Abraham Yeung - Blog Q4 Week 15 - The Humble Sandwich
I love sandwiches. To me, the sandwich is life.
Sandwiches have been around for a long time. However, the most famous story about them is that they originated from the Earl of Sandwich in 1762. While I don’t really care for the background of the story, I can do the math. It’s been 264 years since the alleged invention of the sandwich. That means that for at least 4% of the time that the sandwich has existed, I have been eating them. That’s a lot of sandwiches.
I still have vague memories of my first sandwich. According to a grainy video recorded by my father, he sat me down when I was a toddler in the middle of our kitchen, and brought over a small table. On that table, he produced a rather large stack of bread, cheese, and store-brought sandwich meat. It was about a solid 4-inch tall stack of bread, and more than enough meat to feed me for 3 meals. Honestly, the sandwich was pretty mediocre. It was bland and pretty tasteless, but to me, that memory was special. Out of all the random things I can remember from my first five years of existence, this one is the one I can remember the most. I can still somewhat remember the joy I shared with my father when I was eating my first sandwich. I may not remember what I felt watching Cars, or remember my time playing with Thomas the Tank Engine toys, but the sandwich will always remain special to me.
Aside from being the first food I know of, I’ve had sandwiches for just about every day from elementary school to eighth grade. I’m not kidding. Out of the one-hundred-eighty days of the school year, from Pre-K to the beginning of ninth grade, I think I’ve had sandwiches for one-hundred-seventy days of the year. Honestly, those sandwiches were terrible. Bland, cold, just turkey with mayo on bread, slapped together in 5 minutes for the next school day. Maybe the occasional tuna sandwich. But that was my life. Now, I have to admit, in high school, I’ve gotten lazy making sandwiches (Who can resist free lunch?). But who cares? I still love sandwiches.
My life can basically be described by a sandwich. Take the sandwich I’m most familiar with, for example. The cold turkey sandwich. The bread and turkey are boring, tasteless, and bland. Just like most of my life. I don’t remember much about anything, and everything just goes by like a blur. But that little bit of mayonnaise makes everything so much better. That indescribable taste when it mixes with the bread to make the whole sandwich just a bit more sweeter, a bit more savory. Maybe it’s that occasional good read I find. The occasional trip outside. Maybe I decide to get fancier. Mustard turns into time with my family. Tuna becomes a vacation. Life is not beautiful because of just that mayonnaise or just that mustard. It’s the joy of anticipation, of unexpected flavors, that come with that cold turkey and cardboard bread. I don’t need to be in constant pursuit of the greatest turkey sandwich ever, or the greatest tuna sandwich ever. I just need to know what makes a sandwich taste good. I can work it out from there.
Honestly, when I decided to write my blog about sandwiches, I was kind of surprised how often I eat sandwiches. Whenever I get hungry, I turn to my best friend, the sandwich. Heck, just yesterday I had a sudden hankering for a PB&J in the middle of the afternoon. Whenever I want to eat out and can’t decide what to eat, I’ll just go to a sandwich shop. When you ask what my favorite food is, I’ll probably answer Zhajiangmian, but I can’t lie to myself. Sandwiches are my favorite food, no matter how much I try to deny it. The sandwiches I make might be minimalistic and bland, but every bite is a summary of my life.
Hi Abraham!
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your love of sandwiches on a personal level. For the past three years, I have been obsessed with making different types of sandwiches. In fact, my new favorite sandwich has been a rotisserie chicken and pesto sourdough sandwich with balsamic glaze. Personally, I am not a fan of mayo; I prefer to use garlic aioli (which is technically mayo) to grill the bread. I do enjoy putting chips in my sandwiches, as I believe they give my sandwiches a special crunch and a burst of flavor. The best type of chips for sandwiches is kettle cooked chips (preferably jalapeno or salt and vinegar). Whenever I put them in my sandwiches, they remind me of beach days with my family. While I definitely prefer a much more loaded sandwich than you, I think that sandwiches are a pivotal part of everyone’s childhood. Austin Butler’s favorite sandwich is a PB&J, and according to him, whenever he eats it, he feels connected to his childhood self. Food tends to have that effect on us. It’s like that one scene in Ratatouille when the critic takes a bite out of Remy’s dish and he gets transported to his mother’s house. A couple of years ago, I watched the first two seasons of The Bear, and it really illustrated the points that I’m making. In the Christmas flashback episode, we see the family arguing over Christmas dinner. Later on in the show, we as an audience see how this traumatic event affects his relationship with food and cooking. While most food is associated with good memories, there are also bad moments that many associate with certain foods. I really enjoyed your blog Abraham!
Ah…the lovely sandwich. I’ll eat sandwiches out of boredom if I have the stomach capacity to. However, having two pieces of bread is overrated. I'd rather just slather whatever I have on a single piece of bread, whether that be lingonberry jam from IKEA or leftover shrimp scampi sauce. That way I can maximize my flavor to bread ratio (but is it still a sandwich?). Sandwiches aren’t really considered a deluxe meal; it’s something to satiate, something easy to make, but it’s crazy how you can really elevate a sandwich to a whole other level by just changing the insides. That one time my friend in culinary walked out with a pesto-turkey panini was undoubtedly the highlight of my week.
ReplyDeleteI love the sandwich comparison to your life, with a tuna sandwich for vacation sounding quite accurate. A little bit of Kewpie mayo really goes a long way, for me probably being a little free time. Don’t diss the turkey sandwich though! Under the right conditions, the slight coldness with a nice slice of cheese can be just as refreshing as lemonade. Have you ever tried to stick your Zhajiangmian in between two pieces of bread? That honestly sounds pretty good. But then again, bread with anything is pretty fantastic.
Sandwiches are really quite the staple of most childhoods. I personally loved ham and cheese sandwiches throughout my childhood. Honestly the fact you can even estimate the amount of sandwiches you have eaten is crazy impressive. I love your choice of comparing the different sandwiches to life! It was a really nice tie-in and really helped me understand your perspective on life.
ReplyDeleteI personally don’t eat sandwiches very often, but I can understand liking the convenience and simplicity of sandwiches. With a sandwich, the flavor can be adjusted as much as one likes by changing the ingredients in the sandwich, and most households tend to have the ingredients for sandwiches close at hand on any day.