20 Shrimp, fresh tomato, piparra and mayo

That's a lot of mayonnaise. This 100 Montaditos offering put me in the mind of a club sandwich, although really all it had in common with a club sandwich was that mayo and the tomato, and I suppose the toasty bread. 

And I can't say it was bad. Tasty, in fact.

So think of a pretty decent shrimp club sandwich, hold the bacon, and with roasted red pepper standing in for lettuce. 

Montaditos down: 20

Montaditos to go: 80

Next: 21 Tuna fresh tomato and mayo

19 Shrimp, lettuce, fresh tomato, pepinillo and mayo

Ah, yes, the pickles from Spain. Just when I was growing disenchanted with the shrimp section of the 100 Montaditos menu, these pickles that they speak of (sweet gherkins, basically) make for the tastiest yet of los montaditos de camarones.

I might even order this one again someday.

Montaditos down: 19

Montaditos to go: 81

Next: 20 Shrimp, fresh tomato, piparra (mild pepper from Spain) and mayo

18 Shrimp, lettuce, piquillo pepper and ali oli

This is the first appearance of piquillo pepper on the 100 Montaditos menu, and I am here to report that it's pretty much the same as the now-ubiquitous-in-America "roasted red pepper."

And it works nicely with the casino-shrimp-cocktail shrimp, though I have to say I doubt I'll be revisiting the shrimp section of the menu once I've finished my first hundred.

Montaditos down: 18

Montaditos to go: 82

Next: 19 Shrimp, lettuce, fresh tomato, pepinillo (pickles from Spain) and mayo

17 Shrimp, lettuce, crispy onion and caesar dressing (whole-grain bread)

This is a big moment: Our first bread shift! Whole-grain! And it's not bad at all. I think I prefer the regular bread, but this is nice for a change.

Crispy onion is always a good thing, and the lettuce didn't assert itself as much as it did in No. 16. There was some sort of dressing or mayonnaise or aioli, but I wouldn't have identified it as Caesar if I hadn't know it was supposed to be Caesar.

Overall, the sandwich is on a par with No. 15, maybe slightly superior.

Montaditos down: 17
Montaditos to go: 83
Next: 18 Shrimp, lettuce, piquillo pepper and ali oli

16 Shrimp, lettuce, hard boiled egg and mayo

This may be the first dud I've experienced at 100 Montaditos.

I like the idea of the hard-boiled egg, but I saw it more than I tasted it. Maybe a little more salt? I'm not sure I'd ever use mayonnaise if I had "ali oil" at my disposal. The shrimp were lost. The lettuce was the predominant flavor. And "hard-boiled" needs a hyphen.

Bright side: The bread shines through in a case like this.

Montaditos down: 16
Montaditos to go: 84
Next: 17 Shrimp, lettuce, crispy onion and caesar dressing

15 Shrimp, lettuce and ali oil

This 100 Montaditos sandwich is a little wan-looking, with a pinkish hue, as George Constanza would say, or like a cherub's bare red ass, as Liz Phair would say, but it tastes just fine.

These are not expense-account-steakhouse-shrimp-cocktail-grade shrimp; they are Las Vegas-$1-shrimp-cocktail-grade shrimp. You get what you pay for, and there's nothing wrong with an inexpensive crustacean now and again. 

Montadito No. 15 makes me nostalgia for the days when the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino was a cozy joint full of frugal downtown gamblers, not a glitzy frat-boy wet dream.

And, of course, there are more cheap shrimp montaditos on the way. Bring 'em on.

Montaditos down: 15

Montaditos to go: 85

Next: 16 Shrimp, lettuce, hard boiled egg and mayo

14 Meatballs,manchego cheese and piparra

 I guess I'm a sucker for piparra, because once again the presence of that pepper elevates one of the 100 montaditos at 100 Montaditos. The cheese and tomato don't hurt either.

This is right up there among the best of the meatball sandwiches.

Montaditos down: 14
Montaditos to go: 86
Next: 15 Shrimp, lettuce and ali oli

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

12 Meatballs,manchego cheese and green pepper

I appear to have encountered my first kitchen error: The meatballs-manchego-cheese-and-green-pepper sandwich contained no green pepper.

It did contain either a light dose of the aforementioned marinara sauce or a heavy dose of the aforementioned pan-con-tomate-tomato-rub-only-with-canned-tomatoes. Again, tomato is a good thing in a meatball sandwich. And cheese? Of course. But meatballs actually stand a chance of working pretty well with green pepper, so I'm a little disappointed, good though the sandwich was.

I guess I will have to order this one again, and insist on the green pepper, to give it an accurate review.

Montaditos down: 12
Montaditos to go: 88
Next: 13 Meatballs, bacon and arugula

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.

10 Meatballs, crispy onion and marinara sauce

There's something about a meatball sandwich, and this is no exception. By which I mean, I guess, that there's something about this one.

The meatball sandwich is something that even Subway can't screw up. If I have to eat at a Subway, that's one of my two standbys, that and the tuna. Stay away from those flavorless cold cuts. (Have I mentioned that one of the things I like about 100 Montaditos is that it's the anti-Subway? You order a montadito and you get that montadito -- none of this "Yes, mayo, no, no mustard, hey, wait, maybe some green peppers, NO, WAIT, NOT THAT MUCH OF THE GREEN PEPPERS ...")

Anyway, 100 Montaditos makes a darn good meatball-with-marinara-and-crispy-onion montadito. The marinara is suitably spicy, and the crispy onions are a nice touch. There's a place at Eden Center that makes a meatball banh mi I like -- this was reminiscent.

And there are more meatball montaditos to come. I'm looking forward to them, though I'm a little wary of giving up the marinara sauce.

Montaditos down: 10
Montaditos to go: 90
Next: 11 Meatballs with bacon

09 Tortilla española, fresh tomato, green pepper and mayo

I was curious as I got to this point in the menu, where the ingredient "green pepper" first shows up. What does 100 Montaditos mean by green pepper? Is this the straightforward American usage, meaning green bell pepper? I was hoping it wasn't, because I'm not a big fan of that ingredient beyond a few applications.

But it was -- raw green bell pepper -- and it was fine. This was also the first appearance of fresh tomato on the menu, and the overall effect was very "veggie." (As it happens, this is the first sandwich in the Veggie Collection.)

This just in: My colleagues at The Post are trying to upstage me. If you want to read about all 100 sandwiches right now (spoiler alert!), here you go. 

Montaditos down: 09

Montaditos to go: 91

Next: 10 Meatballs, crispy onion and marinara sauce

08 Tortilla española, manchego cheese and piparra

This sandwich was a sleeper.

The tortilla was much smaller and much more crumbled than my previous tortillas. I'd guess this is because some investment is going into the cheese, but the manchego is barely noticeable -- more of a background note. And then, those peppers.

The peppers loom large, because this is a bland-bland-BOOM sandwich. Bland egg, bland cheese, BOOM pepper, and it works extraordinarily well together. The combined effect, oddly, is like tasting a really nice egg-salad sandwich.

Montaditos down: 8
Montaditos to go: 92
Next: 09 Tortilla española, fresh tomato, green pepper and mayo

07 Tortilla española and chorizo

This review will be particularly bite-size. I liked the tortilla española. I loved the chorizo. What could go wrong? Not much. The combination could be discordant or it could be overkill, I suppose, but neither problem presents itself here. This is very good.

Oh, I told you I'd discuss quantum theory, didn't I? Well, we're already at that point. I'm making my way through the 100 montaditos at 100 Montaditos three at a time (carry the 1), and I'd rather not eat, say, three chorizo-based sandwiches in one sitting. But the way the menu is set up, after the original five montaditos, the numbers start to go in clusters by main ingredient. No. 6 through No. 9 feature the tortilla española, No. 10 through No. 14 feature meatballs, and so on.

Hence the quantum numbers. The first two rows fill in horizontally . . .

1	2	3
4	5	6

. . . but then 7, 8 and 9 need to be separate, and so we need to go vertical ...

1	2	3
4	5	6
7
8
9

. . . with the next numbers filling in where they can, subject to their own limitations . . .

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	10
8	11
9	12

. . . such as the fact that 13 and 14 don't play well with 10, 11 or 12 . . . 

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	10
8	11
9	12
13
14

. . . and so on.

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	10	15
8	11	16
9	12	17
13	18	21
14	19	22

What this means for you is, well, pretty much nothing, unless you're really into 99 Montaditos blog trivia (and if you are, I'm very concerned). The next review you see will be of sandwich No. 8, but the next sandwich I actually 8 ate was No. 10. Fascinating, huh?

Montaditos down: 7

Montaditos to go: 93

Next: 08 Tortilla española, manchego cheese and piparra (mild pepper from Spain)

06 Tortilla española with ali oil

I'm a big fan of the tortilla espanola. For the uninitiated, it's nothing like the tortillas we know from Mexican food -- it's a scrambled-egg concoction, like a very thick omelet, usually with sliced potatoes. I even have a pet peeve regarding the tortilla espanola: I want mine at room temperature or even cold, not warm and certainly not hot.

Anyway, I was a little skeptical about the sandwich version, but my fears were unfounded. This is good. The aioli (garlic mayonnaise, basically) that's customarily served with the tortilla is put to good use, though 100 Montaditos calls it "ali oil," which makes me think of Luis Sarria.

Montaditos down: 6

Montaditos to go: 94

Next: 07 Tortilla española and chorizo