Pulled Pork Perfection

Pork is a great sandwich staple and I enjoy a good ham sandwich as much as the next person. It’s classic, straightforward, no-nonsense meat that pair well with all kinds of mustards, cheeses and pickles. For a refresher on this concept and some inspiration to get you started, check out an earlier post from 2014, 3 Parts Mustard/2 Parts Pickles/1 Part Ham.

But it’s always fun to change it up and try something different and it’s even better when you have some outside help. So I must give the majority of the credit for this sandwich creation to my husband Mike, since it was his kitchen-wizardry that came through in a big and tasty way when we made our own Pulled Pork Sandwiches, on some fresh-from–the-bakery bread, topped with some lovely caramelized onions.

Pulled Pork Perfection, in 3 stages

To make your own Pulled Pork Perfection, you will need:

Leftover Pork Shoulder Meat, shredded

1/2 cup White Vinegar

1/4 cup Red Wine or Cider Vinegar

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Water

1/4 cup BBQ Sauce

1/4 cup Ketchup

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbsp Spicy Mustard (heaping)

Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste

Caramelized Onions (optional)

Sandwich Bread, thickly sliced

Smells so good!

Prep:

1-Shred the pork meat with two forks and put in a pot on the stove.

2-Add the three kinds of vinegar.

3-Mix the water and sugar together and pour over the meat and vinegar.

4-Bring to a boil, uncovered for 10 minutes.

5-Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and let out the steam. Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point.

6-Mix the BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and mustard.

7-Pour sauce over the pork, mix and reduce heat.

8-Top with some fresh ground pepper and caramelized onions. They’re optional, but a very nice touch. Simply heat the sliced onion in a skillet with some olive oil and stir until they soften and brown slightly.

9-Assemble the pork and onions into sandwiches.

10-Serve warm and enjoy!

This pulled pork is tangy, sweet and just a touch spicy. You can always adjust the quantities of the vinegars to suit your tastes and play with different types of mustards and breads. It would pair really well with a cool, crisp coleslaw or salad. Think classic deli-style. Yum.

This is a great way to use up leftover pork shoulder meat from a Sunday dinner. It works well with bread and wraps stuffed with whatever you like. And it freezes well too. So with all that going for it, what’s not to be excited about?

Micky's Deli or The Best Pastrami Sandwich in Paris

You’d think that after living in France for over 7 months, I would have learned by now not to go exploring on an empty stomach.

Alas, I must be a slow learner! Poor me…#firstworldproblems

But with its countless boulangeries, crêperie-carts, and sandwich shops, it’s not hard to find something to eat while out and about in the City of Lights. Plus, being hungry can lead to discovering some pretty fun places that one wouldn’t normally find when already fed and watered.

Micky's Deli, 23 bis Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris

Such as Micky’s Deli, a bustling little Kosher deli-restaurant in the Jewish Quarter of Paris in Le Marais, one of my favorite areas in the city because of the amazing, medieval architecture, the windy, uneven cobblestone streets, and its fascinating history. 

It's home to the incredible Centre de Danse du Marais, the Musée Picasso, and countless boutiques, shops, cafes and restaurants, like our spontaneous find, Micky's Deli. The first time I went there, it was after exploring the nearby Musée Carnavalet, which is “dedicated to the history of Paris and its inhabitants…from the prehistoric times to the present.” It’s a fascinating place and well-worth your time to explore, especially if you’re feeling a bit ‘gallery-ed out’ by all the other amazing museums Paris has to offer. While looking for a place to eat, I was starting to get a bit impatient…okay, hangry…but I’m glad I hung in there while Mike and I wandered down Rue des Rosiers and stumbled upon this fun place to eat.

One sandwich, two plates. Perfect for sharing!

It was already packed with the late-lunch crowd when our server squeezed us in, but a busy place is often the sign of a good restaurant and we didn’t mind the tight fit one bit. The air was warm and thick with delicious smells, animated conversations and laughter in multiple languages and North American pop-music. We perused the menu and decided to split the pastrami sandwich and fries.

Good thing we agreed to split it because it’s huge!

It’s least 2.5 inches thick of warm, melt-in-your-mouth slices of pastrami, barely contained by two slices of fresh bread. The fries were great too – just the right balance of crispy and greasy – classic diner fries. I alternated plain bites with bites spread with a layer of spicy, sinus-clearing mustard (the best kind!) and enjoyed, what I believe is, the best pastrami sandwich in Paris.

But sometimes when you’re ridiculously hungry/hangry, things can taste better than they actually are. That’s when I decided I owed it to myself to go back, test it again, and make sure it really is as good as my satiated appetite decided it was. So I returned a few weeks later with a friend and promised her an excellent sandwich experience.

Salmon Bagel and Fries

Micky’s did not disappoint either of us. She ordered the salmon bagel, which even when cut in half was as big as my head, and I got the pastrami sandwich all to myself.

Yup – still huge, still melt-in-your-mouth, bulgingly-thick and super filling. But I should have been hungrier, since then I probably could have finished the whole thing by myself.

Alas, I’m a slow learner when it comes to the correct empty-stomach/fed-and-watered balance. I just have to keep trying to get it right!

#firstworldsandwichproblems 

The Best Pastrami Sandwich in Paris

For more about pastrami sandwiches, check out one of my earliest posts, The Mighty Pastrami.