the older-school-looking places also offer a “pepper and egg” variety, which is entirely new to me

 

At my old hang out in Bridgeport, they use to make me a egg and pepper grinder. Think of the peppers sauteed in olive oil, then scramble a few eggs in with it, S&P to taste.

 

Peppers and eggs — the real late night snack.

 

Four years later, I’ve finally gotten around to trying a pepper and egg grinder!

 

The origins of this sandwich appear to be religious: it’s a meatless Lenten option that exists in Chicago, Boston, New York, and other places where Italian-American Catholics are heavily concentrated. One TripAdvisor review for good old Franklin Giant Grinder stated:

 

I can still remember my first time as a child going here with my father over 40 years ago. He bought a Pepper and Egg grinder and I had some. Over the years I have other grinders and their pizza and it’s all really good, but when I ever get a chance to go to this place I don’t even have to think about it, I’m ordering a Pepper & Egg a bit of extra peppers, some sauce, a splash of oil and cheese in the oven. To me it’s perfection on a plate, a huge plate by the way.

 

For years I’ve tried to figure out what makes it so damn good and it differs from all the other scrambled eggs on a roll or near attempts at dense eggs on bread. One day it hit me, the incredibly dense egg is very similar to Egg Foo Young in density, but a bit drier. I believe they do it in an oven with a bit of less liquid than other recipes that are done in a pan.

 

Whatever it is, it’s out of this world. There is no other like it.

 

… well, now, how could I go anywhere but Franklin for my first taste of that?

 

 

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from a sandwich whose basis was “merely” peppers and eggs… but this surprised the heck out of me. It was astoundingly good. From what I could see and taste, it was done in exactly the same manner as what that reviewer described, and if you believe him, it hasn’t changed in decades.

 

 

Dense egg indeed, with the peppers cooked right in, all coated with the same sauce and cheese that you’d get on their chicken or eggplant parm. I’m not Catholic, but I could see myself ordering this repeatedly and not missing meat one bit – it’s that good.

 

Just for fun, I snapped a couple of pics from behind the counter, because why not?

 

 

No clue what kind of meat this was. I couldn’t see clearly enough. It looked beautiful, though.

 

 

The adventure continues…