Not Lee's Sandwiches

I love me some Lee's Sandwiches. Specifically grilled pork, "Number 5" I like to call it. I love that sandwich. Fatty gristly pork, pickled carrot and radish, cilantro, jalapeno slices and some kind of mayonnaise. Not to mention dirt cheap. Seriously, what's not to love? What is that mayo stuff anyway? That's what I really wanted for lunch today. Well, that and one of those coconut raisin croissants. That my friends is good eatin'. But that wasn't meant to be. Instead I made do with this.

1. carrot and daikon pickle
2. spicy marinated pork cutlet
3. rice
4. mint and basil leaves
5. banh mo

About that pickle...Lee's Sandwiches is kinda chintzy with the toppings. You literally get 1 stem of cilantro and a couple of strands of the pickle on each sandwich. Not that you can really complain at $2.50 a pop, but still. Anyway, I always ask for "extra pickle" and the cashier/order taker person -always- feels compelled to tell me that it's not the sort of pickle that I think it is. Then I'm forced to explain that I understand what it is and that I really do want extra on my sandwich. It's really more bother than it's worth and rarely results in any appreciable difference on the sandwich. But there is hope! As you might can imagine, I was pretty freakin' excited to find it at my local Asian megamart this week. More about my LeeLee love later - in the meantime I bought a big old bag of this stuff (apparently called do chua) yesterday and I think I've eaten enough to satisfy any "pickle" cravings for the next couple of months.

Not sure how I feel about the pork. I don't think I care for the texture of pork cutlet. It was like the pork equivalent of the chopped "steak" that your parents always ordered for you at the local steak house because you were just a snot-nosed kid and rib eyes were for adults. But I digress. Pork shouldn't be mushy. It's wrong. I think I'll try this again with real meat, the marinade was incredible.

Pork Marinade

1 T brown sugar
1 T soy sauce
1 T white vinegar
1 T fish sauce
1 t sambal oelek
1/2 t ginger/garlic paste
thumb sized chunk of lemongrass - smashed and cut in half

This amount was plenty for a two-serving sized piece of meat. I only let it marinate for about half an hour because that's all the time I had. Not sure that it would have been a good idea to go longer with that weird meat anyway, but you of course will use real meat.