Beef on WHAT?

I was a hunter/gatherer today, foraging for familiar foodstuffs. My natural habitat is Buffalo, New York. Buffalonians have unparalleled access to great restaurants, sprawling mega-grocerys, local delicacies, celestial quality pizza and the ubiquitous Friday Night fish fry. Fantastic foods are so readily available in Western New York that natives take them for granted, never realizing our hometown offers a veritable Smorgasbord of Eden when it comes to culinary choices. It isn't until we're elsewhere that the true nature of the situation reveals itself. By then it's usually too late to pack a cooler or rent a refrigerated truck. Our daily pleasures become occasional treats. Sure, we sample the local cuisine in the hope that we can suppress that midnight craving for Buffalo-style pizza and wings. Food is not the only thing missed by ex-patriate Buffalonians but it's one of the biggest. This weekend I had a big hunk of tender beef left over from a roast I'd cooked. It was ready for slicing, requiring only a familiar roll to transform it into that quintessential WNY delicacy preferred by coupon-clipping carnivores everywhere: The Beef on Weck! (For which this blog is named.) It's a hearty mouth-watering sandwich associated almost exclusively with the Buffalo area. Although the name "kimmelweck" (representing the "weck") is clearly of German origin, I have no idea if they do Beef on Weck in Germany, or simply call it something else. The problem is that the craving struck me while I was here in Florida, not in Buffalo where there'd be ready access to Eckl's Restaurant or Tops Bakery. Note: Typically kimmelweck rolls are made using the large kaiser buns. As an alumnus of the Tops Bakery Department I can assure you they are happy to take special orders for kimmelweck rolls in smaller sizes such as the vienna rolls, for those who don't like to open their jaws VERY WIDE in order to consume the sandwich. Turns out there is ONE grocery store in Lakeland that carries kimmelweck rolls! It is the Lake Miriam Publix on South Florida Avenue. I don't know how they know about them, or what prompts Publix to make them. They are produced sporadically, with no particular pattern as to day of week, time of day or how many will be available. (I am lobbying the local paper for a "kimmelweck forecast" to no avail.) It's almost as though the kimmelweck rolls appear in the bakery case as an Act of God! So I was pleased, nay, THRILLED, when I got to the store and saw they had not one, but THREE kimmelweck rolls available for purchase. I tried to ask for the rolls. The bakery clerk looked confused, as if I had just asked for the "dimwitted rolls." "You want WHAT?" she said. "Kimmelweck rolls," I said patiently. "I'll take all of them." Her brows furrowed further. "What are those?" "Right here." I tapped on the glass. "Between the onion rolls and the cheddar rolls." She bent over and peered disbelievingly into the case. Obviously they are not selling the things at the behest of the bakery staff. Sure enough! There were three rolls in there that could not be identified as any other common roll! She had to consult another bakery employee about the pricing. My hunting/gathering was a huge success! I had a small amount of residual guilt that the NEXT Buffalonian to stop by the Publix was going to have no luck with the kimmelweck rolls. ("The WHAT?!") They wouldn't even have any sample rolls to point at. But I got mine! Hubby was gratified at my Sandwich Coup. Now if we could only do something about our Pizza Problem.