87 TIRITITRAN: philly steak, brie cheese, crispy onion and mustard

Wait: I've tasted this before. Yes, it's obvious.

Cheap gray beef? Check.
Onion? Check.
Mustard? Check.
Small, softish square white bun? Check.

It's White Castle!

Now, the What You Crave cheeseburger would come with American cheese, not brie, but no matter. The brie works here -- as it does pretty much everywhere else, in one of the biggest surprises of my 100 Montaditos adventure.

You could also call this a Krystal cheeseburger, and indeed you could argue that the mustard-without-ketchup points not to White Castle but to its Southern counterpart.

In case you're still wondering, all this White Castle talk is to praise the Tirititran, not to bury it. I love White Castle. I love Krystal. I could see this sandwich making my playoffs.

Not sure about that name, though. It sounds like something  Beavis would shriek. "Tirititran! Tirititran!" And, really, if this is going to be a named sandwich, what's wrong with Harold or Kumar or Haroldkumar?

Montaditos down: 87
Montaditos to go: 13
Next: 88 TORERO: lomo (dry cured pork loin), manchego cheese and green pepper

86 PEPITO: brie cheese, garlic pork loin, piquillo pepper and arugula

I keep saying the garlic pork loin is different every time, and this example was, uh, no different. Or, rather, it was a throwback to my first taste of the ingredient -- thinly sliced and very garlicky but otherwise kind of bland.

Brie did not prove to be a good match, either, so even my new best friend brie couldn't rescue this sandwich. This may be the least successful of the "gourmet" montaditos.

Montaditos down: 86
Montaditos to go: 14
Next: 87 TIRITITRAN: philly steak, brie cheese, crispy onion and mustard

79 Anchovies, brie cheese, piquillo pepper and arugula

If there's one ingredient in which I'd invest some hope in taming the mighty anchovy, it's my new friend brie. Unfortunately, I did not get to fully test this hypothesis. The sandwich I was served contained some brie (it's at the right), but most of its cheese was goat cheese, in pearled-crumble form, as the photo shows. (Maybe they ran out of brie and compensated with the chevre?)

I guess I did get my wish of another sandwich with goat cheese.

For the record, this No. 79-with-an-asterisk was better than the previous anchovy sandwiches, though it was still an anchovy sandwich.

Montaditos down: 79
Montaditos to go: 21
Next: 80 Anchovies, manchego cheese, piquillo pepper, arugula and mayo

69 Brie cheese, arugula, crispy onion and honey mustard

I am on record as approving of brie on 100 Montaditos montaditos, and No. 69 is no exception. Arugula, crispy onion, honey mustard and whole-grain bread probably isn't a combination I would have come up with, but it's pretty good. You could do worse for a meatless lunch.

Montaditos down: 69

Montaditos to go: 31

Next: 70 Goat cheese, fresh tomato, lettuce and anchovies

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

61 Chistorra, brie cheese and green pepper

This is one pretty montadito. I've registered my affinity for chistorra and my newfound delight with brie, and those, with the added crunch and tinny-tang-tang of green bell pepper, add up in a pretty straightforward manner.

Montadito No. 61 was, however, the first really messy montadito I've encountered. Ingredients wanted to jump out. Basque separatism?

Montaditos down: 61
Montaditos to go: 39
Next: 62 Chistorra (basque style chorizo sausage) cream cheese and crispy onion

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

46 Chicken, brie cheese, green pepper and crispy onion

This may be the biggest surprise of my tasting experiment thus far. At least it's right up there with the magnificent hot dog.

I never in a million years would have singled out chicken and brie as a potentially awesome combination. But it was a pretty awesome combination. The chickeny chickeniness of the chicken and that creamy brie. The crispy onion may have helped. The green pepper? Sure, why not.

Oh, did I mention that the Spanish music was back? Did I ever mention that it went away? Sigh. Probably not. At some point after the first week or so, the traditional and appropriate soundtrack at the 100 Montaditos franchise in the Near Southeast/Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront/SoCHill (South of Capitol Hill) district of the District of Columbia switched from the music you'd expect to Miami-nightclub-disco-midnight-Saturday-teenage-dream. Or something. I'm not the world's biggest fan of Spanish music, but that's what I want to hear if I have to hear music at 100 Montaditos. I can hear crap music plenty of other places. (Yes, I am old. And perhaps white.)

Montaditos down: 46
Montaditos to go: 54
Next: BBQ pulled pork, cream cheese, bacon and ali oli

28 Philly steak, brie cheese and arugula

Brie? Arugula? Really? It's as though 100 Montaditos is telling Rocky Balboa to go f--- himself.

Now, I've never been a fan of brie, even in more brie-appropriate dishes. By which I mean pretty much all other dishes. So I'm prepared for a gustatory disaster in addition to the philosophical one.

But, you know, this isn't bad. The brie is full of creamy goodness -- maybe my brie experiences date back to my sort-of-picky-eater days. If I can't have Whiz or provolone or American cheese, I'll take it over the previous sandwich's cheddar. And the arugula helps alleviate that something's-missing feeling.

Still, that meat. Maybe call it something else? I'm thinking it's not even an actual cut of beef -- it seems more like the shaped-slurry kind of product you find at Arby's and in gyros. I don't hate it, but I am tempted to put quotation marks around "Philly" and "steak."

Montaditos down: 28
Montaditos to go: 72
Next: 29 Philly steak, cheddar cheese, piquillo pepper and crispy onion