Some Further Thoughts

Just some thoughts on sandwiches in general.

Some of the best sandwiches I've ever had were in Philadelphia. The cheese steaks there are better than cheese steaks anywhere else. Even the ones you get from the street vendors are lights out. Part of the secret to a great philly is an "unclean" griddle. This doesn't mean "unsanitary," of course. If there are rats living in the kitchen, run sideways, backways, as many ways as you can away from the place. But "unclean" means a griddle that hasn't been touched except for the scrapper that day. The flavors are seared into the griddle and are shared from sandwich to sandwich.

My favorite sandwich, bar none, is the BLT. It's an American original and so basic in its prep yet so incredibly delicious after completion. You can screw up a BLT. You can put too little bacon (there's a reason the "B" comes first, people). You can overdo it on the mayo. You can cut the tomato a little too thick, which is a personal taste thing, but for me, I want to taste all the ingredients without one dominating another. And you can always burn the bread. But ultimately, the BLT is to sandwiches what apples are to pie. Without the BLT, what good is it to have any sandwich (again, a personal opinion, I know, but still, they are soooo good). And, it's easy to find good ones, unlike, say, the Philly cheese steak or any seafood sandwich outside of the East Coast.

I'm not a huge fan of the "salad" sandwiches. For reference: My wife asked me, after we were first married, to make some "chicken salad." I proceeded to mix chunked chicken, lettuce, and mayo in a large bowl and served it to her for dinner. Not a smooth move to say the least. You won't find much on this blog about the "salad" sandwiches outside of ham salad, which is one of my favorites (I recently found out that many places, and people, use bologna to make their ham salad--hmmm . . . cheating?). However, I will give them their justice and may defer to my wife, especially on the chicken salad vote.

Finally, it seems a little strange to me that this is my passion outside of teaching and writing. Many writers have outside interests, but this one has always been one that I've surpressed, simply because it seems so . . . out there. Or at least it exists on the fringes. But I do have a dream of some day, perhaps when I retire, opening my own sandwich shop with my own receipes. I hope this blog will be a beginning to that dream.

I could've gone with candy, as I'm a connisseur of confections as well. But Steve Almond already took that one.