And the girl and the sandwich lived happily ever after.

I turned 36 on Monday. I was not feeling super excited. My original plan was to order pizza and sit on the empty floor of my new 225 sq foot apartment that I am moving into this weekend. But that is kind of lame. So, my sister organized a dinner out. I picked Kenny and Zuke's new place, SandwichWorks, because I knew it would be good and inexpensive.

Right after work I stopped by my parents' house to pick up a mysterious present they had for me. It was an oven! A countertop convection oven for my new place. I will need it, as I have only two burners, a mini-fridge and no oven! Excited. Yes I am.

And, as it happened, my sister, in a fit of generosity, bought me a super nice (for me, the inexperienced photog) digital camera. NOW I CAN TAKE PICTURES FOR MY BLOG! I am elated that I can free myself from the dark shadows of my camera phone. And how exciting that sandwiches are the first thing I get to photograph.

So anyway. I love the new space at SandwichWorks. So open and airy and the garage doors/walls were open, so it was practically like eating outside, which was perfect on such a lovely day. The guy behind the counter was so nice, checking with us a couple of times to make sure we knew that we had to order at the counter, since we were sitting at the table already. (We were waiting for a few people.)

I had decided that morning that I was going to order the Super Torta Puebla with roasted pork, black beans, chorizo, avocado, mayo, cheese and chipotle salsa on a hoagie. I had also decided that since it was my birthday, I was going to order extra pickle. They gave me THREE! Happy birthday to me!

The sandwich was freaking beautiful. And tasted as good as it looked. It tasted spicy and not overwhelming. It wasn't falling all over the place, but a succinct bite of spicy, smooth, creamy, well-loved - as if it were some strange thing that was born like that, all together and all wrapped up in a chewy hoagie roll, instead of a swaddling blanket.

Sis ordered the reuben sliders, which turned out to be pretty regular sized and delicious. I tasted the crunchy vinegary coleslaw as well - as always at Kenny and Zuke's, fabulous. Everything was great - but I'm pretty sure that my sandwich was the best.

It was the highlight of the night - my favorite part. I want to go back to SandwichWorks to try other things, but I don't know if I can stay away from that sandwich. It. Was. Seriously. Awesome.

P.S. How do you like the pics? You can see more pics of all the different sandwiches on my Flickr account. I don't know how to work the camera yet, really, so please excuse the blurry ones. I'm learning.