One of the great things about living in this area is that there is a Culinary Institute of America just up the Hudson River in New York. This means that there are a lot of graduates in the area and they aren't all creating 7 course gourmet meals. One of my favorite sandwich shops is Domaine on High Ridge Road in Stamford. It looks like a normal deli offering salads, sandwiches, chips and drip coffee all of which is good and pretty standard deli fare. Take a closer look at the extensive menu and you'll see the 'Signature' and 'Spa' sandwiches. I recently stopped by the deli and noticed the CIA blue ribbon medal by the cash register. No surprise. At work, I order in group lunches on a regular basis and these guys have always gone above and beyond to accomodate us. We often order platters of assorted sandwiches. A favorite for the East Coasters is the Reuben Deluxe with "Lean corned beef with melted swiss cheese, sauerkraut, cole slaw, tomatoes & Russian dressing on (awesome) Rye bread". The guys here seem to crave it and you pretty much need a bib if you're wearing clothing you don't want to get dirty. My favorite is the Californian with "smoked turkey, alfalfa sprouts, (fresh) avocado puree, plum tomato relish & olive oil on (again, awesome) multi-grain bread. All of their sandwiches are huge and under $7.25, these two are $6.75 which is average for this area.

So, the whole point of my bringing this up is because I had lunch from Domaine today and had an amazing salad sandwich that had celery in it. It was so good that I ate the whole thing knowing that I would pay for it. Sure enough, my throat and mouth started to tingle and itch because of my food allergies. Tomorrow, I'm sure I'll have a little rash around my mouth. I should be taking Benedryl but if I take it at work, I won't be able to work. BTW: The Californian is off my list because it has sprouts and onions in the relish - it requires a Benedryl. Sucks.