Num Pang

No. 7 Subs, my favorite sandwich place of all time, has some competition.  Num Pang is a Cambodian sandwich place that I have heard about enough to become immune to it.  However, I never walked past it and always forgot to seek it out so it so I figured it just wouldn't end up making it into the rotation.  What could be so special, anyway?  Oh how wrong I was not to make it my business to try this place.

I always thought Num Pang was a downtown place - the food is just funky enough to make it a staple with the below 14th street crowd.  And it is.  The first location is around Union Square, but apparently they opened a second location near Grand Central on 41st between Lex and 3rd that's nice and close to my apartment.  I was running errands on Saturday and Grand Central was my subway station of choice.  On my way to the train I was struck by a pang of hunger just as I was passing Num Pang and thought it was the perfect time to finally try it.

Every sandwich on the menu looked unique and delicious.  Such interesting combinations of items you normally wouldn't find in tiny take-out sandwich places.  Unless you count McDonald's filet o'fish (and I don't), it's not normal to find seafood sandwiches in standing only spots, and certainly not local bluefish.  Though the fish looked good, as did the pork belly and even the vegetarian options, I decided to go with the seasonal special when the guy at the register told me it was good and only available for a few more weeks.

Like all the sandwiches, this one came on a baguette with pickled carrots, cucumber, cilantro, and chili mayo.  That cilantro popped right out of the spicy mayo.  Cilantro is a strong flavor, but it's completely welcome in these sandwiches.  So that stuff comes on all the sandwiches, but the main ingredients were grilled peaches with hand-cut bacon, a guiness maple glaze, sauteed scallions, and jalapenos.  The peaches were super sweet and so summery.  Fruit is the new meat, people.  (Though it didn't hurt that there was some yummy bacon on there, too.)  You've probably tried peach salsa so you may have an idea how well this fruit can pair with spicy ingredients, but these items were much sweeter and far spicier than in your typical salsa.  Intensify the flavors, intensify the awesomeness.

It was rather spicy so I washed it down with a nice cup of their homemade blood orange lemonade.  I may have gone through a couple wet naps in the process, but I can't wait to go back and work my way through the whole menu.