In the beautiful land of Malibu, just a few feet from the ocean, sits Duke’s. They have one of the best locations around LA and retain a modestly priced lunch and dinner menu. They even have an outdoor seating area with its own bonus menu, which is where I always prefer to sit.
On my last trip, I took advantage of their lunch menu, which had some good-looking offerings, but the one that stood out the most to me was the Caramel Roasted Turkey Stack. The list of ingredients were an unvegan dream; roast turkey on a ciabatta roll, with applewood smoked bacon, havarti cheese, avocado and mango chutney aioli. A sandwich with no tomatoes or lettuce is rarer than the tamaraw, so I knew it had to be mine.
While waiting for my sandwich, I drank some beer and looked out into the ocean. When my sandwich arrived, I realized that my dream sandwich was too good to be true. In one of the layers, among those delightful ingredients, sat slices of those diabolical tomatoes. The best I could do was pick them out while yearning for what cound have been. It took a while, as the tomato seeds are always nasty little buggers to be picking out.
With all the tomato remnants removed, I was left to enjoy my sandwich. It was a really good sandwich, and all the correct ingredients went really well together. Unfortunately, Duke’s made the fatal mistake of putting in an unwanted ingredient, which spoiled any true enjoyment I may have gotten out of my meal.
Oh, and the waffle fries were awesome.
PS: Despite this unfortunate vegetable-ized experience, I have had good luck in the past with the Huli Huli Sandwich, Charbroiled Cheeseburger and Mango BBQ Burger, all successfully ordered without veggies.
