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Over the weekend, I got to thinking, “man, I really like sandwiches. I should write more about that.” The fact of the matter is, I think about sandwiches a lot, far more than I eat them. But when I do eat a sandwich, especially one I’ve made, I over-think it.

For example, I have this German style bread now that makes a good sandwich. It has these little nut things in it that give the deep, dark brown slices a slightly crunchy feel. For sometime, I’ve used white cheese only — provolone, Swiss, or mozzarella — and I recently switched to simple American. Usually I think yellow cheese is normal and boring, but then I realized, no it’s not, it can be as fun as white cheeses.

So, there you have it: I aim to beef up my knowledge about sandwiches and generate content appropriately.

The Thai Sandwich

We went to Thai Kitchen tonight, and it was the perfect chance to work on The Sandwich Project: they had something called a Thai Sandwich. It was the perfect thing for building up the base definition of a sandwich: putting something on sliced bread.

Now, that’s just the start of the definition. I don’t have it fully worked out yet, but sliced bread is a key ingredient that I’ve found so far. We can all agree on sliced bread (I hope).

Let’s look at the Thai sandwich:

You’ll notice that it’s a single slice of bread, fried, with something on top. They’ve cut it up into small pieces as well. On top of the bread is a layer of egg, then pieces of pork, followed by another layer of egg (I think). It all gets fried, and I got it with a little cucumber and onion mix.

Now, this isn’t a sandwich as you’d get from Subway, but I hold that it’s a sandwich nonetheless. The primary characteristic is that it’s “stuff” on sliced bread. And, in fact, we have precedents: The Croque Madame.

The Hot Dog Dilemma

While the Thai Sandwich problem may have been solved, Kim raised a very real issue: what about hot-dogs? Are Hot-dogs? Sandwiches?

Speaking personally, I say, no, a hot-dog is clearly not a sandwich. And, yet, Kim’s case is compelling: it is “stuff” between two pieces, perhaps even slices of bread.

So, I pull myself back from my gut instinct to reject the hot-dog as a sandwich. But, I ask you, dear readers, is a hot-dog a sandwich?

While the wikipedia discussion on Hot Dogs raises the issue, I’m interested in what you, dear readers, have to say. What do you think?

Tags: food, sandwhich.