Shubie's Global Community of Flavors

Chef Lynne's latest addition to the FoodBar menu, the Marblehead Muffuletta sandwich, got us thinking about how incredibly global our selection is. At any given time throughout the year, you could order Middle Eastern Falafel, an array of Asian Noodle Soups, a classic New York Reuben, Bahn Mi (a Vietnamese-style sandwich), a bowl of gazpacho, and even our own Local Cobb Salad Wrap, stuffed with a slew of locally grown veggies. It's a truly global community of flavors and recipes, right here in Marblehead!

And now joining that community is Chef's own take on the Sicilian-inspired sandwich from the Central Grocery in New Orleans.

For those of you not lucky enough to have tried one, a Muffuletta sandwich is typically made with an array of Italian cold cuts, sliced Provolone, and the key ingredient: a chopped olive salad, with cauliflower, celery and carrots, all steeped in olive oil and some vinegar. Put it all between two slices of muffuletta bread (a hearty Sicilian sesame bread that gives the sandwich its name), and you've got yourself a sandwich big enough to keep you fed all week!

As I said, the sandwich originated in the early 1900s at New Orleans' famous Central Grocery, a market in the French Quarter. As the story goes, Sicilian immigrant farmers selling their produce in the city would come to Central Grocery for lunch. They'd buy muffuletta bread, some cold cuts, cheese, and an olive salad, and then eat everything separately, balancing their small plates precariously on their knees while they sat. The store's owner, Salvatore Lupo, a Sicilian immigrant himself, noticed this and thought it might be easier for them if they sliced the bread and put all the fixings in between. He started making the sandwich, and pretty soon, everyone simply asked for "the Muffuletta."

The Muffuletta is now a staple in New Orleans, a must for all visiting tourists. Unfortunately, it's always been hard to find a good Muffuletta here in the Northeast--until now! Chef Lynne has put her own twist on this classic, and it's too good!

She starts with her one-of-a-kind olive salad, made in-house with her own special blend of herbs and olive oil, carrots, celery, and curried cauliflower (yes, curried--the sandwich now spans three continents!) Add this to a ciabatta stuffed full of sliced  prosciutto, salami, mortadella, provolone and a few leaves of radicchio (no muffuletta bread--those sesame seeds make such a mess!) and you've got another irresistible addition to our global community of flavors at the FoodBar.