The Sandwich Challenge

Family friends were in town from Australia, so we organized a sandwich challenge at my sister's place to see who could make the best burger, hot dog, sandwich or sub.

Eight of us from 3 families were treated to five creations from 4 participants of the cook-off. Let me now share with you our wonderful experiences and the results of this challenge . . .

Honourable mention goes to the dual creations of Kong Bak Pau - a muffin with Chinese style roasted pork belly and cucumber, and Veggie Burger - homemade corn bread topped with whole mushroom stuffed with homemade salsa. The muffin would make for a hearty breakfast, while the veggie is an excellent appetizer.

The second runner-up is Pate de Otak - barbecued spicy fish paste with cheese spread and cucumber in a toasted hot dog bun. This tasty dog will be a mighty good breakfast !

First runner-up position was awarded to Blasphemy - Focaccia bread with maple-mustard beef and fried mushrooms, topped with Feta cheese. This good sized sandwich is full flavoured and will make a great main course or a big snack.

And the winner is . . . Mandarin Boat - a duck sub sandwich. Starting from the bottom-up, half a baguette is coated with garlic butter & toasted, on goes lettuce leaves , then a pan grilled patty of hand chopped duck breast with a bit of chicken leg, garlic, onions, pepper, hoisin sauce & red wine, and flambe with Absolute Mandarin vodka. The top half of the baguette is toasted and spread with a thin layer of marmalade (one of our visiting friends was able to pick out the taste of orange marmalade on his first taste of the sub; what a highly developed sense of taste he has !). Lettuce leaves are cut into sail shapes and attached with long wooden skewers to complete the look of an ancient boat. To accompany the Mandarin Boat, we have an escort longboat with peeled Korean tangerine wedges and pickled onions.