Thursday, May 29, 2008

On Sammiches

I have, of late, been considering the sammich. I think I may have misjudged the humble sandwich (or sammich), in a backlash from years of eating them by obligation.

While I was in school/high school/university, I had a sammich for lunch every single day (except on those hallowed days where I bought my lunch). I'm sure of it, because I simply can't imagine what alternatives there would have been.

University was the worst: I made myself a peanut butter sandwich for lunch nearly every day, because it was a lunch that was cheap, could stand being banged about in my bag as I went from class to class, and didn't have to be refrigerated or kept upright to prevent leakage. After a blood test revealed I had astronomic cholesterol levels for a 20-year-old, I cut out the peanut butter and had things like mashed potato and grated carrot sandwiches. Not so great.

So, after graduating, I avoided sammiches as much as possible. They always seemed like a rushed lunch; one you had because you didn't have time for anything else. Or didn't have time for a "proper" lunch, whatever that is.

Recently, I've been reconsidering my knowledge of the sammich. Sure, I can safely state, with the support of empirical experience, that I don't enjoy peanut butter sammiches that have been kept in a backpack for six hours and forcibly marched around a uni campus; but that doesn't seem like a good reason to rule out all sammiches. Especially now I work in an office with fridges, where I can stash all the fresh ingredients until it's time to make the sammich from scratch. There's even sammich toasters to use.

Consider the following:
  • a crusty baguette, spread with wholegrain mustard and mayonnaise, then layered with baby spinach, tomato, roast capsicum, sliced roast pumpkin and caramelised onions;
  • a pumpkin-and-linseed bread roll, split in two, toasted, and then filled with brie, rocket, thinly-sliced purple onion and a touch of tomato relish;
  • two slices of wholemeal bread around pesto, mozzarella, tomato and roast capsicum, all grilled and sizzley;
  • thickly-sliced, lightly-toasted raisin and fruit bread, with sliced figs, chopped walnuts and blue cheese, toasted lightly to soften.

Oh dear, now I'm all hot and bothered. Look at that list, just look at it! And I'm sure you can think of at least a dozen more sammiches that would satisfy every cell in your being. I would like to announce a reclaiming of the sammich! Embrace your breaded brethren!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have a friend who met a guy (sounds plausible, no?) who said that his favourite sandwich in the entire world was two slices of white bread with a meat pie in between. Mmm!