The Sandwich Shop, Didcot, England:
In THE BATTLE OF THE PASTRY, flaky pastry comfortably won, with choux, puff and filo pastry coming next in the poll on pastries. I'm very surprised that flaky pastry won the poll, but what do I know about pastry?!
Now it's the turn of sandwiches to do battle. The sandwich is named after John Montagu the 4th Earl of Sandwich who 'invented' a roast beef sandwich in the eighteenth century. But his sandwich wasn't the first sandwich eaten because a sandwich, though not called by that name, has a very long history. A sandwich nowadays has sexual connotations.
Somewhat cheekily, The Wall Street Journal claimed that the sandwich is Britain's "biggest contribution to gastronomy" but that its sandwiches are "barely edible". There's a difference between British and American sandwiches. As Pret a Manger, a large British sandwich retailer, found out when entering the American sandwich market, Americans seem to prefer a wetter sandwich with lots of sauce like mayonnaise, whereas the British prefer a drier sandwich. American sandwiches are fancier than British sandwiches in that they often contain more filling ingredients; British sandwiches are quite plain and even boring in comparison. Also I get the impression that Americans eat more freshly-made sandwiches than the British who often eat pre-made and packaged sandwiches bought from a supermarket.
There is considerable debate about the definition of a sandwich. In America, there have even been two important court rulings about what constitutes a sandwich. In 2006, a court in Boston ruled that a sandwich must include at least two slices of bread and that "under this definition, this court finds that the term 'sandwich' is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas". However, last year a court in Indiana ruled that "tacos and burritos are Mexican-style sandwiches" and that Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps and Vietnamese bánh mis should also be regarded as types of sandwiches. The US state of New York has a definition of a sandwich that includes burritos, gyros, hot dogs and pitta wraps. Furthermore, the US Department of Agriculture even has its own definition of a sandwich. Clearly the US Supreme Court needs to make a definitive ruling on what constitutes a sandwich in America!
Here, the British Sandwich Association defines a sandwich as "any form of bread with a filling, generally assembled cold". As I'm British, I'm going to go along with this definition but I want to add four clarifications for the purposes of this poll.
First, a sandwich, to be included in the poll, has to be made from sliced bread, sliced from from a loaf of bread. Most sandwiches have two slices of a bread with a filling in between them. But some sandwiches (open sandwiches) are made from one slice of bread, and some sandwiches (double decker-sandwiches) are made from three slices of bread. All three types of sandwich are included in this poll. Given that I'm only including sandwiches made from sliced bread, filled bagels, baguettes, baps, batons, buns, cobs rolls and subs, filled brioches and croissants, and filled pitta and naan bread wraps are all excluded from this poll on sandwiches. So there's no hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chickenburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, Philly cheesesteaks, hoagies, bratwursts in a bun, jambons-beurres, pan bagnats, saucissons sec, sandwiches de merguez, Fischbrötchen, lobster rolls, fajitas, tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, strombolis, gyros, pepitos, pitta wraps, doner wraps, shawarma wraps, banh mi, vada pavs, Finnish porilainen, Portuguese prego rolls and South African spatlos (aka kotas)!
Second, I'm excluding toasted sandwiches or toasties from this poll because I've already recently done a poll on toast toppings - see THE BATTLE OF THE TOAST TOPPINGS. That also means there are no croque monsieurs, croque madames, tartines nor Welsh rarebits in this poll.
Third, I'm including sandwiches with both cold and hot fillings. So bacon sarnies, chip butties, hot steak sandwiches and sausage sammies are included in this poll. I'm also including both savoury and sweet sandwiches in this poll.
Fourth, given that almost any food item can be used as a filling in a sandwich and to make compiling the poll more manageable manageable, I'm excluding a combination of ingredients as sandwich fillings. Therefore, a bacon and egg sandwich, a birthday cake sandwich (recently launched by Tesco here), a breakfast sandwich, a club sandwich, a Cuban sandwich, a ham and cheese sandwich, an Italian sandwich, a Lyonnaise sandwich, a Monte Cristo sandwich, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (popular in America, sorry Americans), a ploughman's sandwich, a po' boy sandwich, a Reuben sandwich, a sausage and egg sandwich, a smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich, and a Strammer Max sandwich are all excluded from the poll. Having said that, I'm not seeing sandwiches that use salad ingredients (such as celery, cress, cucumbers, lettuce, olives, onions, radishes, sauerkraut, sweetcorn and tomatoes), sandwiches that use dressings and sauces (eg apple sauce, barbecue sauce, brown sauce, cranberry sauce, horseradish sauce, ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, olive tapenade and salad cream), and sandwiches that use garnishes (eg bacon bits, capers, chives, chutney, guacamole, herbs, nuts, pepper, pickle, salt, seeds and sour cream) for extra flavour or texture as combination sandwiches. I'm making a distinction between the main ingredient and the minor ingredients of a sandwich, which I know is a very fuzzy distinction! This means that a bacon sandwich includes a BLT, a cheese sandwich includes a cheese & onion or a cheese & tomato sandwich, a chicken sandwich includes a chicken stuffing sandwich, a strawberry sandwich includes a strawberries & cream sandwich (which I've heard are popular in Japan), a salmon sandwich includes a salmon & cucumber sandwich, and a tuna sandwich includes a tuna mayonnaise sandwich. Obviously I'm assuming butter (or equivalent) is nearly always used in making a sandwich.
It may sound complicated but defining a sandwich isn't easy. Probably everyone thinks they know what a sandwich is, but it's not at all clear which meant that this poll was very difficult to compile. Essentially the poll is all about your favourite single ingredient as a sandwich filling. Easy!
My most favourite sandwich fillings are bacon, beef and horseradish sauce, butter, chicken (with stuffing), chips, eggs (particularly egg and cress), fish fingers (with ketchup), ham and mustard, pastrami (with capers), prawn mayonnaise, salami, salmon (particularly salmon and cucumber), sausage (with brown sauce), tuna and turkey (with stuffing), with a cheese sandwich being the best sandwich to eat. The taste of cheese is great, but with tomatoes and especially onions added the taste of a cheese sandwich goes up a gear.
Cheese and onion sandwiches:
My least favourite sandwich fillings are chocolate spread, crisps, honey, jam, lemon curd, peanut butter, salad, sandwich spread and sugar, with a banana sandwich being the worst sandwich to eat. I like bananas and I like bread and butter, but a banana sandwich is far too mushy for my liking.
What are your most and least favourite sandwiches?
How do you serve the sandwiches you make - halved or quartered, and crust on or off?
What's your definition of a sandwich?
I'm all for cutting sandwiches I make in half; if I'm trying to impress I'll do chef's cut sandwiches which are cut in half diagonally. Cutting sandwiches into quarters is too fiddly to eat. And I always serve my sandwiches with the crust on, unlike the late Queen here who liked her cucumber sandwiches quartered with the crust cut off.
Below is a poll where you can anonymously select your most favourite sandwich. Unfortunately only one pick is allowed in the poll.
A poll on this site can only have a maximum of 20 answer options. There was unfortunately no room as poll options for: apple, baked beans, banana, butter (or equivalent), carrots, chocolate (including chocolate spread), crisps (chips to my American friends), cucumber, duck, falafel, fish (including fish fingers), fruit (including fruit sando, a Japanese fruit & whipped cream sandwich), fruit curd (eg lemon curd), goose, guacamole, haggis, honey, ice cream, jelly bean, lamb, Marmite, marshmallow, mutton, olives, pâté, peas, pork, rabbit, salad, sandwich spread (including vegan spread), strawberries (including strawberries & cream), sugar, tomato, veal, Vegemite and venison.
I think the cheese sandwich will win, but the BLT, chicken, peanut butter, salmon and tuna sandwiches will put up a good fight in the poll.
Please see the first comment below to see what has won each battle of the food and drinks so far.
Banana mayonnaise sandwich:
10
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