This little place makes some really great sang-witches. One day my wife and I went over there and picked up five different selections and brought them over to my parents so we could all try.
We tried the Louisiana Lightning (grilled cajun chicken with lettuce, tomato, onion and spicy stealth sauce), the Reuben (my favorite of them all), the Stealth (roast pork with lettuce tomato onion and stealth sauce), the Philly Cheesesteak, and the Big Steer (essentially a cheeseburger sandwich). All were excellent, but the Reuben really stole the show, with the Big Steer and Louisiana Lightning coming in close behind. Perhaps the Super Steak would have been the better choice than the regular Philly, as it comes on toasted garlic bread!
Louisiana Lightning:
Philly Cheesesteak:
Reuben:
Big Steer:
Stealth:
TJ’S HERO SHOP
524 Mastic Rd.
Mastic Beach, NY 11951
I whipped this bitch up after a surprise trip to the Mosner family meat processing plant for a tour and butchery class. Check out my write-up of that shit HERE.
Once we got home, I was itching to try some of what we just worked on, so I took the stew meat scraps and threw them into the slow cooker with some apple shit and some spice shit.
I set it on low and slow. Four hours later the result was amazing. My wife and I threw it onto a sandwich with some pickled cabbage and a spicy mayo. Check out the recipe below assholes:
What you need:
about a pound, or pound and a half, of pork stew meat
apple moonshine or brandy (3/4 cup)
can of apple sparkling water (12oz) or apple juice
one serving of apple sauce (unsweetened – 4oz)
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 cloves of garlic (cut each into thirds or quarters)
1 small to medium sized onion (halved)
kosher salt to taste
crushed red pepper to taste
cloves (about 10)
1 small cinnamon stick
fresh cracked black pepper to taste
handful of baby carrots, sliced thin
shredded cabbage
white vinegar
mayo
habanero hot sauce or sri racha sauce
sliced jalapeno
sub/hero bread
THE MEAT
1) Mix the apple sauce, apple brandy, and apple sparkling water to use as a braising liquid base. Add to the slow cooker.
2) Drop your stew meat into the slow cooker.
3) Add salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, and onion into the slow cooker.
4) Set slow cooker to 4 hours on LOW. Mix that shit around every so often while it’s going.
5) When finished, pull out of the liquid and cut the meat into manageable chunks for a sandwich.
NOTE: This meat is going to come out sweet if you go light on the spice, so what I did below was create some extras to balance the sweet with a little kick of spice. Be a man – do it.
THE TOPPING
1) Get some tupperware and put the carrots, cabbage and white vinegar into it.
2) Add some spices as you see fit.
3) Let that shit sit and soak until it’s party time.
THE DRESSING
1) Add habanero sauce or sri racha sauce to mayo as you see fit.
2) Mix.
NOTE: if you have the ability, like my wife did, then you should make your own mayo from fucking scratch. How? Whisk together 1 egg yolk, a little blob of dijon mustard, a little white vinegar, a pinch of salt, a little olive oil, and a squirt of lemon juice until it becomes like a nice aioli. That shit will have a little zing of acid to cut the sweetness and spice of the other sandwich elements.
PUT ALL THAT FUCKING SHIT TOGETHER
1) Toast your bread to your liking.
2) Assemble the sandwich by first dressing each side of the bread with the mayo/aioli.
3) Add your meat and some of the pickled veggie topping. Here’s where you throw on some of those sliced jalapenos.
The crux of this entry is going to focus on two food stops we made while we were here: Morton’s and White House Sub Shop.
My buddy and I flew down like CEOs on a 30 minute flight from Long Island to check out a classic car auction that was going on at the convention center. I won’t bore you foodies with pics of the awesome cars. Instead I’ll get right to the good shit.
Had I known there was an Asian culinary battle going on down there, I would have registered to view/taste. Too bad I didn’t know until it was too late. This was right at the bottom of our elevator bank:
Morton’s
I haven’t been to a Morton’s in a long time but I remember them being really great. My memory served me well. We went to Morton’s on Friday after we checked in. The rib eye was nearly perfect, aside from some bits of inedible gristle. Evenly cooked, juicy, with that signature aged flavor. 9/10.
My buddy tried the peppercorn strip steak. It was great too – really nice flavor, though I would go without the sauce. 9/10.
As a beef eater, I got my typical gin martini, made with Beefeater:
On the side we had some bacon and onion mac & cheese, which was really good. Creamy, good smoke flavor.
We also did a wedge salad – pretty standard:
But the highlight of the meal was the “bacon steak” appetizer. It was soft and tender – don’t let the grill marks and charred looks deceive you in this image. It was thick, smokey, and delicious. We went back for more on Sunday, but they didn’t open until 5pm and we had a flight to catch.
The service here was excellent. Our waitress, Nicole, knew her steak well and made great suggestions to us, and the management was good enough to come over and check in on us to make sure everything was to our liking. The price was right too: at only about $100 each we thought we got a great deal for all that food.
White House Sub Shop
This place is awesome. We went on Sunday morning at about 11am. I went with a cheesesteak loaded with the works: hot peppers, grilled onions, lettuce, and tomato. PACKED with flavor, not too salty or greasy, good quality bread. Just right. And for $8.66 you really can’t beat it. Check out all the pics:
Worst part of the trip: Noodle Bar at Caesar’s. We were excited to go the first time, especially since I saw pho on the menu. Too bad it sucked. It was bland, and the meat quality was low to poor at best. Also WAY too many noodles and not enough meat. Overpriced too, at $16 for a shitty bowl that is much better and costs only $6 in NYC.
On Saturday night we were starving since we skipped dinner and had $2 beers at Mountain Bar instead.
The only place open nearby at 1am, that we knew about anyway, was the fucking Noodle Bar. So we went back in. This time I ordered salt & pepper pork chops. They were pretty good, but I didn’t expect them to be deep fried and DRENCHED in table salt. WAY too salty. I only ate about half after doing my best to dust all the salt off.
Lucky for us, we were able to salvage the night before with a good Bloody Mary at Phillips the next morning.
And some gelato at the hotel lobby:
And when I got home, my wife had this waiting for me – a new custom cell phone case with one of my logos on it. Best wife ever.