81 HISPANO: tuna, piquillo pepper, hard boiled egg and mayo

My sandwich has a first name: It's H-I-S-P-A-N-O. My sandwich has a second name: It's -- oh, wait, it doesn't have a second name. So maybe I would have been better off with a Jim Croce allusion. It got a name. It got a name.

Yes, we have come to the "gourmet" section of the menu, featuring named sandwiches and chapata bread. I didn't get this right away, but soon enough after first seeing "chapata" on the menu I figured it was Spanish for ciabatta, and I figured a quick Google search would bear this out. Not so fast, it turns out -- the Webiverse is surprisingly quiet on the subject. There are hints here and there, but nobody seems to have tackled the topic at length, and I'm left unsure whether it's the same bread or whether chapata is a Spanish twist on the recipe.

Anyway, it's good bread, not necessarily better or worse than the non-"gourmet" bread at 100 Montaditos, but different. A nice change of pace. And it's a good foil for the simple and tasty Hispano sandwich.

Montaditos down: 81
Montaditos to go: 19
Next: 82 ROMERITO: shrimp, bacon, hard-boiled egg, arugula and honey mustard

26 Tuna, fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo

You know how I said the 24th montadito at 100 Montaditos tasted like a good ol' "tuna-fish sandwich"? Well, looking at the menu description, you'd think this would garner that description. But not quite. It was just bland. Salt and pepper on the tomatoes would have helped. Maybe "ali oil" instead of mayonnaise? I guess what I'm saying is that No. 26 is a lot like No. 21, which it should be, since they're pretty much the same. Sometimes this menu needs an editor. If only I knew an editor.

Montaditos down: 26
Montaditos to go: 74
Next: 27 Philly steak and cheddar cheese

25 Tuna, fresh tomato, pepinillo, arugula and ali oli

This is one nice tuna sandwich, with all the additions bringing something to the table. The pickles. Yum.

Montaditos down: 25
Montaditos to go: 75
Next: 26 Tuna, fresh tomato, lettuce and mayo

24 Tuna, fresh tomato, arugula and mayo (whole-grain bread)

Arugula isn't a traditional accompaniment, but this sandwich more than any of the others in the tuna category just screamed "tuna-fish sandwich" to me. Very American, which is pleasant but maybe not what you're after when you go to 100 Montaditos. Maybe it was the whole-grain bread. The mayonnaise, of course, contributed to the effect.

Montaditos down: 24
Montaditos to go: 76
Next: 25 Tuna, fresh tomato, pepinillo (pickles from Spain), arugula and ali oli

23 Tuna, piquillo pepper, crispy onion and ali oli

OK, OK, so I was definitely hasty on the tuna-hate. This was another solid tuna offering from 100 Montaditos. Aioli and crispy onion are naturals with tuna, and the piquillo pepper was a nice touch as well.

Montaditos down: 23
Montaditos to go: 77
Next: 24 Tuna, fresh tomato, arugula and mayo

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

21 Tuna, fresh tomato and mayo

And now we reach the tuna section of the menu. (And the "special" section!) I was curious: Does that mean tuna salad? Canned tuna in some other form, like the high-quality stuff I was served in Madrid that time? Or could it possibly mean an actual slab of beautiful red meat? 

Alas, it was a disappointing least common denominator: Canned tuna, but neither in salad form nor high -quality. The mayonnaise, I guess, made for a mix-your-own-bite-by-bite version of tuna salad. 

I read years back a little treatise by David Rosengarten about  how you should never pair tomato with tuna, and I bought it -- until that lovely tuna-and-tomato platter in Madrid. On this sandwich, I didn't mind the tomato. I could have gone for any number of Subway-style toppings to dress up that just plain canned tuna.

This section of the menu might be rough.

Montaditos down: 21

Montaditos to go: 79

Next: 22 Tuna, hard boiled egg, piparra and mayo