Unraveling the layers: The rise of the authentic gangster sandwich

The sandwich is humanity's greatest invention. Quick and simple to make, it combines the tastiest elements. Step into sandwich heaven! Are these six elements present in warm, cold, sweet, sour, crunchy, and soft? If so, you already know the secret to indisputable deliciousness.

Our menu always features a beef sandwich. It was once called What’s the Deal with Your Beef? but disappeared for two years and returned, so now it’s called the Authentic Gangster.

The meat is an aromatic stew with a deep flavour, cooked overnight, and it has several excellent companions:

• The sharp taste of onions. Raw, pickled, crunchy, or roasted – it doesn’t matter onion, onion, onion.
• Parsley leaves. They are the most refreshing of all herbs.
• The delicious acidity of everything fermented. Often sauerkraut or kimchi. Fermented food is normal, not an element of some dreary, healthy diet. Coffee and vinegar, chocolate and cheese, beer and bread are fermentation products.
• Manioc, from which we make chips. Why not potatoes? Manioc contains twice as much starch, making it super crunchy with a much richer, sweeter, more robust flavour.
• Mayonnaise with sauce. The day before the opening of The Sandwich Shop, we cooked the beef for the big day and were DEVASTATED that we didn’t know how to soak the wonderful sauce produced during cooking into the sandwich. A moist filler like in "Friends"?

That didn’t work. THEN IT HIT ME! We evaporated the liquid until we got a thick beef paste and poured it into the mayonnaise, and that’s how we’ve been doing it ever since. Every kitchen newbie is told: "Do this until it resembles chocolate sauce."

To make the Authentic Gangster sandwich, you will need:

• Max’s original and best focaccia,
• braised beef,
• sauerkraut,
• caraway seeds (sprinkle on the cabbage in the sandwich),
• parsley leaves,
• lightly pickled onions,
• manioc chips,
• mayonnaise with sauce.

The recipe comes from the book "The Great Book of Sandwiches"