Seventh is the Ham & Cheese. What a staple of sandwiches, an absolute classic, and Pittsburgh has a unique history with ham, because we like to have it chipped.
It tastes so much better than it looks.
Chipped Ham is when you take a pressed ham, which is a very processed meat, taking lots of irregular pieces of ham and forcing it all together and binding it into a single slab of meat. It's very popular in old timey ethnic European neighborhoods, especially among Slavic communities. So you take that pressed ham, and you have it shaved, or as it's said in Pittsburgh, chipped. That's slicing it as thin as you possibly can. So thin it's translucent. It starts to rip really easily and the amount of surface area involved enhances the flavor in ways that deny explanation. It's delicious and savory and filling, and great. I've tried to get it in other cities, even when you can find Isaly's pressed ham, but nobody understands why you'd get ham sliced so thin, and they usually struggle to slice it as thinly as you'd like it to be, because they think it's a mistake, but it isn't and when you can get the real stuff, it's great.
So imagine my disappointment when I found the extremely bland ham at Primantis.
I also forgot to get it on the heel. It only made it worse.
There was no flavor there at all. You got a touch more salt because it's ham, but there was no other flavor to it. It might as well have been the egg sandwich again, it was that disappointing.
Behold disappointment.
This was not even a disappointment because there was not enough meat. There wasn't a weak flavor that I wanted more of, there was no flavor at all. Just coleslaw and french fries and the sensation that I was chewing meat, but couldn't taste it.
I really enjoy ham sandwiches, too. Those post-Christmas and post-Easter leftover ham sandwiches are great. Tear a few pieces off a spiral sliced ham and throw them on bread and you have a good meal. Hell, I like just pulling a peace off and eating it as is. This sandwich failed to capture any of that.
Total disappointment. There was nothing positive to say. It wasn't awful. But it had no flavor. It was pointless.
Taste: 3 It's not there. Might as well get it without meat. I didn't hate it, but it was pointless.
Satisfaction: 3 Disappointment, but it was more satisfying than the Egg and Cheese.
Flavor: 0 It wasn't there. Pointless.
Enjoyable: 2 Why bother?
Pittsburghness: 0 There should be a Chipped Ham Sandwich. THERE SHOULD BE CHIPPED HAM!
Should I Get This Sandwich? No. Under no circumstances is this worth your time.
Ranking:
Pittsburgher Cheese Steak
Hot Sausage
Genoa Salami (Double Meat)
Jumbo Baloney
Three Cheese
Ham
Egg
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