A sandwich at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College, a sandwich shop in Atherton, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +12.
A cubano with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
Holding the summit: a focused, restrained build
More salt than 90% of the catalog.
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
choice of bread, toasted: hot ham; pineapple; swiss; teriyaki sauce; tropical poppy seed sauce; lava spicy sauce; mayo; mustard; secret sauce; lettuce; tomato; pickles; onions; peppers.
Worth a look: ingredient not in the pantry: Poppy Seed Dressing, Lava Sauce, Secret Sauce.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.2 | 90th |
| acid | 1.6 | 90th |
| fat | 1.4 | 22nd |
| sweet | 1.0 | 90th |
| umami | 1.8 | 65th |
| heat | 0.4 | 80th |
| bitter | 0.2 | 69th |
100 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| choice of bread | bread | soft | the frame |
| hot hamscored as Ham | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | −3 |
| pineapple | garnish | sweet 4 acid 3 juicy fresh raw | −5 |
| swissscored as Swiss Cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | −8 |
| teriyaki sauce | sauce | salt 4 sweet 4 umami 4 saucy silky | −6 |
| tropical poppy seed sauce | not scored | ||
| lava spicy sauce | not scored | ||
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −11 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | −9 |
| secret sauce | not scored | ||
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | −4 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | −4 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | −12 |
| onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | −5 |
| peppersscored as Pepper (bell/hot) | texture | heat 3 crunchy juicy | −5 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Ham + Swiss Cheese: cured pork and nutty swiss, an old alliance
- Ham + Mustard: deli constant: hot mustard on cured pork
- Ham + Pickle (cucumber): the cubano lesson: brine cuts cured pork
- Pineapple + Teriyaki Sauce: hawaiian logic: glaze and grilled fruit
- Teriyaki Sauce + Mayonnaise: teriyaki mayo, the japanese burger
- Teriyaki Sauce + Lettuce: cool leaf under sweet soy glaze
- Teriyaki Sauce + Pickle (cucumber): cool crunch under sweet soy glaze
- Teriyaki Sauce + Onion: the sweet onion in the glaze
- Mayonnaise + Tomato: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
- Onion + Pepper (bell/hot): peppers and onions, the griddle pair
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: a focused, restrained build (0.16 short).
All the sandwiches at The Sandwich Spot Menlo College · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder