here's the fun part: If you want to know more about The Gorilla, check out the "Sandwiches for Every Season" chapter of our cookbook "Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook," published by University of Minnesota Press or search our website for the blog post "Great Moments in the Smokehaus Lexicon: The Story of The Gorilla" to dive into all those superfluous details.
Sandopedia: Bánh Faux Mì
The Bánh Faux Mì was not our first attempt at a bánh mì-style sandwich. That honor goes to the Sitka Sushi, but—great sandwich that it is—it didn't fully scratch the itch.
With Country Pâté having a singular home (The Hedonist) outside the deli case, providing the body for bánh mì-style sandwich round 2 fit right in its wheelhouse.
Smoked Ham naturally followed as a complementary protein, and countless debates over relative portion sizes of the meats led to the creation of the "half-portion" of Smoked Ham. (The half ham portion would gain additional usefulness when we dropped Mortadella and the Italiensk needed a replacement ingredient).
The BFM is made on a buttered hero roll. Those two divergences from typical bánh mì construction alone account for the "Faux" in the name. The BFM also spurred the invention of other staple ingredients on our sandwich lines: quick pickles, and our pickled veg medley.
[Warning: Slight factual errors may be present in what follows. We're aiming for vibes above pure fact. If you, or someone close to you, can contest what we're saying, please comment below.]
The O.G. BFM was probably built something like:
Buttered hero, hoisin, sriracha, indeterminately-sized slices of country pâté, whole portion of smoked ham, fresh cucumber slices, hausmade kimchi, cilantro, done.
Ingredients were swapped out here and there (sometimes smoked pork loin, if we ran out of ham, which surely amplified the richness of the sandwich). Fresh cucumber gave way to quick pickles. Perhaps even both at times(?) Sometimes we tossed cukes into a container with hastily-stirred rice vinegar, brown sugar, a dash of salt for a few minutes when quickles ran out.
A version of our pickled veg medley took over for kimchi.
A modern Bánh Faux Mì goes:
A buttered hero roll containing two thin slices of Country Pâté (about half of what goes on The Hedonist), a small squiggle of hoisin, a half-portion of Smoked Ham, a layer of quick pickles, pickled vegetable medley, cilantro, and sriracha.
It may be our most iterated upon sandwich, but all the while a top-tier example of NWS sandwiches. Perhaps not the indeterminately large pâté portion/whole portion of ham days.
Sandopedia: The Hedonist
Northern Waters is "Home of the Hedonist!" It's an evocative sandwich, a nostalgic trip for the collective Midwestern consciousness they grew up with liverwurst sandwiches. Our Hausemade country pate is joined by mayo, mustard, cornichon picklesm red onion, and lettuce on a hero roll. Here's to the cult classic!
