Sandwiches for Summertime

I tend to associate this time of year with the ultimate convenience food – the humble sandwich. The beauty of this meal is that you can put almost any food you love between two slices of bread. It’s not just me: The Brits just celebrated Sandwich Week.

We all have the celebrated sandwiches of our youth. I had both PB&J as well as cinnamon and sugar on toast for breakfast before the school bus picked me up. And we had hamburgers, hot dogs, toasted cheese (it was Velveeta), egg and olive, and BLTs – even for evening meals, on occasion. And I have vivid memories of using the old hand-crank meat grinder to help my mother prepare ham salad sandwiches. At grade school, Mrs. Sampson, who ran the cafeteria, would occasionally make Sloppy Joes and toasted cheese.

Later, when I moved to New England, I became acquainted with new regional favorites – not just Fluffernutter sandwiches (peanut butter and marshmallow cream), but also submarines, massive roast beef sandwiches and, of course, lobster rolls. And I’ve eaten in delis where I enjoyed Reubens, liverwurst, and pastrami sandwiches.

International ideas

But what other varieties might we have missed? How about trying something new? Sandwiches are easy to make, for the most part, and a great way to use leftovers (to help reduce food waste). Of course, you could make your own club sandwich with cheese and ham or another deli meat. But next time, maybe add a celery salad or some sliced pickled beets. Live a little. Here are a few more ideas.

Have you tried a banh mi – the trendy Vietnamese sandwich? Authentic ones incorporate paté, but you can get by with some southeast Asian marinated chicken. And how about a Chilean churrasco marino? It’s fried battered fish topped with onion salsa in a sandwich. Or you could make yourself a Parisian croque monsieur au jambon. It’s simple, but a step above a grilled ham and Swiss.

Or maybe try béchamel sauce on your sandwich. It’s a cream sauce that’s fairly easy to make. Speaking of béchamel, did you ever try a mozzarella in carrozza, that fried mozzarella toast from Venice? Make a sandwich with mozzarella and ham (or anchovies) by spreading the béchamel on bread and top with a piece of ham and a couple of mozzarella slices. Then dip it in an egg and milk mixture, roll it in breadcrumbs, and fry it in oil until crisp. Yum.

Ingredients for the perfect sandwich

London chef Max Halley left chichi London restaurants to start his own sandwich shop in North London. Halley describes the ideal sandwich as having these six components: hot, cold, sweet, sour, crunchy, and soft. He wants to show what a sandwich could be, and his Max’s Sandwich Book features a full English breakfast in a sandwich: bacon, baked beans, black pudding, hash browns, sausages, and a fried egg flavored with a vinegar and Tabasco-laced mayo. Now that’s a meal. His Spaniard sandwiches are massive onion croquetas, lettuce, and pickled onions topped with spicy mayo and lime-pickled onions, all nestled in focaccia.

His Korean Gangster sandwich incorporates braised beef, kimchi, fried ramen and sweet potato starch noodles, and gem lettuce topped with mayo mixed with gravy and Korean doenjang. I’m thinking you could even do something similar by replacing the beef with Korean fried chicken. You wouldn’t need to go all the way with the fried noodles, but dried Chinese noodles might substitute for some crunch, with mayo mixed with gochujang sauce for a condiment. And maybe some sliced dill pickles for the sour.

At any rate, I hope I’ve encouraged you to experiment this summer with something outside your comfort zone. Why not surprise me with what you’ve done?

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