We have been going out to lunch more often and have noticed that several restaurants and deli’s have an item called a Turkey Rachel on it. I must have been living under a rock since I have not heard of this sandwich before. I did a little research and found conflicting origin stories for it. Not surprising since food and sandwiches are not important to everyone other than people like me.First off, a Turkey Rachel is a variation of a Rueben sandwich. A Ruben sandwich is corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Russian dressing on rye bread. With a Turkey Rachel, you swap out the corned beef for turkey. Then instead of sauerkraut, you add coleslaw.The origin story I like and I will advocate for is that a woman named Rachel would continually order a turkey sandwich with coleslaw and Swiss Cheese at a deli. The deli eventually added it to the menu as the a Rachel Sandwich in her honor.I have to say that I really do enjoy the Turkey Rachel and have had it two weeks in a row. I am sure it is not the healthiest sandwich in the world. But when I find out that my black plastic spatula’s will give me cancer, then I sometimes throw caution to the wind!!My first Turkey Rachel were from the Hen and the Hog. More recently, I had one from the Sticky Bun in Deerfield Beach. As an aside, I did not get a sticky bun since they did not grab me at the time.  I really enjoyed both of them. I did like how the one from the Sticky Bun came on marble rye. You do not see that often outside of a deli. But the Hen and the Hog had the better Turkey Rachel. This may be due to the fact that their coleslaw really outshone the one by the Sticky Bun. My conclusion is that this is a great sandwich that I will need to continue to search for the best one. As of now the Hen and the Hog delivers the best Turkey Rachel in South Florida. |
