A sandwich at Mercado 925, a taqueria in Berkeley, California.
out of 100 · outstanding
Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.
Reads as a fully realized cubano, five of six roles on the board.
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.
cuban bread (inferred from the name), toasted: pulled pork; black forest ham; mustard; pickles; aioli; swiss cheese.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 2.2 | 90th |
| acid | 1.4 | 84th |
| fat | 2.3 | 56th |
| sweet | 0.5 | 61st |
| umami | 2.0 | 76th |
| heat | 0.3 | 73rd |
| bitter | 0.1 | 56th |
96 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| cuban bread (inferred from the name) | bread | soft crusty | the frame |
| pulled porkscored as Pork | protein | fat 4 umami 4 juicy chewy tender | 0 |
| black forest hamscored as Ham | protein | salt 4 umami 4 fat 3 soft silky tender | +6 |
| mustard | sauce | acid 3 salt 2 heat 2 saucy smooth | 0 |
| picklesscored as Pickle (cucumber) | acid | acid 5 salt 4 crunchy juicy pickled | +8 |
| aioli | sauce | fat 5 creamy silky saucy | 0 |
| swiss cheese | protein | fat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty | 0 |
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
- Pork + Ham: the cubano's double pork, cured over roasted
- Pork + Mustard: roast pork wants mustard's sharp edge
- Pork + Pickle (cucumber): rich pork wants the pickle's sharp edge
- Ham + Mustard: deli constant: hot mustard on cured pork
- Ham + Pickle (cucumber): the cubano lesson: brine cuts cured pork
- Ham + Swiss Cheese: cured pork and nutty swiss, an old alliance
How to raise it
- Outstanding, not legendary: the menu does not name its bread.
All the sandwiches at Mercado 925 · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder