82 ROMERITO: shrimp, bacon, hard boiled egg, arugula and honey mustard

This Spanish sandwich on Italian bread in America just screams "Scandinavia." (Romerito? More like Sven!) This is what I picture eating for lunch in Stockholm or Copenhagen. It's cool, it's dainty. There are no strong flavors or saturated colors.

I like the pairing of shrimp with bacon (though this sandwich could have used a little more bacon). That's what I'm expecting in the "gourmet" section: Ingredient combinations and even ingredients that haven't shown up earlier. This is a successful sandwich all around.

Montaditos down: 82
Montaditos to go: 18
Next: 83 VIKINGO: smoked salmon,hard boiled egg,pepinillo (pickles from Spain) and mayo

68 Brie cheese, bacon and green pepper

Brie may be the main ingredient here, but this is one unapologetically bacony bacon sandwich of bacon.

Did I mention there was bacon?

I have complained on a few occasions of 100 Montaditos montaditos promising bacon and delivering either scant bacon or undetectable bacon, but there is no doubt that there is bacon here. Along with the brie, my new favorite thing, it reminds me of ... something. I'll think of it someday. It's good, but it's a departure. If you like bacon, it's, I dunno, how would H. Ross Perot put it? Like a hula girl in a NASCAR pit crew on bobblehead night. Yeah, that's it.

Montaditos down: 68
Montaditos to go: 32
Next: 69 Brie cheese, arugula, crispy onion and honey mustard

60 Chistorra, bacon and piquillo pepper

It's hard to go wrong with chistorra (Basque-style chorizo sausage). This one is again cut, and that helps the formation of the beautiful orange grease spot. The piquillo pepper is a nice touch. Bacon? I didn't notice any bacon, but I fell down on the job and neglected to look for it. So I can't tell you whether they forgot it or whether it just blended into the background.

Montaditos down: 60
Montaditos to go: 40
Next: 61 Chistorra, brie cheese and green pepper

54 Garlic pork loin, brie cheese and bacon

The garlic pork loin keeps being a wild card for me. No. 54 was better than No. 53 and much better than No. 32, but it wasn't as good as No. 52. The bacon helped to amplify the bacony flavor of the pork loin, but I tasted a lot of garlic. I didn't notice brie at all.

Montaditos down: 54
Montaditos to go: 46
Next: 55 Garlic pork loin, piquillo pepper and mayo

47 BBQ pulled pork, cream cheese, bacon and ali oli

If I had thought to sit down and handicap the 100 Montaditos menu before I started this blog (that would have been a good thought, now that I think of it), I'm sure I would have flagged montadito No. 47 as a crowd pleaser. The ingredients are a little redundant -- barbecue pork and bacon? Cream cheese and aioli? -- but they're redundant in such a way as to make darn sure that this sandwich is a crowd pleaser.

And this sandwich, it turns out, is a crowd pleaser. Or at least a me pleaser.

I'm not sure I got any bacon. I think I got aioli, but I didn't taste it. But this sweet barbecue pork together with cream cheese (both making their debuts on this blog, by the way) is a winner. Crowds will be pleased; I'm sure of it.

Montaditos down: 47
Montaditos to go: 53
Next: 48 BBQ pulled pork, cheddar cheese, lettuce and mustard

40 Burger, bacon, lettuce, fresh tomato and mayo

This one strikes me as dum. So dum I'm not even going to bother to type the b.

It got better on later bites, though, which brings up an interesting point about the structure of these 100 Montaditos montaditos. That's not a big hinge of bread, and so sometimes some of the ingredients get stuck in the crook. In this case, the extremely bland gray burger was all I got on the first bite, but the sandwich worked better when I could get all the ingredients together. Not great, but better.

Still, there's really no call for a hamburger montadito. Let's move on.

Montaditos down: 40
Montaditos to go: 60
Next: Hot dot, ketchup and mustard

39 Burger, cheddar cheese, bacon, crispy onion and chipotle alioli

We now come to an odd section of the 100 Montaditos menu that I have to conclude -- though it isn't labeled as such -- is intended as the children's menu. In fact, I'm just going to give these hamburger- and hot-dog-themed montaditos that label.

Now to the first of the two burgers. Man, that is one ugly gray nugget of beef. And the taste is pretty similar to the look. Now, if they had called this meatloaf instead of a burger, I'd buy it. And it would probably taste better. So that's the trick here: Think "burger" and you'll be disappointed. Think "meatloaf" and, well, if you like meatloaf, you might be in luck.

This, by the way, is the first appearance on the menu of chipotle aioli, or "chipotleaioli." (Why it's not "chipotle ali oil," I don't know.) The bites with this new condiment were my favorite bits of this meatloaf, er, burger.

Montaditos down: 39
Montaditos to go: 61
Next: 40 Burger, bacon, lettuce, fresh tomato and mayo

33 Blue cheese, bacon and arugula

Bacon? There was bacon? You know blue cheese is an assertive ingredient when you find that it can upstage bacon.

Meanwhile, I have to say that 100 Montaditos didn't wimp out on the arugula this time. I can respect that.

Montaditos down: 33
Montaditos to go: 67
Next: 34 Blue cheese, anchovies, lettuce and fresh tomato

13 Meatballs, bacon and arugula

Well, darn, that's two errors in a row. This was another good sandwich, with meatballs, bacon and the aforementioned tomato product, but the arugula was nowhere to be seen.

Another one I'll have to order again.

Montaditos down: 13

Montaditos to go: 87

Next: 14 Meatballs,manchego cheese and piparra

11 Meatballs with bacon

Now, that is one crowd-pleasing description. Who, at least among us non-kosher meat eaters, wouldn't love meatballs and bacon?

And, indeed, it's a good sandwich. My tomato concerns were even alleviated to some degree -- this sandwich appears to use canned tomatoes as a rub for the bread as in pan con tomate. Good idea, and I have nothing against canned tomatoes.

But a tomato presence isn't marinara sauce, and I sure do like marinara sauce. So I don't like No. 11 nearly as much as I liked No. 10.

And a curiosity: As I tasted this montadito, I noted that, boy, this bacon sure is salty. And then I'm like, salty in a very specific way. A way that I recognize. Wait, I know this! It's . . . anchovies! Yes, anchovies. I will have to try this montadito again to see whether that was a feature or a bug.

Montaditos down: 11
Montaditos to go: 89
Next: 12 Meatballs, manchego cheese and green pepper.