National Sandwich Week

I am ashamed to say I did not know at least three months in advance that this week is National Sandwich Week here in the UK. This is criminal as I cannot express in words how much I adore the sandwich. The ultimate convenience food, there's not many things you can't do with a sandwich and I love the fact that there are no rules. There is nothing to stop you adding something, taking something away or re-inventing your favourite fillings. Don't like butter? Use mayo. Not much for white bread? Use brown. You can keep it simple or go for something a bit fancier with focaccia or ciabatta bread. You can have hot or cold fillings. Meat eater or vegetarian, you've just got to love a sandwich. The possibilities are endless. Below are my top three favourite sandwiches.

There's one sandwich that, for me, is head and shoulders above the rest. Unsurprisingly, it contains meat. In fact, there's two meats on my favourite. Chicken and bacon. It's a classic combination, the meat held together with a little bit of mayo, the less the better in my opinion. Just enough to keep the meaty filling solid and together on the bread. I believe that brown bread works best with a chicken and bacon too. Two different types of meat on a sandwich? And one of those is bacon? Sold.

Number two in my list is an absolute classic - the BLT. The bacon has to be as crispy as possible without being burnt. Crisp, crunch iceberg lettuce and fresh, thick sliced tomatoes, it's a wonderful combination. I feel it's more of a summer sandwich, the salad bringing a refreshing coolness to a warm day. Plus it has bacon on it, need I say more?

I'm going to be a bit controversial with my third favourite sandwich, it also used to be considered frightfully middle class. The prawn mayo. Again, I think it's a refreshing sandwich, the filling almost seems to clean the palate. As opposed to the chicken and bacon, I want more mayo on this sandwich and some nice fresh prawns finish the simple filling off nicely.

These are my three favourite sandwiches - for now. As I mentioned in my previous post, my America trip is fast approaching and I would think if you're an American reading this you'll think I'm mad and my choices seem so uninteresting. The UK doesn't really have a thriving sandwich industry. We love to eat them, we invented them, but most sandwiches, let's face it, are boring. The States seem to have a lot of independent sandwich shops with a lengthy menu with thousands of potential filling combinations. You could go every day for a whole year and not have the same sandwich twice. It would be great to have something similar in Stoke. I have a sneaky feeling my holiday will take my love of the humble sandwich to new heights with the lobster roll, pastrami and BBQ pulled pork just some of the sandwiches possibly fighting for a place in my top three. I will let you know.

Thanks for reading.

Ben