Experts' Expert: Mark Bittman on 'The best sandwich I've ever had'

Pictured above, it's a flauta d'ibéric d.o. jabugo from Café Viena in Barcelona, Spain.

Mark Bittman, a chef and frequent contributor to the New York Times Dining section, wrote rapturously about this deceptively simply creation of ham and bread in an October 15 Times Travel section story.

Here's what he had to say.

Barcelona: Café Viena

If you’re walking down La Rambla in Barcelona and happen to pass the incongruously named Café Viena, it’s a good bet your impulse will be to keep walking. Don’t.

The cafe’s plastic menus show pictures of a number of marginally appealing sandwiches and hamburguesas, and though the marble and wrought-iron interior is classic, it doesn’t promise much more than a nice snapshot. My friend Charlie insisted I go, however, and he knows both food and Barcelona. So on a recent visit, we went and ordered just two things: the flauta d’ibéric d.o. jabugo and a beer from the porcelain and brass tap. The flauta is a flute — the name for a bread that we might call a small sub, or a long roll.

The rest of the name means jabugo ham — what many believe is the world’s best salt-cured ham. Jabugo (just recently available in the United States) is, like prosciutto, cured with no more than salt and air. But it costs around $75 a pound, because down in Jabugo, near Seville, the pigs are special. Let’s just say that the Iberian cerdo negro (black pig) is a good breed, a direct descendant of the local wild boars, carefully raised and eventually set out to pasture, where their diet includes ripe acorns. The results make common prosciutto and even jamón serrano seem, well, common.

It’s not just the ham, though. The flauta is so good you could fill it with supermarket boiled ham and have the best sandwich you’ve had this month. It’s deep brown, like a perfectly baked baguette. (The owners of Viena, which is a small chain of around 20 restaurants, claim to have a secret process, and I believe it.) When you take a bite, it crackles. The combination of crisp crust and the tender, chewy interior is nothing less than stunning to someone who’s eaten bread around the world. A bit of tomato is smeared on the bread, adding just the right amount of moisture and acidity.

So that’s the sandwich, wrapped in waxy paper and thrust at you with no ceremony, though I assure you that it’s something Ferran Adrià or Joël Robuchon would be proud to serve. There’s not much of the ham because it’s so expensive, but also because it’s so strongly flavored. It drapes over the bottom layer, its fat stark white, the lean deep, deep pink, just about purple. It is salty, of course, but also rich, sweet, even floral; there are subtleties that make you pause. But this gets a little technical; let’s just say it’s the best sandwich I’ve ever had.

Café Viena, La Rambla del Estudis 115, (34-933) 171-492; www.viena.es. The flauta costs 5.60 euros, or $7.15 at $1.30 to the euro.

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And don't forget to watch the video of Bittman enjoying his sandwich, a link to which is posted in the sidebar of the story.

Note to file: when the bookofjoe World Tour 200? hits Barcelona, meet up with Spanish joeheads at Café Viena on La Rambla.