88 TORERO: lomo, manchego cheese and green pepper

 

I'm not sure whether this was a stealth menu change or a mistake, but I got piparra (mild peppers from Spain) instead of green pepper. Which is fine with me. Piparra -- essentially pepperoncini -- is one of my favorite ingredients, and it made for a good sandwich. Not great, but good.

Montaditos down: 88
Montaditos to go: 12
Next: 89 PIRIPI: garlic pork loin, bacon, cheese, fresh tomato and mayo

59 Chistorra, hard-boiled egg and piparra

After the sneak preview of montadito No. 5, I was eagerly looking forward to the chistorra section of the menu. And No. 59 did not disappoint, though (menu editor?) all it is is No. 5 plus hard-boiled egg. Nothing wrong with hard-boiled egg, or No. 5, so there you go.

(This time the sausage was cut up a little, which I suppose made the coexistence with hard-boiled egg a little less slippery.)

Montaditos down: 59
Montaditos to go: 41
Next: 60 Chistorra (basque style chorizo sausage), bacon and piquillo pepper

22 Tuna, hard boiled egg, piparra and mayo

OK, perhaps I spoke too soon about the tuna. I liked this one. Piparra makes everything better, and egg is a better friend to tuna than tomato is.

Sooner than with the shrimp section, the tuna section of the 100 Montaditos menu came around. Or maybe I was just in a really good mood when I tasted this sandwich.

Montaditos down: 22

Montaditos to go: 78

Next: 23 Tuna, piquillo pepper, crispy onion and ali oli

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

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

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

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