If there is one culinary creation Americans can claim to have perfected, I believe it is the sandwich. Hoagies, heroes, submarines, pita pockets, bagels, even burgers, you name it and Americans will stick anything and everything between two pieces of bread. (Witness the recent blogosphere frenzy over KFC’s new fried-“chicken”-and-bacon bomb, the Double Down.)
The 4th Earl of Sandwich, the legendary inventor of our favorite American meal.
What sets American sandwich makers apart is that they don’t stop at the main ingredient, the way, say, Italian sandwich makers often do. (See one of my favorite sandwich shops in Florence, I Due Fratellini.) For a fine American sandwich you’ve got to gather up your garnishes and pile on the condiments to achieve the perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty, savory, crunchy, creamy, and soft that distinguish the best from everything else.
I realize that the sandwich’s supposed inventor, the Earl of Sandwich, was an Englishman. But despite Woody Allen’s suspenseful spoof of this nobleman’s travails:
1736— [The Earl] enters Cambridge University, at his parents’ behest, to pursue studies in rhetoric and metaphysics, but displays little enthusiasm for either. In constant revolt against everything academic, he is charged with stealing loaves of bread and performing unnatural experiments with them. Accusations of heresy result in his expulsion.
—from “Yes, But Can the Steam Engine Do This,”
in Getting Even by Woody Allen.
I think in general our sandwiches are better than theirs (witness the sorry, boxed Pret A Manger offerings). Don’t get me wrong. Continue reading
Cook and Eat Better 