COMFORT FOOD GUIDE // This Is Why There Are a Half-Dozen Locations of Meat & Bread

This series maps out our editors’ picks for Vancouver’s best and most legendary comfort foods. We encourage readers to steer us towards their favourites in the comments or by using the hashtag #ScoutYVR on social media.

You know how maps denote the relative size and importance of towns and cities with little dots — the larger the dot, the bigger the city? On this atlas, Meat & Bread‘s perfect porchetta sandwich deserves an encircled star instead of a dot, as if it were a capital or a unique destination of special consequence. It’s really that good, and very likely the chief reason why there are now half a dozen locations of the chain. Porchetta is a street food specialty of Ariccia in Lazio, the region of Italy that includes Rome. Traditionally, it’s a whole deboned pig stuffed (usually with liver, garlic, wild fennel, fat, skin) and roasted over hardwood before landing in paninis, picnic baskets and – one presumes – swooning love songs. This one is a much simpler slab of salt-rubbed pork loin and belly stuffed with rosemary and parsley. The rolled-up result is hit with high heat to blister the skin, resulting in toothsome crackling that will make your knees buckle. It’s given a thorough chop to order, loaded onto a springy ciabatta bun and dressed with a gentle salsa verde. The tasty thing sits supreme in the pantheon of Vancouver’s best sandwiches, like a juicy Jupiter with a big ‘ol plop of mustard.