Where others went full-hog into the sandwich wave that kicked off around 2020 and arguably peaked last year, I merely dabbled. Aside from a few constants in my rotation (the cheese and salad on white rye from Babka; the eggplant tempura roll from Trang; the marinated veg ciabatta from La Casa di Panini) I rarely go out of my way for a sandwich, and will certainly not queue for one.

I don’t think I’m above it; I’m just not big on the genre and have never considered myself someone who’d fall head over heels for something between bread. That is, until I met the churrasco from Two Chiles, an unassuming Chilean restaurant in the west end of Windsor.

It’s a simple sandwich – just five ingredients – and that’s exactly what I love about it. No frills, no gimmicks, just an honest, hearty two-hander roll that makes the ungodly junction of Punt and St Kilda roads worth the trek.

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The star here is the churrasco: thinly pounded steak cooked “a la plancha” (griddled or pan-fried), a technique popular in Chile and across Latin America. At Two Chiles, it’s grilled to order and served on a crusty bap-style white roll – the kind that’ll dust your face with flour if you’re not careful.

The steak is paired with fresh tomato, chunky mashed avocado and a generous spread of mayonnaise, a traditional trio for their resemblance to the Italian flag.(Though the origins are murky, the sandwich is known as the churrasco Italiano in Chile, a country with strong Italian immigration.)

Disclaimer: I’m not a huge mayonnaise girl. By that I mean the mere thought of it usually makes me gag thanks to a particular game show I watched at a formative age where contestants ate bowls of it face-first, hands tied behind backs. The fact that this sandwich is loaded with the stuff and I am still obsessed with it should tell you everything you need to know.

It’s the avocado that works the real magic, somehow tempering the mayo’s intensity, rather than amplifying it and offering a cool contrast to the churrasco while the tomato brightens everything up. The vegetarian alternative of saucy, smoky grilled mushrooms, which are often an underwhelming stand-in for meat, work just as well in this setting. And the bread does a stand-out job of holding up to the fillings, even if everything is slipping and sliding around with each bite.

It’s just the nature of the game. There’s no way to tackle this beast without getting your hands (and probably face) involved. My advice? Embrace it. Skip the extra napkins and wait to clean up after the last glorious bite. It’s worth the mess.

@twochiles