AlwaysInvestigating: Substitution Sloppy Joes

November 19, 2009

Sloppy Joes from left: Gus & Gabriel, Wildwood Barbecue, and Pó.

The Sloppy Joe is a childhood staple one, because it’s delicious, and two, because it’s easy to prepare. Even the world’s worst cook can make a mean Sloppy Joe as long as Martin’s Potato Rolls are involved. But Sloppy Joes aren’t just for kids. Several New York City restaurants have awesome versions for adults. Ditch Plains does a traditional Sloppy Joe (on a potato roll) and Michael Bao serves a curry-laced “Sloppy Bao” at his numerous Baoguette locations.

Other restaurants have thought outside the box, substituting traditional beef filling with pork, duck and even mushrooms. While unorthodox, these three “manwiches” are still sloppy.

Continue Reading about Sloppy Joes at Gus & Gabriel, Wildwood Barbecue, and Pó >>

Baosers! Chef Michael Bao Does It All

Jeff Zalaznick — February 08, 2009

Michael Bao’s latest venture, Baoguette, recently opened in Gramercy, a few blocks from AlwaysHungry headquarters. In a neighborhood lacking in viable banh mi options, it was obvious that Baoguette would be the lunch of choice. We called up, ordered everything on the menu (doubling up on the Baoguette & Barbecue Chicken options), and waited patiently for our Vietnamese feast.

An hour and a half later, patience turned to annoyance with our food still nowhere in sight. We turned to the Baoguette website, where you are instructed to “call or text your order to the number below”. Each of the three times we called (ignoring the odd text message option) to check the status of our delivery, we were told by the man on the other end of the line that he was downstairs. The whole episode was confusing, as substantial time continued to pass with no sign of the delivery, and more importantly, we were supposedly calling the restaurant’s direct number, so how could they be downstairs? Suddenly, the text message option started to make sense, but who would have a restaurant line connected to the delivery guy’s cell phone?

Nearly two hours after ordering, the delivery man rushed in carrying three bags stuffed with food, he handed us the receipt, and muttered under his breath:

“Sorry for the wait, my wife is the chef, I’m Michael Bao, I am helping my wife. We gave you some free sodas,” and then rushed out.

I looked at the AHNY Squad with a look of utter confusion. Was Michael Bao, owner of four respected Manhattan restaurants, really hand-delivering our banh mi? A quick look at Google images left us speechless. The only thing I can say, is RESPECT, Mr. Bao. That is true dedication. Things aren’t moving fast enough, do them yourself. Sometimes everyone has to get their hands dirty. Michael Bao is the Charles Oakley of Vietnamese food. Grinding to get it done.

Even without eating the sandwiches, it was worth the wait just to see Chef Bao’s dedication. It was truly an act of heroism that should be applauded by the whole industry. He should potentially get a key to the City.

After recovering from the act of courage that we had just witnessed, we tasted. The sandwiches were consistent across the board. They use good ingredients, but the secret is the spectacular bread, which not only tastes great, but also rips in an incredible way. I mean, literally you can rip a sandwich in half with no fall out. You don’t see that very often…

The signature banh mi, aka the “Baoguette,” combined the classic pate, terrine and pulled pork with pickled julienne carrots, cucumber and a hefty bunch of cilantro, which amounted to a traditional banh mi that just tasted much cleaner. It made me feel like they had achieved what Nicky’s Vietnamese had tried to achieve. Cleaning up the banh mi’s act. Like an egg roll at Chinatown Brasserie, a cleaned up and better version of what you get for 50 cents at the hole in the wall around the corner.

Now, the Sloppy Bao, the Slop Sloppy Bao, was an ode to Vietnamese lunch ladies around the world. Bridging the very large gap between Vietnamese flavor and traditional cafeteria food. Instead of the normal tomato base, the meat was flavored with curry and topped with green mango, basil & lemongrass. Flavor was good, concept made me happy, but the major problem was that it was under stuffed and thus, incredibly not sloppy. Should be an easy fix for them though. The B.B.Q. Chicken Sandwich, was lackluster and not worth discussing, but a delicious surprise came in the form of a Catfish Sandwich, which is worth a try if you are in to that sort of thing.

Green Papaya Salad was standard and refreshing. Classic Summer Rolls had too much vermicelli, and not enough shrimp. The Spicy Beef & Pork Noodle Soup packed a meaty punch, but was by no means spicy.

All in all, the sandwiches were very good, but the cameo from Chef Bao was EPIC. And, now you know that if you need to send him a SMS, his number is on the site…