A sandwich at Bay Area Bagels, a bakery in Burlingame, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +9.
Reads as a fully realized lox bagel, five of six roles on the board.
Holding the summit: balance 0.80 or better
−5 a wet layer on soft bread
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.
bagel (inferred from the name), served cold: cream cheese; salmon; onion; cucumber; tomato; sprouts.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 0.6 | 27th |
| acid | 0.6 | 51st |
| fat | 1.8 | 34th |
| sweet | 0.3 | 39th |
| umami | 1.3 | 41st |
| heat | 0.1 | 51st |
| bitter | 0.2 | 57th |
78 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| bagel (inferred from the name) | bread | soft chewy | the frame |
| cream cheese | fat | fat 4 creamy silky smooth | +24 |
| salmon | protein | fat 3 umami 3 soft flaky tender | +10 |
| onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | 0 |
| cucumber | bulk | crunchy juicy fresh | −7 |
| tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +13 |
| sprouts | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | −2 |
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
- Bagel + Cream Cheese: the schmear: cream cheese on a boiled crust
- Cream Cheese + Salmon: lox logic: rich fish on a cool schmear
- Cream Cheese + Cucumber: tea sandwich core: cool on cool
- Salmon + Onion: raw onion bite keeps rich lox honest
How to raise it
- Clear the board: a wet layer on soft bread (-5).
- Between you and 90: balance 0.80 or better (0.02 short).
All the sandwiches at Bay Area Bagels · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder