Today I ate a “Chicago Bulls”. It was pretty good, but it’s one of the most unusual sandwiches I’ve ever eaten—if sandwich is the right word.
I was walking down a street in the centre of Naples and I passed a burger bar. At least, I thought it was a burger bar until I looked more closely at the menu on the wall. On closer inspection, the menu appeared to show a choice of six sandwiches. I was overdue a feed and always like to try new things so I ordered a Chicago Bulls sandwich and waited for it to be cooked.
I didn’t have to wait long. Five minutes perhaps. I doubt it was much more. Then, with an air of pride, the guy handed me my meal. Actually “handed” is not quite the right word. He knew I was a foreigner who had never tried this kind of food and he kind of presented it to me and, I have to say, seeing the sandwich hanging out of its box, it looked really nice. Though I have to admit it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever felt like my meal was sticking its tongue out at me.
The establishment in question appears to be called Maccheese. The menu also says “Frit Tate”. That may or may not mean omelettes. It all depends on how accurate Google Translate is on this matter.
What I do know is, my Chicago Bulls contained pulled pork and bacon croccante (crispy bacon). The menu told me so. It also said “salsa burger”. That means sauce burger, but I have no idea if it contained one or was one. I’m guessing the latter.
I was not sure what to expect when I first bit into the Maccheese Chicago Bulls sandwich. It was the two discs that formed the top and bottom parts of the sandwich that intrigued me the most. They looked vaguely familiar, but I had no idea what they were.
After I’d taken a bite out of the sandwich and examined the damage my teeth had done to the discs, I initially thought they were made of rice, but just for a second. Then I thought noodle. In the end, it hit me. They must be spaghetti. This is Italy, after all.
In all honesty, I enjoyed my Chicago Bulls sandwich and found it a lot more filling than a normal burger. I have to keep making the comparison to burgers because the Chicago Bulls has an appearance that has more in common with a burger than a normal sandwich.
Obviously, I became curious about the company behind this unusual sandwich. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find out anything online about Maccheese. I’ve seen at least two Maccheese shops in Naples, though. For all I know, there could be Maccheese sandwich shops all over Italy. Anyway, it’s good stuff. If you get the chance to try one of the company’s unusual sandwiches, don’t let the opportunity pass you by. These spaghetti-type sandwiches make a nice change from run-of-the-mill burger and fries.
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