What's For Lunch: Grinder Salad

With Everything Including Hots

Picture this: It’s late July. You’re going to the beach with friends and after you’ve gathered everyone and loaded up the car, you hit the road. There’s one more stop to make: lunch. You stop at a deli halfway between your house and the beach. Enough to get some distance and feel like you're on the road but not enough that you’re almost there. You go to the counter and order an Italian with everything including hots. (Jalapenos and Banana Peppers for the uninitiated) While the stoned college kid behind the counter loving crafts the sandwich, you wander around the store deciding what to get with it. Chips and a drink to be certain but what kind? Kettle? Cape Cod? Barbeque? Salt and Vinegar? Should you all go in on a big bag or each get little ones? Is it a day for a big bottle of Polar seltzer in your desired flavor (Grapefruit) or a peach snapple or a lemonade? Should you try the new drink you’ve never seen before? Or, is this a day for not deviating from the norm? On a hot summer day in America, should you drink an ice cold Coca Cola? Whatever decision you end up making, the man behind the counter hands you your sandwich, wrapped in white paper and held together with tape. You hold it in your hands anticipating the moment you open it. 

Once you arrive at the beach and find a place, you begin to unpack, eyeing your sandwich the whole time. Beach blankets are spread out, books that won’t even be opened are handed over, sunscreen is generously applied. Once everyone has settled in, the person closest to the bag doles out lunch. You open your chips and drinks and finally the moment arrives. Cut in half on Italian bread, is an artfully stacked array of meats and vegetables. Ham, Salami, Huge rounds of Pepperoni, Gabagool, Provolone. The first bite is pure bliss. All of the flavors coming together. Spicy, Salty, Sweet, Crunchy, Soft, Wet, Dry. It’s all there. The paper it was wrapped in functions as both napkin and plate as you eat. Catching the refuse that falls. That’s the price we pay for a perfectly crafted sandwich. Man could not create a sandwich so perfect that there was no refuse falling out. But even the refuse is perfect. 

Recently on TikTok, a recipe has gone viral for Grinder Salad. A recipe that attempts to make the refuse into its own dish. A pre-mixed version of the thing that we thought we could only get through the process of making and eating the very sandwich it is named for. The “salad” is designed to be made and placed on the sandwich or eaten by itself as a dip for chips. It’s an ingenious invention and perfect for the home cook who desires the feeling of those days at the beach, without the whole ordeal of going to the beach.