Since we're here right at the start of our big Sandwich Day, I thought we'd start things off by getting the ground rules on what exactly constitutes a "sandwich." The guy on the right might disagree with me on these rules, but here goes.
A sandwich is any kind of food that you can combine with another kind of food and/or condiment and eat it while holding it in your hand. Now, that's not to say that beef stew would instantly "become" a sandwich just because you eat it with your hands, of course. Beef stew is a stew!
You're probably wondering why I wasn't more specific with my definition and include the word "bread" in there. Because sometimes (especially in these carb-counting times), a sandwich can be made without bread. A lot of people, to cut down on carbs and calories, will take two lettuce leaves and use them as the "bread." I've done this before. I'll put ham and cheese or chicken in between large lettuce leaves, maybe add some mustard too.
Of course, if you use some type of bread, that clarifies the definition a little. But sandwiches have come a long way since the days of just taking some meat and cheese and throwing it inside two slabs of Wonder Bread and cutting it in half (by the way, Wonder Bread is terrible for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - falls apart too easily!).
What's your definition of a sandwich?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-21-2006 @ 9:45AM
Chris said...
I'd say your definition is complete if you qualify it by adding that the top and bottom of the food that you're holding in your hand and eating are made out of the same thing, whether it is bread, lettuce, or tortillas, in the case of quesadillas.
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9-21-2006 @ 10:26AM
B said...
If it's not made with bread, it's not a sandwich. If you use a tortilla, it's a wrap. If you use lettuce, well I don't know what to call it then.
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9-21-2006 @ 11:02AM
kevin said...
I agree with B that if bread isn't holding it together then it isn't a sandwich, but I'm more generous in my definition of bread. A tortilla wrap works, a pita works, and even the the dough enclosing a calzone or the pastry wrapping a pastie works. Lettuce doesn't work, that's just a hand-held salad.
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9-21-2006 @ 5:22PM
Erin said...
It's not a sandwich if it doesn't have bread, though any kind of bread will do. The things made with lettuce tend to be called something else in restaurants, e.g. Lettuce wraps.
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10-27-2006 @ 1:44PM
Justin Pevnick said...
If you really want to know what a sandwich is, my site has researched the issue at length:
http://sandwichmanifesto.blogspot.com
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