Sherman's Food Adventures: Hubbub Sandwiches

Hubbub Sandwiches

It appears that the gourmet sandwich craze just won't go away. In fact, I'm not even sure if it really is a fad after all. In addition to the existing joints and chains, the specialty sandwich shops continue to chug along. I guess it really shouldn't be a surprise. Sandwiches are not intimidating, portable and quick to eat. Oh, they should generally be inexpensive as well; but that is a thing of the past with the addition of premium ingredients and funky storefronts. Heck, even the humble Mexican torta sells for $10.00 and up here at Las Tortas. I guess Vancouverites are willing to pay for Meat and Bread, which incidentally is the namesake of one of the better sandwich joints in town.

And now we can add Hubbub Sandwiches to the mix. Located smack dab in the middle of Downtown, Hubbub is primed to service the lunch hour crowd. With that in mind, Whipping Girl suggested we do lunch since their Prawn Sandwich came highly recommended. All of Hubbub's sammies start with a toasty baguette consisting of pickled jalapenos, creamy garlic sauce, romaine, cilantro and a strip of crunchy caramelized onion. Hence, there is quite the flavour punch due to these ingredients with a combination of spicy, tang, sweet and savoury. I thought the sweet snappy prawns worked nicely in the sandwich, however, there were a few issues. First, I found the baguette to be far too hard which made the sandwich a bit difficult to eat. Secondly, that made the ingredients squirt out, which made for bites of bread with no ingredients. One suggestion would be to double-up on the prawns.

For myself, I ordered the Pork Sandwich that consisted of 24-hour marinated pork which then was slow-roasted. This was a solid offering. The meat was nicely textured and full-bodied in flavour. For me, the standard items in all the Hubbub sandwiches worked the best with the pork. From the sweet crunchy onion to the pickled jalapenos, the pork meshed with everything and was well-balanced in flavour. I think the depth of the meat stood up to the other ingredients. For good measure, I also got the Turkey Sausage Sandwich. They really loaded up this sucker with tonnes of sausage. I do realize that sausage is a whole lot less expensive than prawns, but I think the amount of filling made this sandwich more satisfying. The prawn seemed a bit empty in comparison. The herby and slightly spice sausage also worked well with the standard ingredients. Lastly, we shared a Clean Coleslaw for our veggie kick of the day. It was unique tasting with the combination of 2 types of cabbage, mint, cilantro and sunflower seats. Full of unique flavours and refreshing. Definitely something different. As for the sandwiches, they were solid and as whole, tasty. The one thing I would personally like to see is softer bread.

The Good:
- Loved the standard ingredients in every sandwich
- The sandwich is actually quite filling
- Simple and focused

The Bad:
- For us, the bread is too hard and dry

Hubbub Sandwiches on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

Nolan Matthias said...

I wish the gourmet sandwich craze would hit Calgary. We have nothing like this, but would absolutely love it. Next time I am out in Van... Next time.

Sherman Chan said...

@Nolan Like most crazes, it'll come!

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