The Thousands

Eat a panini and you could be anywhere. Chatswood, Tempe, Rushcutter’s Bay, anywhere at all (in Sydney). As a city, we took the panini and we ran with it. We’re currently in the middle of a similar frenzy with tacos. But eat a bocadillo, and you could be in a curving crooked labyrinth of an alleyway in Barcelona’s Barri Gotic. Or, more likely, at the new Encasa Deli on Bathurst Street.

Peer past the impressive salamis swinging in your face to the bocadillo menu. You will find it hard to choose between the Canario – thick slabs of roast pork with queso fresco and roast capsicum mojo; Argentino – South American sausage with chimichurri; Calamares – fried squid and aioli; or the Boquerones – white anchovies, confit piquillo peppers and roast garlic aioli. Seriously, it’s like choosing your favourite child. If you were some kind of sick cannibal who then ate their favourite child for lunch. Like that.

Being a deli, you can also purchase goods to consume at home. The shelves are stocked with hot sauces, paella rice, quince and guava pastes; the refrigerated deli counter is piled with jamons and manchegos. But it all comes down to this: move over panini, there’s a new sanga in town.