Thursday Regional Sandwich (May)

Sandwich: The Arkansas Fried Bologna
Region: All of America Really!

The Story: The fried bologna sandwich seems to be steeped in so much of American culture, it has been difficult to pin it down to just one region. Even talking amongst friends, you’d be hard pressed to find at least one person who didn’t have a nostalgic story of their family prepping up some fried bologna for a nice lunch snack! Bologna first came into America from German immigrants who settled in the midwest, Pennsylvania, and the Appalachian states. Bologna sausage has always been an affordable meat making it easy to find in most American house-holds. Arkansas gets credit for this sandwich due to its proximity to Petit Jean Meats, which has been around since the 1920s, and bologna has been one of its signature products for decades! You can find a delicious Fried Bologna Sandwich crafted at America’s Street Foods in Little Rock, Arkansas. They regularly sell out of their Fried Bologna Sandwich built with a thick slice of fried bologna, lettuce, fried tomato, and a sunnyside egg YUM!

Traditional Build: Now, if you were making your fried bologna sandwich at home you might start with a thick slice of bologna and cut your bologna in the middle or on the edges so that it doesn’t bowl up when it’s fried. From there you’d layer on some yellow mustard and add American cheese and slap it all between some white bread for a perfect lunch snack. Sure that makes for a tasty sandwich, but we’ve added a few more steps to our build.

BP Spin: We start with thinly sliced garlic bologna and mortadella that we fry up on the flattop before it’s layered on top of fresh arugula, and juicy roma tomato slices. We then add two layers of white American cheese and top it off with house-made spicy giardiniera pimento aioli. All of this is then delicately placed between our toasted potato buns.Swing on into Bitter Pops this month and try out our version of this true American classic! And, don’t be afraid if you happen to hear a few “Pig Soooooooie” Hog Calls! This one is a beaut!See you soon!