Sandwich of The Year Nominee: Rocket Pig

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  March 4, 2013]

Rocket Pig in Chelsea was a Time Out nominee for sandwich shop of the year, to be strictly accurate (and voting has ended).  But since the place is all about just one sandwich...

...victory would be a focused endorsement of the product.  Oh sure, they'll serve you other stuff.

If you stay on the premises, you can order up cheeses or oysters, house smoked ham or pork terrine, and come the warm weather it would be nice to graze through this menu in the little, secluded backyard outside the shop.

The shop is easy to miss.  It's tucked away behind a rusty door, in back of Trestle, the Chelsea restaurant which owns it--and whose kitchen is presumably responsible for the charcuterie.  But the Rocket Pig sandwich is what it's all about.

It may not look like an overstuffed sandwich, but it's big.  There's quite an acreage of ciabatta for the pork to cover, and it does so generously.  Very tender slices of meat, with not too many outposts of fat.  It's advertised as smoked and spice-rubbed, but if you didn't know that you'd think it was just nicely roasted pork.

The condiments are more assertive than any rub.  There's a little mustard sauce, and rather too much (on mine, anyway) red onion jam.  The sandwich's main triumph is that the meat isn't dried out.  It's succulent to the end.

Compounding the sweetness, you can add Rocket Pig hot sauce, served on the side.  It's actually not hot at all; more a sweet pepper sauce.  Add big bags of North Fork potato chips to your order, or house-made bacon caramels.

$14 for the sandwich itself (compare $10 for the--smaller--porchetta sandwich at Porchetta, $16 for the substantial porchetta sandwich at Il Buco V&A.  I know: this is not porchetta, but those seem like reasonable comparisons).

You won't be hungry after you're done with it.  Website here.