mushroom mayhem

Being a vegetarian, your BBQ and sandwich options often get omitted or dumbed down to a portobello mushroom. Don’t get me wrong. i LOVE mushrooms. All kinds of shrooms in fact. It’s just that after the bland, original garden burger paved the way, portobellos were the successors as the go-to bun-filler option for veggies. But now there are so many amazing meat-free patty creations out there {see my Ode to Roam post} that a portobello in between a bun hardly excites my tastebuds. However, I recently came across two incredibly flavorful mushroom burger/sandwiches that knocked my socks off!! Diverse in texture, rich in creativity and overall mouthwatering. The first was at WaterCourse Foods in Denver. A po boy of all things:
A crispy polenta encrusted portobello mushroom cap on a home-made bun topped with chipotle and coleslaw. With a side of sweet potatoes and washed down with a local microbrew. BOOM!! Shroom Sandwichgasm numero UNO!

The next mushroom sandwich breakthrough comes from San Francisco star, The Sentinel. A small outpost in SOMA serving up a quite an array of continuously changing sandwiches, salads and lemonades. There’s always a line down the street and you know that means it’s GOOD! Yesterday I gorged on the BBQ mushroom sandwich with mustard coleslaw and goat cheese. It was SO SO SOOOO GOOD. So good that I didn’t want to wash my hands afterwards in order to get whiffs of the sweet and tangy BBQ sauce throughout the afternoon. I know, it’s sick. ANYWAYS, unfortunately the pics I have are pretty terrible, and definitely do not do it justice, but here they are:

And there we have it! Shroom Sandwichgasm numero DOS!
I didn’t really taste any goat cheese, maybe that’s for the best. And it didn’t come with a side dish or beer to wash it down (even though I definitely could have slammed a Blue Moon) it’s just an incredibly creative and satisfying sandwich! I believe it’s on the menu all summer long, which means I will most definitely be coming back for more. Maybe I can get a side of that BBQ sauce to soak my hands in…

Meals like these truly attest my herbivore beliefs that there are SO many delicious things in the world to eat. Meat does not have to be one of them!

*sidenote: Not to be overlooked, a good bun, relative to the contents inside can also make or break a good sandwich/burger.