When I got divorced, the loss was tremendous. The ideal house, the workshop, tools, yard, kid and all the horrible things that are associated with such a sad event.

One of the greatest losses were all those meals and she refused to share the recipes. Crazy right? Well, Last night I reverse engineered the last dish that I have been missing for 7 years. It is Italian Beef and I have been looking for it everywhere. The problem is that places would have “Italian Beef” but nowhere had the right stuff. I even went to the neighborhood she grew up thinking that is was there in a small deli somewhere but I became disappointed again.

Then while I was in Chicago I went to “Lukes”, down town; They have Italian Beef. Of course, I try it wherever I go. They brought a sample of their rendition. It was good but not the same. The next day I returned to Lukes and ordered the sandwich again with provolone cheese but this time they asked me “Wet or Dry?”/“Hot or Mild?”. What???!!?! “This is the beef sandwich I have been looking for”, I thought. “Please explain…”, I probed. Then I told a little white lie…“I have allergies. How is that prepared?”, I asked. So I ordered it “Wet and Hot”. Which means dipped in Jalapeno juice and beef stock baked with provolone covering it.

Voila, the sandwich was almost perfect!!! The meat was not right but I knew exactly what I was after and how to achieve it. So last night I engineered the absolutely perfect italian beef sandwich that I have longed for more than 7 years… I am so proud and satisfied.

Have you had a similar experience?