These hidden gems are all over the map when it comes to ethnic inspiration or location -- but they're uniformly delicious.

MAHON GRILLED CHEESE at Olympic Provisions

-- It's hard to find the perfect grilled cheese, with good butter evenly coating the bread, a beautifully bronzed exterior, all buttery-toasty and luxuriously crispy, and cheese that is not merely melted but some unfathomable combination of hot, pully and oozy. This emerging indie-food hot spot nails it ($6, lunch only). The feathery brioche pullman bread helps, as does the application of Mornay sauce, the creamy white sauce more typically found in a Croque Monsieur, bumped up here with mushrooms and sherry. But the real revelation is the buttery-sharp-tangy Spanish mahon cheese. "It's my favorite eating cheese," says kitchen honcho Jason Barwikowski. "I don't like cheddar, it gets too oily. Majon holds up in flavor and has a good stretch to it." Who could argue? (107 S.E. Washington St., 503-954-3663,

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DEBRIS PO' BOY at EaT: An Oyster Bar

-- Less architectural than it sounds, "debris" is a New Orleans expression for scraps of meat left in the pan, piled on a po' boy roll. EaT's is less moist than many traditional versions, but the meat is tender and pungent, the bun crusty and holding it all together is their "come-back sauce," a Cajun rémoulade with maybe a little more cayenne than you were expecting. $10. (3808 N. Williams Ave.; 503-281-1222;

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PORCHETTA at The People's Pig (pictured)

-- Defiantly set a block from busy carts that line Southwest Stark and Third Avenue and boasting a whiff of commie pride logo, The People's Pig seems like a cart gone rogue: establishing new cart territory and a menu that relies entirely on pork sandwiches. The kicker is sandwich fillings that read like the menu at a pricey Italian ristorante: soppressata with goat cheese, cotechino sausage and lentils, meatballs with cinnamon-tinged tomato sauce, and the signature porchetta ($8) with parsley pesto. Owner Cliff Allen is a pizzaiolo at Nostrana restaurant, and it shows. To make his porchetta, he layers pork belly, garlic and herbs on a pork loin, rolls it up and roasts it. A slice yields deliciously crunchy outer pieces and moist fatty inner pieces, tucked into a crusty toasted ciabatta roll from Fleur de Lis Bakery. It's deliciously porky, herby and greasy in the very best way. But let the eater beware: Unless consumed immediately, its beauty fades quickly. (Southwest Stark and Second Avenue,11 a.m.-3 p.m. Mon-Fri;

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THE MAPLE at Meat Cheese Bread

-- Weird, inspired and addictive. That's the only way to describe this rehabbed egg-and-sausage sandwich, loaded up between slices of the kitchen's maple-currant bread pudding, which is dense and eggy, a little sweet and a little crisp -- like French toast from another universe. In between: a thin sausage patty, kicky chipotle cheese and crisp shavings of fresh fennel, which somehow elevates the whole thing into something trashy yet regal. Cost is $6.50, but if you're really flying, add a fried egg for $1. (1406 S.E. Stark St., 503-234-1700,

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-- Karen Brooks

BEEF TORTA at Sanchez Taqueria

-- All Mexican tortas, or sandwiches, are not created equal. This one is a classic Latin beauty, built on a textbook-perfect oblong 8-inch-long bolillo roll fresh from Panaderia Gonzalez in Newberg. It's a yielding and slightly sweet foundation for minced carne asada (marinated beef), onion, cilantro, cabbage, tomato and avocado. One bite and it's a fiesta in your mouth: juicy grilled meat flavors, satisfying crunchy and creamy textures from the vegetables; a piquant kick comes as a nice surprise courtesy of pickled carrots and jalapeños, and a sprinkling of cotija cheese adds welcome saltiness. Wash it down with an ice-cold bottle of Mexican cane sugar Coke for a match made in heaven and Michoacán. $5.50 (13050 S.W. Pacific Highway, Tigard, 503-684-2838)

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FALAFEL at Cafe Velo

-- At this new takeout shop on the downtown transit mall, falafel gets a modern makeover far removed from its garlicky greasy ancestor. Hand-shaped flatbreads, supple with olive oil and grilled to order, are layered with chickpea fritters and marinated vegetables, plus crisp fennel doused in excellent Katz Meyer lemon olive oil ($5). Watch for the addition of interesting local vegetables come spring. A dab of harissa (North African spice paste) and some yogurt tahini sauce infused with saffron reveal the culinary muscles of this petite downtown kitchen. (600 S.W. Pine St., 503-719-0287,

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THE BLUE RIBBON at Grand Central Bakery

-- Like your steak with a dollop of Roquefort sauce? Then rejoice at the Blue Ribbon ($7), in which thinly sliced smoked grass-fed beef from Oregon's Highland Oak Ranch collides with a pungent buttermilk-blue-cheese mayonnaise on a toasted brioche roll. Butter lettuce and crunchy house-made red-onion pickles make this seasonal special feel like classic picnic fare, pumped up with blue ribbon ingredients. (Multiple locations including 3425 S.W. Multnomah Blvd. and 2230 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.,

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PROSCIUTTO BUTTER SANDWICH at Coffeehouse Northwest

-- From 23-year-old renegade baker Adam Kennedy comes a prime example of minimalist sandwich perfection, right down to the homemade bread and butter. Prepared daily for Coffeehouse Northwest, a caffeine haunt for baristas and bohos, the ready-made sandwich, stacked in a big glass jar on the counter, is gaining momentum. Kennedy, who calls his company Broken Frame Bakery, delivers the kraft-paper-wrapped bundles early in the morning, and by midday the salty sandwiches are gone. His bread, a pane francese mini oval loaf, has a holey interior to catch a thin layer of rosy meat and hand-churned butter spiked with Welsh fleur de sel. Sometimes less really is more. (1951 W. Burnside St., 503-248-2133,

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-- Teri Gelber

BAHN MI at Best Baguette

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-- A contender for Beaverton's best Vietnamese submarine sandwiches can be found at a place that looks like a fast-food joint. With its tubby little mascot cartoon character and sterile, bright decor, Best Baguette, with two locations, is poised to become the Micky D's of bahn mi. But we're not complaining. The foot-long baguettes, baked every hour, are true and proper: shatteringly crisp outside and airy light within. The extensive menu of well-prepared fillings will please the traditionalists (decadent pâté and head cheese, $2.95) and the timid (savory grilled beef, $3.50). There's even a breakfast version, the pork roll with egg ($3.35). Still, the classic daikon and carrots garnish lacks the tart pickling flavor that adds its own flavor punch and cuts through the rich flavors of the fillings. Ask for a few extra slices of jalapeño -- don't worry, they're not too hot -- and cilantro sprigs, then dig in. (3635 S.W. Hall Blvd., Beaverton, and 8303 S.E. Powell Blvd., Portland,

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-- Danielle Centoni

THE ORCHARD at Otto's

-- Follow the intoxicating scent of wood smoke wafting along Woodstock, and you'll end up at a place where "Sausage Kitchen and Meat Market" has been on the sign for 80 years. Though there are more than a dozen delicious-sounding specialty sandwiches, this pick, which showcases the butchery's Hunter Sausage, is a no-brainer. Made with Carlton Farms pork and beef and a natural casing, it's smoked for five hours over alder wood harvested weekly from the family farm. Layered in neat rows atop Delphina's whole wheat bread, the sliced German bologna, as they call it, gets slathered with honey mustard, dressed with mild havarti and cream cheeses, plus the usual mayonnaise and lettuce fixings. The secret weapon comes in the form of Granny Smith apple slices, which offer a brilliant tart counterpoint to the smokiness of the meat. Crafty bunch, those Old World butchers. $4.95 (4138 S.E. Woodstock Blvd., 503-771-6714,

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-- Shawn Vitt

PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY at Baker & Spice

-- It hardly ever gets mentioned, but key to the success of this juvenile staple -- and adult guilty pleasure -- is the unbilled element, the bread. (Imagine the risks of rye.) So while you could get your PB&J at a jelly store, or at a peanut butter store, you're completely covered if you get it at a bakery. Baker & Spice serves theirs on old-fashioned sandwich or three-seed bread, either of which can stand up to the dense chunky peanut butter and fruity raspberry jam. Unfortunately, chocolate milk is not available. $3.50 (6330 S.W. Capitol Highway, 503-244-7573;

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-- David Sarasohn

DUE FORMAGGIO PANINI at Gusto Bistro & Marketplace

-- If the words "grilled cheese" make you think of childhood lunches of tomato soup and slices of Wonder bread stuffed with Kraft American cheese, it's time to grow up! This grilled panini should do the trick, with Asiago Pressato and manchego cheese melding for ultimate richness. And then comes the textural surprise of thin apple slices, which give each bite wonderful crunch. Available whole for $8 or half for $5, it comes with a lightly dressed salad of mixed greens. (467 Third St., Lake Oswego, 503-635-3151;

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BRESAOLA ON SLAB BREAD at Little T American Baker

-- From one of the city's best bread makers comes a new sandwich built on rich, focaccia-like slab bread, slathered with a vibrant relish of diced lemon peel and capers, then piled with arugula and paper-thin slices of bresaola, salted, air-dried cured beef ($8). Each bite pops with so much bright, bitter, salty, herbal goodness it makes it hard to eat with any semblance of restraint. (2600 S.E. Division St.; 503-238-3458;

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-- Danielle Centoni

MORTADELLA PANINI at Nostrana

-- Who knew Portland's top Italian restaurant makes some of the best sandwiches? It's no wonder: From the condiments to the loaves, practically everything in the Nostrana larder is made in-house. Picking a favorite from the lunch menu's daily-changing panini list is tough (they're all good), until you try what kitchen hand Devon Chase refers to as "the underdog." The Mortadella Panini ($10) is so much more than its humble name implies, and once you dig into its savory depths, you won't be able to put it down. The sandwich begins with a wood-oven-baked ciabatta bun smeared with garlicky aioli (homemade mayonnaise). Bite into the bulging beauty and taste imported mortadella, Italy's favorite cold cut, made from pork and dotted with pistachios; it's full-flavored but not too salty. This un-bologna sandwich -- we're not talking Oscar Mayer here -- is layered with a tangy-sharp provolone piccante cheese, red onions, arugula and irresistible Mama Lil's peppers, spicy soft pickled peppers made in Seattle and something of a cult ingredient among local chefs. From the first bite to the last chin drip, this warm, melty combo takes you to sandwich paradiso. (1401 S.E. Morrison St., 503-234-2427,

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-- Teri Gelber