PDX Sandwich Week 2022 - Day 7

Sandwich Week Day 7 (of 7) was intended to knock out one of the most appealing of the Sandwich Week offerings: The High on the Hog offering from Laurelhurst Market, on East Burnside (about 1.5 miles from my place, directly up Burnside Ave. from where I live).

Laurelhurst Market was only offering their special during lunch service, and both my Portland State U friend and I had each noted this previously as a sandwich of interest.

Neither of us had been to Laurelhurst Market but had both read/heard good things, so all aligned for this to be a do-over of the Friday evening Sandwich Week attempt.  All went to plan Sunday midday for arrival at Laurelhurst Market, on a scorcher of a heat wave day no less, to have their Sandwich Week offering on their outdoor covered patio.

So per Sandwich Week, the High on the Hog breakdown:

What's on it?: Spiced & smoked pork loin, radicchio, giardiniera, Italian salsa verde, and crispy fried onions on a toasted bun.

The Inspiration: We aim to balance flavors and textures in our sandwiches and this is no exception. The spice from the pork rub and giardiniera is cooled by the radicchio while the assertive flavor of smoked pork is counteracted by the sharpness of capers in the salsa verde. This sandwich eats great right away but also travels well if you prefer it to-go. 

We each ordered the sandwich week special, as well as a side of fries to share and each a beer.

The beers were served on the spot and we got a buzzer to come back to for the food. 

 

 

 

 And food was ready within 10 minutes or so of ordering.

Overall eat experience was good, albeit hot and kinda sweaty despite their canopied outdoor patio with multiple fans running.

As for the sandwich itself, it hit the spot, but first note overall was that it was a cold sandwich, not hot.  That was not expected given the description.  Otherwise it was a solid eat, but I do have a critique of their crispy onion strings, which for my sandwich's execution ended up being mostly fine strips of oily red onion that I had originally thought was part of a slaw, before re-reading the description that veg component was not a slaw but just radicchio.  I ended up pulling out most all of the individual red onion strips from the sandwich.  

Otherwise the giardiniera was present, but not sure about their termed "Italian Salsa Verde."  There was a heat element to the sandwich but I am guessing that was from the peppers in the giardiniera.  And also, I keep wanting to type the word giardiniera to try and get to the other side of pronouncing it correctly, consistently...

I am appreciative of the offering from them for getting me to their establishment, and I do plan to go back and check them out in the future for either lunch or dinner.  I saw quite a few others eating there eating sandwiches that were NOT the Sandwich Week offering, which tells me that their set menu must have a bit of a following.

We wrapped up pretty quickly on account of the outside temperature headed towards upper 90s.  And as we were headed on for more adventure -- specifically, for the soft opening weekend of a new Great Notion Brewing (my favorite PDX brewery) location on SE Division. :)