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Eating my way through your advice, an ambitious list of vegetarian sandwiches from 24 different restaurants. More Comments Come True.

Remember when Jack Shephard told Kate Austen not to “let the fear in?” Oh, not a Lost freak? Let me explain.

In the first season of the popular ABC series, the protoganist Jack (Matthew Fox), a surgeon, needed Kate (Evangeline Lilly), a runaway fugitive, to stitch up a wound on Jack’s back. As a non-medical professional, and after just surviving a plane crash, Kate became frightened of closing the gash. Jack then told Kate a story to help calm her:

Well, fear’s sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a sixteen year old kid, a girl. And at the end, after thirteen hours, I was closing her up and I, I accidentally ripped her dural sac, shredded the base of the spine where all the nerves come together, membrane as thin as tissue. And so it ripped open and the nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta, spinal fluid flowing out of her and I… and the terror was just so crazy. So real. And I knew I had to deal with it. So I just made a choice. I’d let the fear in, let it take over, let it do its thing, but only for five seconds, that’s all I was going to give it. (Source: Lostpedia)

This story of nerves spilling everywhere, subsequently causing fear, popped into my head as I took my first bite of the Black Squirrel‘s vegetarian burger.

The lack of patty—only eggplant strips encircling loose quinoa—creates a mess of a meal. The eggplant and bun cannot contain the tiny dots of grain, with each bite spewing its contents everywhere. Just like Jack, I panicked. How do I save this sandwich from certain un-eaten death? Well, I counted to five and ordered a porter to ease my panic. The extra beer let me care just a bit less about this unruly burger.

Like Lost, it’s now over and I won’t be back again.

In order of appearance in the comments:

  1. Cork Market
  2. Cowgirl Creamery
  3. Busboys and Poets (sandwich 1) (sandwich 2)
  4. Taylor Gourmet (sandwich 1)  (sandwich 2)
  5. Booeymonger
  6. Pret a Manger
  7. California Tortilla
  8. Jaleo (sandwich 1) (sandwich 2)
  9. Highland Cafe
  10. Jimmy John’s
  11. Greek Spot
  12. Sticky Fingers
  13. Earl’s
  14. Yum’s
  15. Super Taco
  16. Luna Grill
  17. Five Guys
  18. Sidamo
  19. Everlasting Life
  20. Au Bon Pain
  21. Devon & Blakely
  22. Corner Bakery
  23. Potbelly
  24. Black Squirrel

Photo by Allison Barnett