The 'Liz Lemon' sandwich

There are moments, while you watch TV or a movie, where you say "Man, I wish I could eat what they're eating" or "Wow that sounds like a great thing to eat!". Eg: any New York style pizza, all the pie on Supernatural and sandwiches on 30 Rock.

That is a moment I had while watching season 6 of 30 Rock. Episode 8 has Liz Lemon talking about what would be in a sandwich named after her..

Turkey, pastrami, Swiss, russian dressing, coleslaw and potato chips. 

Yes. By god I wanted to try that. I hadn't even tried pastrami but I wanted that sandwich. I'm very easily led by food. You could trap me with a slice of pizza if you were hunting me.

I couldn't resist showing the sandwich already

So today I set about to make this glorious Liz Lemon sandwich because who knows when I'll get to New York for a food holiday. I wonder what the actually name of the sandwich would be? The Liz. The Liz Lemon. THE LIZ LEMON OF SANDWICH AWESOME.

First I hit the deli for the turkey and pastrami. I figured, before getting the subtitles for the episode, that Liz did mean turkey AND pastrami over Turkey Pastrami. That sounds silly and I want two types of meat on my sandwich anyway. I found turkey and pastrami easy enough in the deli section of my local Woolworths supermarket. I'm pleased we (Australia) are getting more imported and delicious foods in from other countries. Turkey really isn't a thing I've tried a lot of or believe is popular here.

Sadly I didn't find any Swiss cheese in the deli. That was weird. They should have all the cheeses. I simply made due with a packet of Swiss from cheese section. I do love the cheese section.

I decided against making my own coleslaw because effort. $4 worth of premade coleslaw later and I was happy enough.

Potato chips were $2 a packet. They knew I was coming.

Now was the harder part. The russian dressing. I had NO idea what it was. A quick google search and I found this recipe for it on SBS Australia funnily enough. You can view it here with their Rueben sandwich recipe.

This is apparently horseradish. OK.

I managed to get everything but that damn tabasco sauce! I knew I forgot something. The sauce I made did work out pretty well without it. It has a slight hot kick to it yet is smooth and oniony? Garlicy? I have no idea. It reminds me of thousand island dressing and I love that stuff.

Now to the sandwich build. I spread the russian dressing on a plain white roll (I couldn't find Rye or sourdough easy today), put all the meat and cheese on, piled on the coleslaw and crunched some potato chips in the sandwich.

I made two sandwiches. One for taking photos of and the other for eating while taking photos of the other sandwich.

Overall the sandwich is well balanced. You get all these tangy flavours that work well together somehow. The salty pastrami counteracts the dry turkey, the salt from the chips softens the tang of the coleslaw, the russian dressing spices it up a little and brings the whole sandwich together. It's a symphony of Liz Lemon and rejoices in her funny and weird ways.

It's a great sandwich. I highly recommend putting potato chips on all your sandwiches.