Fanum's Delicious NYC Deli Sandwich Masterclass

Yo chat, chill. You know why I'm here. Come on.

You know I eat good.

What's up, GQ? I'm Fanum.

And I'm about to cook up my favorite sandwiches.

I'm not just gonna make one,

I'm making three classic New York sandwiches.

And I know I say sandwich a little weird,

that's just how I say it, but let's really do it though.

The type of deli I'm speaking about specifically

when I come to deli sandwiches

is the corner store in New York City, the bodega for some,

but it's pretty much a staple of New York, in my opinion.

Every borough got one, you know what I'm saying?

Even Staten Island, y'all got one too.

The deli is so important to New Yorkers,

like it is literally

the first thing you wake up in the morning.

That's the first stop you really might make.

Get your, you know what I'm saying?

Your bev for the day, which is your beverage,

your meal for the day real quick.

Your coffee, you know what I'm saying?

You know the guy who owns the whole deli,

that's like your best friend

when you're, when you're stressed out, he knows.

Trust me, he knows.

You get a nice cut he also knows.

This the morning time, so I don't want do too much.

So the first sandwich I'm gonna make is a honey turkey

with everything on it on the raw.

Let's do it.

This is crazy.

I feel like this is too small

and it's just, nah, you know what I'm saying?

Take me back to the trenches. Know what I mean?

This is what we gonna work with.

This is what we want to use.

First thing first, you gotta cut it down the middle.

That's what you do.

Know what I mean?

Lightly toast it, don't do too much.

Give it like, shit, got there 20 seconds.

Perfect.

All right, now lite mayo, you always go light mayo.

Catch a your butter knife.

You know what I'm saying? Do what you do with it.

You don't have to od if you want to take some off,

you can.

If you wanna take some of the mayo off, you can.

Okay. Let's go.

So I'm used to fold them.

Nah, I mean this is honey turkey by the way.

It's basically, it's just turkey

just with a little bit of glaze on it.

That's kind of crazy.

Glaze me, glaze me.

One day I was working and everybody knows ham and cheese

and stuff like that or turkey and cheese,

but she came in and said

Let me get a honey turkey and cheese.

I said, whoa, what's that?

And ever since then I've been doing honey turkey.

We got pepper jack cheese,

it's basically cheese with a little spice on it,

you know what I mean?

Some people do the lettuce and tomato under the everything.

I do the above, I'm not sure why.

I put the lettuce, you know what I mean?

And stuff like that. When I'm on my grown man shit, right?

This is what I get every time

when I feel like, you know what? Today I wanna be respected,

I wanna be taken seriously.

I get a honey turkey with the pepper jack on it.

You know what I'm saying? Everything work.

But if I'm playing around, it's a big cheese day game.

[upbeat music]

All right, so I did my oil, know what I'm saying?

I did my tomatoes, gotta do some onions,

you know what I'm saying?

Salt, pepper, you know what I mean real quick.

Nothing too crazy though.

You close that right up.

I don't mess it up. There you go. Nice.

Tuck it in like a tummy tuck real quick.

Hold on down at the middle man.

You don't have to heat this one up, it's a cold cut y'all.

So, oh my god, you fucker.

So there you have it.

You got the honey turkey, pepper jack cheese,

lettuce, tomato, salt, pepper and vinegar,

let's do it though.

[Fanum chomping]

All it need is chips.

What my chip at? What type of chips I want today?

Shit, barbecue.

Aye look, because I'm in my grown man today

I give me a little water, don't do too much,

you know what I mean?

So, with that being said,

honey turkey, you know what I'm saying

with the sandwich, water and chips.

My next sandwich is gonna be a chopped cheese.

Now you probably ask yourself, who made the sandwich?

John Montague, 1762. How do I know that?

Little known fact, I am a sandwich connoisseur,

aficionado, experto, you know what I mean?

What am I that?

So there's three things you need to know

when you are going to any New York deli.

And this is what certifies them as a great deli.

Number one, their manager, it's not a person, it's a cat.

Have respect for the cat.

Two, the AC, if there's no AC in the deli,

the food is boiling, how you going to eat from it?

Come on, it's hot in there. Nah, I walk out.

Number three, the language barrier.

If you could barely understand the guy

who's making your sandwich,

you about to have the greatest sandwich of your life,

trust me.

Right? All right.

And what I always say, life is like a sandwich.

Bread always comes first.

So we got the butter, I feel like butter always goes first.

I'm not a chef or nothing like that, but I am a hood chef,

so I had to consider myself somewhat of a chef,

but just on the block.

Ah, you hear that right?

Okay.

So now, we about to chop off the chopped cheese

before the chopped cheese become.

Just know we about to chop off the meat, all right?

It's gonna take a little minute, I'm temp you.

Lemme just try with this one, hold on.

So as I'm chopping the meat, what I'm looking for is

for the meat to look like it's in bits, right?

You not getting a burger, it's not a burger.

You know what I'm saying? You gotta chop up the meat, bro.

So the meat is chopped up

and now it's time to season your meat, know what I mean?

So some people use this.

I like red top adobo, you feel me?

So, you wanna get rid of that, all right.

[Jeremy] Is there a certain amount you're measuring?

No, I eye everything, bro.

So it may seem like a lot to some people,

that shit about to buzz, bro.

Usually I already wash my hands

but I'm might do some ghetto-

[Jeremy] Nah, just do your thing, just do your thing.

All right.

I washed my hands before you start complaining,

oh my god, bro.

So I like to like really get in there.

I feel like it just helps out

with the like seasoning in my personal opinion.

And then I bring a couple safety close everybody, facts.

Which you at my deli you know what you can eat at?

[upbeat music]

Chopped cheese

is basically chopped up hamburger meat, right?

You know you got the cheese you put,

you don't have to go American cheese,

you can go with pepper jack

if you want a little bit of spice.

Colby jack, that's another one too.

Lettuce, tomatoes, salt, pepper, vinegar.

And I do lite mayo.

Some people put ketchup on their shit too.

And if you really wanna get crack,

you really wanna get busy, you could do turkey bacon on it

and it just, you keep adding on it.

You know what I'm saying?

But remember sometimes less is more.

That shit smell good like that, I ain't gonna lie, baby.

All right, chopped cheese is only ground beef, nothing else.

Don't get too creative with it.

Let things be what they are, y'all.

I understand you want to add your little sauce.

This shit, stop it, all right?

Like come on, bro.

Whoever gave Keith Lee a salmon chopped cheese son.

I don't know who, hey that's crazy.

You playing fish on a chopped cheese

don't make no sense to me.

And I know you probably charge like $20 too,

so you crazy son.

The toast, but you gotta toast some bread though, bro.

Even if it's a little bit you gotta toast the bread, bro.

Like this is actually perfect.

All right get my mayo going.

If you ever get too much, you just take it off.

People always like to make it feel like

oh my god that's too much on my sandwich.

Like bro, just take it off.

And some of y'all real disrespectful

with the deli man, with the chef.

Chill bro, take it easy bro.

We gonna go American cheese,

the square is like perfect for like the sandwich

so you don't really gotta do too much,

like when you lay it down,

what you about to pick up is just the square of the cheese

if that makes sense.

This the hardest part,

but it's like the sexiest part though.

So you set it up, come through, lay it down.

Some people they double cheese it,

go double it for today, why not?

Go little funky on them and stuff like that

and just let it rest it for a little bit.

It's looking good though, I ain't gonna lie.

What up bro? I might do a little taste test, oh god.

They looking good.

All you're missing right now

is the salsa or bachata music in the background,

that's all you missing, I'm telling you.

[upbeat music]

Damn, it's falling apart on me, hold on again.

[pan sizzling]

[Fanum laughs]

What am I back?

I go a little bit of this. Got some lettuce down.

Sometimes I definitely do onions, sometimes I don't,

today I will 'cause why not?

I definitely do tomato. I put two down every time.

It's looking good though, I ain't gonna lie.

It's looking good though. Can you see this?

Look good, right?

Oh, I forgot. Yo, chat, yo, chat look.

Now that shit wavy.

We add vinegar and some ketchup too.

I thought it was together one bro.

All right.

And the ketchup.

Yep.

Okay, now that we finished the sandwich,

we need go get some chips and a bev.

You know what's crazy?

So people don't know deli is short for delicadeza

which is like

something that's like you should be doing like with care,

delicado, you know what I'm saying?

I don't know if that's true or not

but my man told me they used to work with me,

he told me that.

So wherever I go bro gotta come through too.

Let's really do it, come on.

Ah.

Damn.

You got the Mango Arizona classic, legend, OG.

This Mr. Duke Dennis put me onto this Marti,

how you say this Martinell's? Yo.

[Jeremy] Captain Atlanta.

Glaze 'em.

We got the sparkling water Saratoga, you can do Perrier,

you can do whatever, don't really matter,

but sparkling water, I love sparkling, shit wavy.

It's water but like not really but it is, know what I mean?

There's some cider.

If I want to get on some classy shit.

It's me, bae, brokes bathtub, candles, smells, incense.

Know what I mean?

Today I'm going with the Ari.

So, let's go ahead and pack this up.

All right bro, mahalo at you.

Let's really do it though.

I got my bev, got my chips, I got everything.

What else could I ask for? Come on.

It's time to take that bite.

[angelic music]

One more.

[angelic music]

Mm. They right here.

God. Damn son.

Nah, we did right. I charge full price for this no discount.

[Jeremy] How much are you supposed to pay

for chopped cheese?

So, chopped cheese is really supposed to be 4.50,

maybe five cash, bro.

But you know you got inflation and mashing going on,

I just seen somewhere its at $12 and 50 cents.

I'm never paying $12 and 50 cents for a chopped cheese.

Like come on.

I'm done with the chopped cheese.

Let's move on to the next sandwich.

So we about to make a bacon, egg, and cheese.

This could be a breakfast meal, midday or dinner.

He's like that, versatile.

For this sandwich I'm gonna use the hero bread.

You put it to toast lightly.

Well we keep it there

'cause we don't wanna put it in right away,

but we do toast lightly just not right away

'cause then it'll just be bad.

Some people do two or three or even four eggs,

I'll go two always,

but I mean today I want to get a little worse

so I'm gonna go with three.

[upbeat music]

So I'm gonna need a bigger pan, it's not gonna fit in.

Man, it's a hero, not a road, man.

Come on, let's do it.

All right.

[Jeremy] How do you cook your eggs on medium or high?

Like what's the...

When the fire is on. I don't know bro.

I don't check the pan. I don't know shit about fahrenheit.

We about to add some salt and pepper.

Once again,

everybody does it differently but that's how I do.

I used to feel them way.

I just put the folk in here and do what I do.

It's pretty much good.

All right so we about to cook the bacon.

This is turkey bacon by the way. Make sure everything good.

[Jeremy] How many strips of bacon of you usually use?

I don't even know.

I probably do like all five of these hoes,

I ain't even know.

[Jeremy] Why do you use turkey bacon

over beef bacon or pork bacon?

I don't know either.

I think 'cause I got a lot of Muslim friends

and they all told me like one day like

bro use turkey bacon and I did it.

But I still eat pork though.

I just, when I, I don't know, it is weird.

That's just my thing. All right, bet.

It's quick. I told you it was quick bro.

Alright so I'm gonna go toast the bread now. It's dancing.

I gotta go toast the bread bro. It's dead ass dancing.

All right.

Damn bitch ass nigga.

Nah, hold on, lemme show y'all son bro.

Lemme show y'all son again.

This is how we used to do this shit.

If you was never like a little ass kid doing this,

don't try this shit at home though.

Nice. Perfect.

Damn bro, it still dancing though bro.

Shit went back flip.

Bro, I be going through with it like we're baking barbe,

we're going through it bro.

Damn, you see what I'm talking about bro?

You see bro. Let's do it.

I feel like I'm on a job day man, shit.

[Jeremy] Wait, wait, wait, wait, you put mayo on your-

Yes. Lite mayo bro. Stop it.

Sit over there. I'm over here.

Word.

Once again it may look like it's a lot,

it might not really be a lot.

All right, so now we gotta take out the bacon and go.

And now we gonna put the eggs.

[upbeat music]

Is it the goat New York sandwich?

It's the, I feel like it's the most known.

I think the chopped cheese just kind of like came into like,

I guess, fame, recently, because everybody know

it is always been the bacon, egg, and cheese.

Like it's always been the bacon, egg, and cheese.

Chopped cheese just kind of came around,

chopped cheese is a new boy on the block, man, all right?

So I'm about to try some shit that we used to do.

Hopefully I can finesse it the way I used to do it.

Basically we would put the bacon in the middle, right?

And line it up real nice and shit.

And then we would hug him.

I'm over here trying and see if it works.

Like we was like, oh it's not, it might not work.

I don't think so.

But the idea is to hug it

kind of like a mini omelet in a way.

It's like hugged in there and then

we would go and lay the cheese there.

And let that, let it do its thing for a little bit

and then it'll be like doing its thing

and then it goes here.

So now we about to plate this. All right, come on.

Oh yeah.

That's what I'm talking about, son.

I usually cut this right here. Tuck it in real nice.

Forget the, whatever.

And then I cut them in three.

I don't like cutting it down the middle.

That's just my thing, personally.

Perfect.

There you go.

So I be getting so inventive,

y'all be complaining too much about that's nasty,

but I like those bro, so.

All right, here's how we do it. Know what I mean? Damn.

Hold on before I get into it, you gotta get your bev.

Lemme go get my bev, gimme a second.

And I'm sweating bullets too.

Damn! Oh I'm going Martinell's right now.

I ain't going lie.

What up bro?

I'm going to dig it so bad on bro.

What up bro? I want to dig in.

Once again, shout at Duke for putting us on

to this bottle of lenny shit.

Shout to the whole Southern states

'cause that's where I found y'all at.

All right.

[Fanum chomping]

[Jeremy] All right, what you rate it out of 10?

What you rate it out of 10?

Eight out of 10. I forgot the ketchup. It need ketchup.

Not that I don't shit, our shit,

but it is really my shit right here,

so, at the end of the day,

like I made it, I get to eat this.

At end of the day we made it, we made it,

so that's crazy, y'all.

Niggas getting taxed and shit now.

But listen, at the end of the day they got shit food,

I don't gate keep food, you weirdos. Come on, stop playing.

[Jeremy] I ain't gonna lie, I ain't gonna lie.

[upbeat music]

Yo, chat. It's been real.

Smash that like button if you haven't already.

Shout to GQ.

I'm here though, know what I mean?

We ate good, y'all see me eat good now.

Now you gonna see me leave, mahalo at you.