Who Did the Voting? Cardiologists?

FM Staff

Maxim magazine has named the “Fat Darrell” the best sandwich in the country in its September issue. The menu item from New Brunswick, NJ, eatery R.U. Grill & Pizza consists of a hoagie roll stuffed with breaded mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers and french fries, topped with marinara sauce.

Supposedly (and very believably), the recipe was invented late one night in 1997 by a beer-sodden Rutgers University frat boy short on cash but long on hunger. He persuaded a meal truck proprietor near the campus to pile all his favorite snacks into a bun and charge a single sandwich price for it. When the next 10 drunks in line ordered the same thing, a local culinary legend was born. The sandwich's success also allowed the truck owner to settle down and open R.U Grill & Pizza.

Not that any of the nine sandwich runners-up Maxim listed were much better in terms of caloric excess, but all at least maintain the usual paradigm of bread filled with meat, cheese and condiments, not frozen appetizers. The list includes barbecued pork on Wonder Bread from St. Louis, a steakand-cheese sub from South Dakota and a French dip from Los Angeles. From the descriptions, most are the size of Louisville Sluggers and weigh more than one of Fred Flintstone's bronto-burgers...or Wilma, for that matter. Sounds like Maxim, which is geared to 20-something males, is doing its part to keep the future cardiologists of America busy in the decades to come.