· 2 min read

Meatball Marinara at North Park Deli

Whole meatballs, marinara sauce, melted provolone cheese on french roll. Sandwich Score 87, outstanding. At North Park Deli, Concord.

A sandwich at North Park Deli, a deli in Concord, California.

Hoagie RollProvoloneMarinaraMeatballHoagie Roll
87
Sandwich Score
out of 100 · outstanding

Outstanding, and the road to 90 is open.

Reads as a fully realized meatball sub, four of six roles on the board.

Balance
96
Harmony
100
Contrast
80
Structure
93
Focus
100
Composition
94
Quality
100
Envelope
98

More umami 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.

french roll, toasted: whole meatballs; marinara sauce; melted provolone cheese.

Balance

salt1.7 · 79thacid0.8 · 62ndfat2.0 · 45thsweet0.5 · 66thumami2.9 · 90thheat0.0bitter0.0
Flavor axes
AxisValueCatalog percentile
salt1.779th
acid0.862nd
fat2.045th
sweet0.566th
umami2.990th
heat0.0n/a
bitter0.0n/a

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

LayerRoleFlavor and texturePoints
french rollscored as Hoagie Rollbreadsoft crustythe frame
whole meatballsscored as Meatballproteinumami 4 fat 3 salt 2 soft juicy tender+14
marinara saucescored as Marinarasauceacid 3 umami 3 salt 2 sweet 2 soft saucy wet+24
melted provolone cheesescored as Provoloneproteinfat 3 umami 3 salt 2 soft melty+15

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

How to raise it

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