Variations on a Theme

I like diners. They usually have huge menu's with something for everyone. Although, why some one would go into a diner and order a seafood and pasta dish is beyond me. Stick with the classics.

I'm fairly repetitive with my diner orders. If I am going for breakfast fare, it's usually two over easy with home fries and rye toast. Maybe some pancakes get thrown in there depending on the diner. When I'm not having a diner breakfast (which has nothing to do with the time of day), it's a turkey club with fries.

As luck would have it, I wound up in different diners on Friday and Saturday night. When I was eating on Friday, I had no idea I was going to have the same dinner on Saturday, so no pictures. And I wouldn't have given it much thought except the two turkey clubs were so different.

The sandwich construction was identical. Basically a BLT on the top half of the club and turkey on the bottom.

Toast: On the first club, the toast tasted like it had been salted. It was as if the fries got put on the plate and then everything got hit with salt out of a shaker. The second club had toasted white bread. Although, one time at this diner I didn't specify "toast" and it came out plain white bread. That's never happened anywhere else. I specify "white toast" now but that's the kind of thing that would make a veteran diner waitress look at you funny. "Of course it's toasted! We've been a diner for awhile now."

Turkey: The first club's turkey tasted like deli meat. The second club's turkey tasted and looked cooked in-house.

Lettuce: The first club had very pale looking iceberg lettuce. The second had nice, dark green leaves of lettuce.

Tomato: The first club had that food service Styrofoam tomato. The second one had juicy, red tomato which was actually a pleasant surprise  after having seen crummy tomato wedges in a side salad.

Bacon: The bacon on both sandwiches was your typical diner bacon. Club #2 was a little chewier than Club #1, but the difference wasn't as stark as the other components.

When I was eating the first turkey club, I knew it wasn't anything special. It really wasn't until I started eating the second one that I realized how bad the first sandwich was. Now granted, turkey Club #2 wasn't the greatest turkey club I've ever had. Not really close. That distinction goes to a long gone diner/cafeteria in Boston. There is a special place in my heart for Anne's Cafeteria-I loved that place. But Turkey Club #2 was definitely a decent representation of the form that brought shame and dishonor to turkey Club #1.

Turkey Club #2 come from Capital City Diner on Western in Guilderland.