My Food Reviews on Foodiespr.com

It was an honor to be invited to be a food writer for foodiespr.com.  You can see my reviews in Spanish, and English on http://www.foodiespr.com/author/sara-dunphy/.  I write about food made in my area: the Northwest area of Puerto Rico.

Learning to Love: The Journey

I want to learn how to love as unconditionally as my mother-in-law loves her parents.  Her childhood was not the best, and I have seen so many people grow up with bitterness against their parents, even when their own childhood was not half as bad as hers.  Yet, she chooses never to highlight the bad, only speaking good of them.  Never accusing, or blaming them for anything, even though she suffered because of their actions.  This is, to me, the very definition of unconditional love.  I have asked her how she does that, how she is so loyal to them, and her answer is simple: “Because they are my family.”  In her mind, regardless of what they may do wrong, family is part of one’s self, and should be shown love.

I would like to learn how to just love people because of who they are, and stop subconsciously loving them more or less based on how much I consider they deserve it.  Usually, if I see a person who only thinks selfishly, my respect, and love towards them decreases.  It’s like I need to have a reason to love someone, like so-and-so puts others first, so they deserve to be loved.  However, that is most certainly conditional love, depending on their behavior, and attitudes.  I have no problem, treating strangers politely, and treating certain people with love.  However, I really need to work on treating with love, and sincerely loving, those who I (am supposed to) love, but do not like.   For example, those whose personalities do not click with mine , or whose opinions differ greatly from mine, and actions just do not match up with my “standards”.  Looking in, I notice I can be judgemental, when one strives for excellence, they start making the mistake of seeing what others should work on.  In my own quest for excellence, I must cease to do this, and work on myself, and just focus on loving others.

This brings me to explain what this “journey” will be.  I have made the decision to leave much of my life behind to live with my mother who is battling breast cancer.  This trip will be my quest for learning how to love unconditionally. Going somewhere I was not looking forward to going. Leaving my comfort, to be with those who I love but don’t like. I have put up walls, I am used to just watching from a distance what is happening, making it easier to have my walls up, with that convenient little window to look thru.  However, love means tearing down those walls, and opening up my heart to the severity of what will be going on around me.  I have a hard, and sometimes rebellious heart.  God promises to take that heart, and replace it will a heart of flesh, which will truly feel how He means it to.  I am bracing myself, because this seems like it’s going to be a time when I will be tested, and frustrated, and probably desperate.  I know I will become, very dependent on God.  He is the one who shaped my character, He taught my how to let go of my fits of rage, and anger problems back in Summer of 2002.  It looks like 2012 will be a lengthy course on unconditional love.

My Quest for Physical Self-Improvement

I have always been conscious of the value of healthy eating, sleeping, and exercising habits. I know that if I am a person of excellence I must strive for that in every area of my life.  Though I probably eat healthy more times than not, having good sleeping, and exercising habits weren’t my strong point.  This is how I knew that they were exactly the areas I needed to work on if I wanted my body to get back into balance.  However, what made me decide to start exercising was seeing this eye-opening image stating the benefits of exercise.

Benefits of Exercising

What really called my attention was how it helped migraines, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.  I have been very thin my whole life, so I was not looking to lose any weight.  Quite the contrary, I wouldn’t mind putting on some pounds.   At 5’4” the most I have ever weighed has been 109lbs., so there is still room in my BMI to grow.  As it happens, the same fast metabolism that has kept me thin my whole life, has also been responsible for my migraines, PCOS, and my mildly fatty liver.  Without getting in the tedious details of how the endocrine system controls what happens in our bodies, I will try to explain this as briefly as possible.  Ok, maybe not brief, I am rarely brief.

From what research I have done, I learned that a fast metabolism means that you burn your food faster because your body releases more insulin that drives the glucose (from food)  into the cells for energy.  Sounds great at first, right?  I could literally eat everything I wanted, and any amount I wanted, and I wouldn’t gain weight.  Besides that I was always eating, because I was always hungry (low blood sugar caused by so much insulin).  However, that same insulin was the cause for the migraines I would get almost immediately after I would eat refined sugar.  It was also the cause for my menstrual irregularities, which I never gave much importance to until I was married, and off the pill, and wondering where my period was for 6 months (and no, I was not pregnant).  During those 6 months, some test were done showing ovaries with cysts.  Then, there was the gallbladder attack.  The test to see my gallbladder also revealed a mild fatty liver, which may have been a result of all the excess estrogen in my system. (The liver is responsible for eliminating the excess hormones in the body.) At the point of my gallbladder attack I was also jaundice, so my liver was not in the best conditions.  So, this is where my fast metabolism, (and love for carbs) had led me: I was 21 years old, thin as always, but my health was not in the best shape because my hormones, controlled by the thyroid in charge of the metabolism, were out of whack.  So, I began looking for ways to restore my health, natural ways.

First things had to be first, my doctor wanted to remove my gallbladder, I had other ideas.  I googled it (of course), and apparently there was a gallbladder flush.  After gulping down a nasty mixture of extra virgin olive oil, and lemon juice, away went most of the stones!  (I’ve got the ultrasounds to prove it.)  I still had the liver issue, the migraines, and the PCOS.  I began learning what I should eat, and what I shouldn’t.   This helped avoid at least those migraines brought on by my diet.  About the PCOS, I began taking a natural supplement, vitex, which did help.  I went from going 6 months without a cycle to having consistent 35 day cycles, something I had never had before.  I was also taking dandelion root tea for my liver, and I noticed, the pain in my liver went away.

In all this, I didn’t give exercise a chance, I figured the natural supplements were good enough.  What I didn’t realize is that this just served as, exactly that, a supplement to a healthy life style, which needed to include exercise.  The supplements were not meant to be taken forever, there needed to come a point where my body was enough in balance to sustain itself.  When the time came,  I started to look for other alternatives, and I found that image.  I knew my father never wanted to go a day without working out, and when he had to it would literally make him sick.  I thought: “Maybe that is what I am missing, maybe my body needs exercise to keep its own balance”.  I figured it was time.

My husband had been doing P90x for quite a while, and was about to start again.  I suggested I join him the next Monday to start off.  I want to point out, I believe when one does exercise, it should be with a goal in mind.  My goal?  Excercise at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week.  I did not want to lose weight, I did not want to “look better”, I did not want a six-pack.  My only complaint was a distended lower abdomen, caused by PCOS.  I just wanted to exercise to bring my body into balance, and I knew it would take care of everything else.

My distended abdomen due to PCOS, and yes, this is without sticking my belly out

I began P90x without being able to do 1 push-up.  After the first, and most painful week, I noticed I was able to do 1 then 5 push-ups, and still improving.  My heart rate doesn’t go so high as it used to, meaning my heart is working more efficiently.  My migraines are abolished, and if I notice one is about to start-up, I just start doing jumping jacks, getting the blood flowing prevents it from happening.  Most importantly, my hormones are being balanced, I don’t wake up with that pain on my ovaries, my cycles are regulating, going to 28 days (which is how it should be).  I remember reading about how in Eastern medicine, PCOS, and reproductive disorders were caused by stagnant blood.  That may be the truth because I have seen improvement, and it makes sense.

Along with these improvements, exercising has led to other healthy habits.  Due to our schedules, my husband, and I could not find a decent time to work out after work.  We found the best time would be to exercise before work, around 8 am.  Of course, this means we have to be in bed earlier than 12am, way before that, preferably.  Thus, without meaning to, we have been able to improve our sleeping habits as we have wanted to for so long.  Additionally, I’ve read that going to bed early helps your liver, so added bonus there.  Also, if we go to bed early we are no longer going out to eat at fast foods late at night.  Since we workout in the morning, I can use the evening to cook, so that we eat something good, but not too heavy before 8 or 9pm.

We are now starting the second month, and though I only mean to workout 30 minutes per day, I usually end up doing the whole hour or hour, and a half (when it’s Yoga).   It is true, I do not always wake up eager to excercise, but I begin anyways, and the energy follows.  Going to show me that it’s not about how you feel, it’s about showing up, and being committed, and good things will follow.  I notice my abs are starting to show, my distended lower abdomen (result of PCOS) is a lot flatter, and I feel more energetic.  Sometimes I think to myself that the answer has always been staring me in the face.  I am glad, I finally began.  This was not a new year’s resolution.  I never make those.  I make new day’s resolutions, I decide to work on things that need improvement in my life, and everyday I wake up is a new opportunity to do so.

My View of Teaching

I realized that my method of teaching consists of the following: Encourage, and guide the student to grasp their true potential, never control.  I hate when people try to control me, so why would I try to control them?  Also, never under pressure, while some may work well under pressure, in my opinion, few learn well under pressure.  While I am not yet a certified or a licensed teacher, I was practically born with a passion for teaching.

Most likely, it started with the birth of my younger brother when I was 20 months old.  I guess I always felt that I was the one who should help instruct him.   Of course, most the education in my home came from my mother.   My mother was an excellent teacher, she homeschooled all of us during our first years, and she taught me how to read before I was five.  However, I always assumed that I could relate to my brother, and be on his level, mostly because of our age proximity.  I remember when I would always try to instruct him to color inside the lines.  In my home, this was very common with all of the members of the family.  My father would speak to us about complex theories from a very young age, and my sisters were always helping me learn new things.  Learning, in my house was not limited to school or during homeschooling hours, my parents treated learning as something very natural.  Therefore, I always loved putting together the pieces of information I would capture in different places: school, movies, books, etc. I would, then, love sharing what I learned with those around me. Then, throughout most of my life, I have always loved being able to help people realize something, or learn.

I would say I began realizing my love for educating when I was in high school.  My boyfriend’s father, who was a former NYU math professor, was having a difficult time giving math tutoring to his 10-year-old granddaughter.   The reason for not succeeding in this attempt was not the lack of knowledge, but the lack of being able to meet her at a level she would understand or that would spark her interest.  Frustrated, they asked if I would give it a shot.  I did, I sat down with her, and told her to explain what was being taught in the class, and then helped her realize that she already had everything necessary to understand the lessons.  I also focused on the weak areas, mostly the times table, and the results were excellent.  My now father-in-law, always jokes about how everything happened.

I later moved on to be a freelance tutor in the university, mostly for accounting, but I ended up tutoring my classmates in any of the various courses I was taking.  I started working for the university as a Math tutor, however the one hour I had with the students was never enough to be able to help those who were very lost.  The next semester I was hired as an English tutor, which I was hesitant about at first, but  I succeeded with the help of another English tutor who became my mentor and good friend.  I would say that my teaching style started to be set in place while working as a tutor. Even though my major in the university was in accounting, I realized more, and more everyday that I wanted to be a teacher.  Of course, I believe in finishing what I start, so I finished my bachelor’s in accounting, and then took the courses needed to be an accounting teacher (business education teacher).  Mixing the two subjects I loved most.

I love teaching those who are willing to learn, but the challenge is getting them to that point.  While there will always be students who absolutely refuse to learn, most students are willing to learn when something interests them.  I was able to find what sparked the interest of most of them, and used this to teach them.  To get to know them enough to know what interests them, and to go to their level, they needed to feel comfortable being around me.  To accomplish this, I had to be pleasant.  A pleasant personality is usually underestimated.  However, when educating, some students may tune you out completely if they feel you are unpleasant.   Those are the subjective aspects of it, feelings have to do a lot in this process.

Finally, I always think that students learn things that they consider important for everyday life, so I always try, and help them find real life, and daily life applications for their learning. I like showing them that learning is a natural process, in reality they learn everyday without realizing it.

What a Hamburger Should Be

I am just going to open with this:  I am not a meat lover.  That said, a few foods containing meats do attract my attention, and appetite from time to time.  You may have read my review of my much-loved pastrami sandwich.   As I stated, this is one of the foods that stop me from completely being a vegetarian, along with some other fabulous proteins.  Therefore, once a week or so, I indulge in one of these treats, sticking to mainly a vegetable diet the rest of the week. (I cannot deprive myself entirely!)  Now, on to the hamburger!

This might sound backwards, but I start with the bun.  When I first look at a hamburger, what attracts me the most is the bun.  The holder of the entire creation.  Yes, it may just be because us hypoglycemic people are just carb crazy, but if the bun is not right, the hamburger is ruined.  The shape is definitely important, but more than that, it has to be fresh.  So fresh, that when pulled apart, it has to stretch, not crumble. Bread flour is higher in gluten than other flours, giving it the elastic consistency.  Cakes are the opposite, they are meant to crumble, but breads and pizza dough are supposed to stretch, have elasticity.  I always check for that.  If the bread falls apart, it ruins the hamburger.  Also, I never used to notice it, but when the bun is toasted on the grill it makes a big difference.  You get that buttery yellow color on the otherwise pale bun, with the caramelized, crunchy sears from the grill. Amazing! Now, that is a new requirement for the hamburger buns.

Besides the bun, the most important component of the hamburger is the actual hamburger patty.  The meat has to be real meat first of all.  I hate those fake meats that contain some meat, and then meat fillers, and it all looks and tastes too synthetic for me.  While I am not a vegetarian, I do like to eat foods as close to natural as possible.  So, if I am going to eat a hamburger it is going to be real, and real good tasting.  Of course, it has to be seasoned adequately, not too much or too little, just right.  It cannot be too tough, or break apart soft.  It has to have the right texture, because I am very particular about texture.  Even if food tastes excellent, if the texture is not right, I won’t like it. The patty, which I always have to look at from all angles before eating, has to have the sear marks from the grill, not all of them, but I want to know it was cooked on the grill.  And, yes, I order my hamburgers well-done.  I do not order any meat less than well done, I have just always been like that since childhood.  It probably has something to do with the fact that my father loves rare meat, and that has always grossed me out.

About toppings, I am a vegetable lover, so pile on the lettuce, tomatoes, onions (red, preferably), and any other burger-worthy vegetables.  To me a burger looks more appetizing when it has more vegetables. I remember Guy Fieri talking about his meat to vegetable ratio, mine tips the scale in favor of veggies.  I love cheeseburgers, but mostly mushroom-swiss.  If it is american cheese, for me, it should be between two patties so it can melt really nice.  Yes, I have my requirements for cheese, like I do for ketchup.  Ketchup can only go on dark meats, or textured meats.  For me, ketchup does not belong on grilled chicken, breaded chicken maybe, but not smooth meats, it doesn’t go on lunchmeats either.  However, hamburgers are perfect for the application of ketchup.  Oh, and since I usually don’t drink anything with my meal, the foods I eat cannot be dry.  Hence the love of veggies, and ketchup, (mayo is accepted, but not required).

I have to say, the majority of the fast foods (at least the ones I have in my area) do not even come close to making hamburgers right.  I have only tasted my ideal hamburger once or twice, but I do not yet have a place to find them.  Most of the burgers I have tasted fail in at least one of my established criteria.  Thus, falling short of being the ideal burger.  Therefore, I will continue my search for that burger, and when I find it, I will definitely update this post.

 

> June 22, 2012- I think I found it:  It’s called Rock-A-Burger https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rock-A-Burger/160678270714951

Universal Truths

It’s not about being religious, or being a fanatic  it’s about recognizing the universal truths we should live by to have, and enjoy our life.  Because we all know that living soley for personal gain, never leads to happiness.  These truths are those that after you read them somewhere, you realize that you have known that to be true the whole time.  The following is an example of a universal truth:

• Happiness usually promotes health.

Self-Accountability

I’ve always believed that we are responsible for our actions. The life we live now is, in some way, a result of the decisions we have made.  I do not believe in blaming someone or something else for our current situation.  If we were dealt a bad hand, then we should work with what we’ve got.  Yes, I am harsh, but I am a fighter.  Not a person who fights with others, because our quarrel shouldn’t be with others, but against staying stuck in life’s unfortunate circumstances.  Not that I haven’t had to deal with bad situations or haven’t felt discouragement.  It’s just that, I am the kind of person that believes that discouragement just means, you were encouraged to do something else.  So, when things look bleak and hopeless, I don’t whine, complain, and blame anyone, I ask myself: “Can I do anything to change this?” If I can’t then, I move on.  If I can do something to change or improve the situation, I make my plan, break it into doable steps and act on it.  One will never be able to work on self-improvement, until they can be sincere, and take accountability for their actions.  Remember the only person you can control is yourself.

What Being a College Graduate Means (To Me)

I compare graduating from college with being a toddler.  You have been years preparing, but have not been able to practically apply what you have been taught to do.  In the same way, toddlers have the capacity to learn new things, but it is a bit awkward and difficult to actually begin doing day-to-day things.  It’s those fine motor skills that have to be developed.   We go thru that stage again, where we are clumsy, uncoordinated, and somewhat lost.  Where we have to depend on others to teach us, and guide us in the beginning.  We are like this lump of clay that has to be molded. We have the potential, and now we have to actually make that into something tangible. People might think that graduating college means we’ve arrived, but it just means we’ve arrived at the bottom step, and it’s time to start climbing up.

Food Brings People Together

My childhood was spent mostly in restaurants.   The owners of the restaurants most likely regretted having announced: “2 Kids eat free with every Adult entrée”, when my family composed of exactly 2 adults and 4 kids would show up.  My father loved taking our family out to eat, but he wasn’t one to spend a dollar over what he absolutely had to, so he conveniently found all the restaurants where these offers existed.  Thus, at one point in my childhood I clearly remember the following weekly restaurant schedule: Mondays- Rex’s Chicken (similar to KFC), Wednesdays- Shoney’s (all you can eat salad bar), and Fridays- Pizette’s (Pizza Buffet).  Of course by that time I was probably already 8 years old, but my memories of eating out went even farther back.

Ever since I can remember, maybe since I was a tiny 3-year-old living in Tulsa, I remember going to the grand Harvest Buffet where the delights seemed endless, barely being able to look at the food on display, and getting help from total strangers to reach the food I wanted. I remember Po Folks, where Southern and Western foods were always being served.  We weren’t real fast food people, except for the occasional Taco Mayo were the tacos were amazingly only 30 cents!! My father preferred going to restaurants, it was the experience that would bring us together often, and I might say, united us as a family.

No, it was not the restaurant that magically would bring the family together, it was because it gave us all a chance to sit together and share before the food came.  My father felt very strongly about the family always eating together, even at home, he wanted us to all sit at the table and eat together.  I didn’t realize it then, but that was a key to our family unity.

Years later, when we moved to Puerto Rico, even though we were pretty bad off financially, my father would at least take us out to get fried chicken and fries for $1.50 a box, in his effort to continue keeping the family close.  Unfortunately, we were all, fast becoming teenagers, which meant our attitudes, and busier lives were drawing us apart, to the point where we would no longer have any meal at home together.  Everyone would eat when they could, on the couch, or preferably at a friend’s home, and the family times became almost exclusively at restaurants.

Dad found a pizza place where pizza was inexpensive and good, and would find any excuse to pile us all into the cramped, beat up, Ford Taurus to get there.  We also developed a fondness for certain fast foods like Burger King, but later our best-loved fast food spot was Wendy’s.  At one point in my teenage years, we would literally go to Wendy’s everyday.  Even when Mom would cook, we would eat early, and magically be hungry a few hours later, so we could head out to Wendy’s.  If we went out to a church activity or service, you could be 100% sure where we would end up after, no matter how late it was.  We ate out 5-7 times per week, mostly fast food, but at least once a week, we would go to a restaurant.

Dad always had an eye for finding good restaurants.  On one of his work outings, he spotted an Italian Trattoria named Cano’s.  We tried it and fell in love, in fact, my sisters’ fifteenth birthday party was celebrated there, and we stayed as loyal customers. Even, when my family left Puerto Rico after 9 years, my husband and I would continue going there every single week.  He shares my love for good food, so it easily became our favorite restaurant, uniting our tiny, new family composed of 2.

Never had the idea that food brought people together hit me so hard as when I saw my family actually come home for dinner, for the first time in a long time.  At that time, I wasn’t married yet, but my parents were living in the States already.  It was just one of my older sisters, my brother, and I at home.  The reality was there was no one appointed as the cook, all of us worked, so we kind of just fended for ourselves.  I would eat at my boyfriend’s house, where his parents would effortlessly cook up wonderful Puerto Rican cuisine.  Meanwhile, my sister and brother would go to Wendy’s for their daily bread.  Cooking at home was out of the question, the only one who knew how to cook was me, and I wasn’t about to assume that responsibility myself if no one else was going to cook either.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved to cook, and now even more, but at that point I wanted the responsibilities to be shared.  If I was going to cook for us, my sister would have to too.  In the midst of this time in our lives, we became good friends with a man who knew a great deal about cooking.  He would cook for all of us, and have the meal ready when we arrived from work.  The first day he cooked for us, I remember calling my brother to tell him to come home after work to eat.  That was the first time in years, my brother came home right after work just for a meal.  Setting the table that first day, knowing we were all going to sit together, and eat, for the first time in maybe years, made me realize the uniting power of food.

My Favorite Pastrami Sandwich

This is the picture of a Pastrami sandwich gone wrong, read on to see how my favorite is so much different than this one!

I have never really been a meat-lover, I have always said I could be a vegetarian without too many regrets.  However, there have always been certain meats that I cannot imagine leaving: pepperoni, hamburger and most importantly pastrami.

Living in Puerto Rico, there is always a cafeteria or a sandwich shop serving up pastrami sandwiches.  I remember my brother being obsessed with pastrami sandwiches at one time, but my interest in them had not been sparked yet.  At that time the sandwich I would always order was what my friend called a “dairy sandwich” which consisted of only turkey, mayonnaise, and swiss cheese.  I never ordered lettuce or tomato on it because they would heat the sandwich up after the iceberg lettuce and tomato were inside the sandwich. This left the lettuce in the sandwich withered and not appetizing at all.

One time, my boyfriend was talking about how well he made pastrami sandwiches, he made me one which tasted excellent, but when he asked for my opinion I had to let him know that the pieces of pastrami were too big for my taste.  However, his method was good, he would heat up the pastrami with ketchup to make a nice glaze for the meat.  Most importantly, he would add the lettuce and tomato AFTER heating up the sandwich.

By and by, when pastrami was no longer so important in my life, and I had married my pastrami-sandwich making boyfriend, my father-in-law introduced us to “El Truco de Guin”.   I know, I had passed that little bar hundreds of times, but never had I imagined the wonders they were cooking up in that kitchen. “El Truco de Guin” literally means Guin’s Trick, his pastrami became famous because of this “trick”.  The first time I tasted the sandwich, I was hooked.

What was different with this sandwich?  First of all, when we talk about sandwiches here in Puerto Rico we are almost never  referring to sandwiches made on sliced bread.  No, the best sandwiches are made from “Pan Criollo” somewhat like french bread just softer, shorter and wider.  There are two kinds of this bread, one has a soft crust, and is sweeter, and the other is not so sweet and has a hard crust.  The soft crusted bread is perfect to just be eaten the way it is, but the bread used for the pastrami sandwich I am describing is definitely the hard crusted bread.  It has to be, because it needs to hold a staggering amount of pastrami and other ingredients with ease. It can’t fall apart easily, it cannot crumble, the crust needs to stand strong.  The bread can make or break a sandwich (or a hamburger, but that is another post).  I have tasted that same exact bread alone, and I am not a fan because it is too tough, but that is exactly what makes it perfect for this sandwich.

Secondly, we have the star of the show, the pastrami,  this is where Guin inserted the “trick”, but however he did it, it was wonderful.  What I love the most, is that the pastrami is cut in to little bit size strips which are cooked with onions, and possibly other secret ingredients.  To tell you the truth, they put so much pastrami, I take out the excess, freeze it, then warm it up another day to eat it on Rye bread. Hey, I am frugal, I get two sandwiches for the price of one.

As for the rest of the sandwich, the creator actually substituted the typical iceberg lettuce for finely shredded cabbage.  Using cabbage has so many advantages, first of all, it actually has a taste, it stays crunchy even with the heat of the pastrami and an added bonus for the sandwich seller, it takes a long time to go bad.   Additionally, there is no tomato in the sandwich, a smart move to avoid making this perfect sandwich soggy.  Finally, I know usually people put Russian dressing on a pastrami sandwich, and this sandwich is not very different, it has mayonnaise and ketchup.  I, personally, like to add some Dijon mustard to it, just because I am in to that.

In the end, if I am feeling up to the task I can usually finish a whole pastrami sandwich in one sitting.  However, I realized a long time ago that  overstuffing  myself actually takes away from the contentment of just having eaten something fantastic.  So, like the French, I try to stop eating as soon as the food doesn’t taste as awesome as it did when I took the bite.  Portion control is key, I find I can eat anything as long as it is not too much of it at once.  As for the pastrami sandwich portion, I usually eat only half at a time, sharing the other half with my husband or  saving it for later.  Oh, and believe me, it still tastes as good the next day.

Now I have to add a photo, what a perfect excuse to go pick one up.  : )

This isn’t even one of the better looking ones, but note the ratio of meat to cabbage, perfect! Also, the bread is holding the sandwich firm, even though it is in an upright position. Delicious beauty!