No sandwich chains over there ala Subway or Jimmy John’s?
Me, too. El Quinto Pino, a tapas place in Manhattan, serves an uni panini (sic) which is my favorite sandwich - a modestly-sized ficelle with a thin layer of sea urchin and mustard oil.
But I also like a great big tuna salad sub.
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This is funny. One of our best sandwiches was from the lunch stand in the basement of Grey’s Antiques Centre in Mayfair. Soft but sturdy bread, juicy pieces of chicken breast, salt and pepper, lettuce, onions, mayonnaise. It was the salt and pepper that woke it up. Became my new “how to”.
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One of husband’s and my most memorable sandwiches was in the village of Bievres, an hour southwest of Paris. Lunch time approaching, I went into the town bakery and asked for a ham and cheese sandwich. The counter lady called out something like, “Maaarie, un jambon y fromage, sil vous plait.” And several minutes later, “Maaarie” toddled out with a warm, floury 12" baguette stuffed with excellent “ham” and cheese. As was our style, we shared the one sandwich, almost duking it out for the final bits.
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I specially ordered sandwich bread and ate sandwiches for lunch today after this thread made me crave them.
But your link made me crack up:
#1. Shree Krishna Vada Pav
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Subway exists. Just as dismal there as it is here…but there are so many better sarnie options that I cant imagine why anyone would go there.
My favorite was a trailer in the back of the industrial park where my business partners office was located near Manchester. They served up a bacon buttie stuffed to bursting with bacon (and HP, natch) that was craveworthy, and it was always my first meal when I flew into Manchester. That buttie and a big mug of builders tea revived me a few times.
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Until fairly recently, we travelled to northern France quite often, in connection with my interest in the Great War. This is a very rural area, dotted with a handful of small towns and villages. I also remember going into a bakery in Bapaume to buy a ham & egg sandwich, on baguette. We ate this one an hour later, parked outside a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery where I’d wanted to photograph a couple of graves of local men who had died near there. It was so peaceful, with no noise other than the occasional bird.
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Some years back, I was doing some extensive research at our local history library. Our town centre is desolate with regards to food options and, even more so, near the library. Lunch was either Subway or McD. Dismal is a good word.
In other areas you might find chains such as Pret a Manger or Leon and you’ll always find independents. You’ll also find convenience store branches of national supermarket chains will have ready made sandwiches to take away,
Before retiring, my workplace was directly opposite one such independent. Now, their lunch sandwiches were not that great but their bacon butty was my downfall. Lots of bacon stuffed into a buttered barmcake (our local name for a bread roll) and you could also pay for “extra bacon”. And their sausage barms were not too bad at all. Ketchup on both please. Or “red sauce” as it’s often called in suhc palces to distinguish it from brown sauce, like HP or Daddies.
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We’ve never encountered a ham & egg sandwich in France. Can you describe?
On the subject of French sandwiches, another fabulous surprise was a “sandwich Lard” at a street fair. → Grilled to order slices of pork belly, tucked into a baguette. Oh, yes!!!
Pork belly sandwich has to be a winner in any language.
My Bapaume sandwich was very simple. Baguette, sliced lengthways and buttered. A single layer of ham topped with a few slices of hard boiled egg. C’est finis.
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I was a self-professed Anglophile in my teens/20’s (and even now). I developed my love of all things British as a high schooler/college-aged kid through my love of the Clash and Sex Pistols and all things-punk rock. A Salt and Battery and Myers of Keswick were on tops of the itinerary when I visited my brother in NYC. And my first trip to London was a head-spinner, as I visited the fancy tea shop in Covent Garden, ate at the original Wagamama and Yo!Sushi when they were still novel, had burek at a well-known place that I can’t remember, laughed at my brother who loved a full-on English breakfast (the Brits make the best toast), fell in love with Little Scarlet jam and clotted cream, devoured fish and chips at Rock and Plaice (was that the name?), the best vegetarian food I’d ever had at several places, beautiful Indian food. To me, British food was a mishmash of cultures that I couldn’t get enough of.
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That gets my vote for one of the funniest statements I’ve ever read.
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That will have been the Rock & Sole Plaice. Geddit?
Unfortunately my only experience of it was mega disappointing.
(for those not immediately getting the pun, Rock is rock salmon or huss).
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Believe it or not, the first time I ever saw Subway was on a visit to Dublin. I thought it was a local chain trying to be American.
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Stay off the interstate highways if you have time. In may cases there are old highways running next to the interstate and will take you into the small towns.
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Apologies for my conflating of English/British all over my post. I blame it on jet lag (still waking up at 3.30-4am EST).
I believe there is still a little bit of a grudge going on since 1783 .
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We’ve never encountered a ham & egg sandwich in France.
Really? The first time I had jambon oeuf was in France. I dont remember where, but I bought them regularly for my lunch when I was in the 77.
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Except maybe Yiddish…
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