It is hard to say when my adoration of sanwiches started precisely. Sandwiches are the kind of snack that have always been a part of life - so locating the exact time you became conscious of them is a cognitive challenge for anyone. Sandwiches serve a need - your stomach is rumbling, but you have neither the time nor resource to assemble the ingredients and apparatus necessary for a meal. Instead, you buy a sandwich - which will be tasty, satisfy hunger, and best case - be an experience to remember.
Yes, locating my first sandwich experiences are difficult. My mother fondly recalls the time that, as an infant, she left me with a Glaswegian baby-sitter who happily fed me sausages against her will (she felt I was too young for solids) - and arrived at the baby-sitter's residence to find me happily toothlessly chowing-down on these sausages. Said baby-sitter's words of consolation to my mother: "Margaret, she'll ne'er learn tae chew!" I like to think this was early indication that I would get stuck in to any food-related challenge ahead of me.
I recall fondly reading Michelle Magorian's classic 'Goodnight, Mister Tom' whilst at primary school, with one scene in particular describing two of the main characters enjoying a cup of tea and jam sandwich together in war-time English countryside, and heading home with the explicit aim of creating such a feast for myself - white bread, strawberry jam, strong milky builder's tea.
Indeed, sandwiches have played a part in other forms of media - notably Father Ted (a favourite TV show of mine) - with heroine Mrs. Doyle piling an unseemly quantity of sandwiches on any visitor that passes through their Craggy Island parochial house. In Friends also - the memorable scene in which Joey believes he hears a gunshot whilst on a cop stake-out in New York, and throws himself in front of his sandwich instead of Chandler (as it transpires) to save the sandwich from gunfire.
My own, real, memories of sandwiches would go on to include; a weekend spent perfecting the grilled cheese and tuna, the first time I tried Marks & Spencer's club sandwich (more of which at a later point in this blog), the realisation of how meat SHOULD be sliced for perfect fit in a sandwich, discovery of one particular Clapham sandwich shop, and how avocado can be leveraged as a super-food alternative to traditional 'moist makers' (to reference the episode of Friends whereby Ross is incensed by sandwich theft!). All in all, dear reader, I hope this blog will be both interesting and informative, and ensure you make better sandwich choices - in turn brightening your day little by little! It's going to be a fun journey, keep in touch.
JC xxx
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