05 Chistorra and piparra

While the ordinary chorizo at 100 Montaditos is served sliced, the Basque version is presented in cute-little-link form. It's good -- smoky and sweet, and reminiscent (in a good way) of the "smoky links" I grew up eating. The pepper, also sweet, is like pepperoncini, and it's a perfect accompaniment. These are little slivers of the pepper, so I'm reasonably sure that even those averse to such foods would not mind them here, though not so sure that I would bring this montadito home to the missus.

Montaditos down: 5
Montaditos to go: 95
Next: 06 Tortilla española with ali oil

04 Lomo

If I hadn't known I'd ordered lomo in my latest visit to 100 Montaditos, I'd have mistaken the meat in this sandwich for a higher-grade version of ham, perhaps jamón Ibérico rather than jamón Serrano. And, well, "cured pork," ham, potato, potahto, though this montadito contained neither potatoes nor potahtoes.

This is a nice sandwich, though a little hard to eat. The translucent slices of goodness resist biting and tearing, and so you might end up just sliding one off with your bite of bread. Worse things have happened.

Montaditos down: 4
Montaditos to go: 96
Next: 05 Chistorra

03 Salchichón

Eh. I'm actually a big fan of this sausage, with its beautiful fat globules and its firm texture, but the 100 Montaditos sandwich struck me as neither here nor there. If I wanted that texture, I'd go for No. 2, chorizo. If I wanted that saltiness, I'd go for No. 1, Serrano ham. 

Don't get me wrong: It's not a bad sandwich. But it definitely ranks third among the three I've tried thus far.

Montaditos down: 3

Montaditos to go: 97

Next: 04 Lomo

02 Chorizo

I like chorizo, but I don't love it. If I get a board o'meat at a tapas place, I'll go for the jamón first and then the salchichón and finally the chorizo. So when I reached for montadito 2 of 100 at my local 100 Montaditos outlet, I figured it would be a rote checking-off of one of the standards.

But I was wrong. I know I'm only, uh, 2 percent of the way through this endeavor, but I can say right now that No. 2, chorizo, is a giant among tiny sandwiches.

This is a smoky, deeply flavored chorizo that leaves a beautiful burnt-orange oil slick on the bread. I know it makes an appearance later in the menu, and so I'm looking forward to Nos. 7, 56, 57, 58, 67 and 84.

Montaditos down: 2

Montaditos to go: 98

Next: 03 Salchichón

01 Serrano ham

Finally, it's opening day at the new 100 Montaditos franchise in Washington, D.C.! The one less than a 10-minute walk from home! Delayed by an errand, I walked in at 11:03 a.m. rather than the opening time of 11, which apparently made me the second party to be served.

As I intend to tackle the menu in order, more or less (stay tuned for the quantum mechanics of achieving variety as the ingredients begin to get clustered), my first order was "1, 2 and 3." It was amusing that the lady at the counter had to have me repeat that. (I'll be ordering three at a time, more or less, but blogging about one at a time. I was correct in my estimation, based in part on the calorie counts, that three sandwiches per meal is about right. That's especially true given that I now know that they throw in a pile of potato chips.)

No. 1 is No. 1 for a reason: Jamón is huge (juge?) in Spain. And jamón Serrano is a go-to -- not the very best, but very good. And 100 Montaditos' jamón Serrano is ... very good.

The ham is salty, as it should be. The unknown quantity, given that this was my first bite of a montadito, was the bread. The chain calls it "baked to order," a claim I found highly dubious, but now that I've tasted it, it makes perfect sense.

What you get when you get a montadito is a brown-'n'-serve roll. Clearly they're dealing with par-baked rolls and a toaster oven of some sort. It's good for what it is, but, well, it is what it is. I've been known to bake up a loaf of Pillsbury bread-in-a-tube for my supermarket-ham-and-muenster sandwiches, to I'm not going to get all snobby about this sort of bread. It's not a crusty, authentic roll with the breaking-glass quality I experienced in Barcelona, but it's also never going to be a stale crusty, authentic roll. The question mark will be how it holds up in a to-go order.

Serrano ham is the classic montadito, and I thought it was going to be my go-to montadito, but you know what? I'm not sure it will be. The blank slate that is this good-for-what-it-is bread might be better served by more complex ingredients. The other breads that show up later on the menu might be stars. We'll see.

Montaditos down: 1
Montaditos to go: 99
Next: 02 Chorizo