I can count the foods I don’t like on one hand: lentil soup, cow’s tongue, boiled peanuts and meatloaf.  Try as I might, I just can’t come around to these. Their smell, texture, taste.  Just none of it. Which is why yesterday when the beau and I stood in front of the menu at Fredi Sandwich Bar near Union Square and he ordered a meatloaf sandwich, I turned with a face of disgust, bordering on betrayal.

“Meatloaf?” I groaned. “Really? Ick. Why’d you order that?”

But when our sandwiches came out, my three cheese-bacon-and-plum-tomato-on-focaccia next to his fat meatloaf on ciabatta, I couldn’t help it. I had to try it. It just looked so good.

Seeing meatloaf in a whole new and delicious light

So putting my meatloaf prejudice aside, I bit into half off the warm bread and one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve had in recent memory. Sensory overload in the best way. Meatloaf like I’d never experienced it before. Soft, flavorful meat, so juicy it had runaway drops streaking through my fingers and down my arms. This was not the grayish brown loaf of goopy, gravy covered, dry meat I’d seen in the past. This was something wholly different. Sure, the sharp tang of the cheddar, the slight bite of spicy mustard and roasted peppers and onions on that warm, doughy and slightly crunchy bread helped make this delicious, but really the star of the sandwich, was far and away the meatloaf.

Grilled triple cheese with plum tomatoes and bacon

So much so, in fact that I ended up trading half of my sandwich for the meatloaf one, just so I could have more than just a bite.  And in case you’re wondering, mine was pretty delicious too, oozing thick globs of melted cheese, iuicy, sweet roasted tomatoes and salty, crispy bacon from underneath a warm focaccia.

But if I had to pick favorites, and usually I hate doing so, it would easily go to the meatloaf sandwich, because never before, that I can recall, has one particular meal so quickly and without question removed something from the list of foods I don’t like.

Now that I know this is just a block away from my office, I have a feeling the meatloaf sandwich and I will be making up for lots of lost time.

Note: Not only does Fredi have delicious sandwiches made with fresh, quality ingredients, but get this, they have Diet Boylan Cream Soda. Diet! Boylan! Cream Soda! ::Sigh:: Fredi, this is love.