What do you think is the best sandwich?
By sandwich, I am excluding "the Shaggy", where you just pile every good thing you can think of on.
I mean what is your favorite traditional sandwich, such that you could say the name to a stranger and have a reasonable chance of them knowing what fillings you are thinking of.
You may include candidates which are not not universally be considered a sandwich, such as hot dogs, quesadillas, burgers, etc. So long as you genuinely beleive it to be superior to all other sandwich forms.
My current shortlist of candidates, as examples:
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Grilled Cheese - Simple, easy, accessible to the masses
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Bahn Mi - A Vietnamese sandwich of a split baguette with kewpie mayo spread, stuffed with marinated grilled pork, cucumber, carrot, and sliced green pepper.
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Italian Combo - An informal sub combination typically consisting of salami, capicolla, and some form of cheese, mozzarella being used as a default .
You can choose your own metric for what makes for a superior sandwich and may consider any standard toppings for the sandwich like mustard/mayo to be included.
A salmon and cream cheese bagel (which is a sandwich according to the cube rule)
Ah, the cube rule of food. I've been pissing-off friends with that for a long time.
I’m personally more of a Salad Theory kinda guy.
I think the major flaw of the Salad Theory is that it assumes a descriptive rather than a prescriptive definition. Personally, I am fine with a prescriptive definition such "a prepared cold mixture of foods such that a typical person would not notice a difference if the relative position and orientation of its ingredients were randomized". I would go as far as to say an untossed salad is not a salad and the people who say it is are wrong, much like a cheese sandwich is not a grilled cheese. If anything, an untossed salad is more of a smorgasbord than a salad, if you ask me.
I knew I liked Tildes for a reason. Fellow cube rule connoisseurs!
Easily Cuban sandwich.
Agreed. Also to slice things up, Tampa Cuban > Miami Cuban. Fight me.
Ok so, I'm on team grilled cheese and that's because my favorite sandwich is a grilled cheese with cheddar and provolone, bacon, thin sliced granny smith apples and pepper jelly.
My favorite sandwich was sold in a franchise shop that closed and the next nearest local one made theirs with an orange habanero jelly and the orange is wrong. They just closed 3 months ago, probably due to making my favorite sandwich wrong.
I can't tell about the next next nearest restaurant... They sell the sandwich but I'm not sure if it's "right".
This is the best sandwich and therefore the grilled cheese is the overarching best category.
And if anyone comes in here and tries to tell me it's actually a melt, during PRIDE MONTH ... I'll curse you with something endlessly annoying. The grilled cheese/melt reddit debate is dumb.
Pride month or no, when you're wrong, you're wrong. And a grilled cheese is so named because it is unique in that it contains only cheese!
May your socks always feel slightly twisted and needing adjusted, even when you aren't wearing them.
There was absolutely no need for that.
I knew the risks when I commented, and as such I accept your curse with dignity.
This thread was a delight to read. Thank you both.
(I have no stance on the Grilled Cheese / Melt debate, I only strongly believe that they’re best made with mayo instead of butter for the grilling process)
Here is why this is exactly wrong.
When someone says "a grilled cheese with cheddar, provolone, bacon, granny smith apples, and pepper jelly" do you know exactly what it is that they have gotten? The answer is yes. Thus it has met the requirement of language - to effectively describe what it is describing. Or to put it another way, the futility and pedantry of linguistic prescriptivism is a ginormous bore, and linguistic descriptivism is where it's at.
Something can be communicated without being communicated easily. To me, what happens when I read that description is that I have to recontextualize half way through. Because readers (or listeners) are always anticipating the next words to some extent, at "grilled cheese with" I am building a model in my head of the next words either being kinds of cheese, or sides, or some other things that would go "with" a grilled cheese.
Language evolves over time, but that doesn't mean any given change is inevitable or even acceptable. Not that this isn't, just, the overall argument doesn't really hold water.
The argument @aphoenix makes is a well-understood in linguistics and philosophy as "meaning as use", was made famous by Wittgenstein, and is very much accepted as not just the norm within the field of linguistics but the foundation upon which further study of words and their meanings is based. You can insist that the definition you prefer for "grilled cheese" is "better" in some hypothetical way until you're blue in the face, but that does not change the well-documented fact that this is how the word "grilled cheese" is widely used -- a definition that excludes "melts" does not remotely reflect real-world language use, at least not in aggregate. You can insist on using the word differently yourself, but that does not change how the word is used by the speaker community in general, which is what defines what a word's meaning actually is.
The contention that it invites confusion with side dishes doesn't change the real-world usage of the word, as reevaluating a sentence's meaning and structure as it's uttered is completely normal and does not entail that a sentence is incorrect or even flawed. If human beings can handle garden path sentences, they can handle using the word "with" both of these (extremely common) senses of the word when used in the context of grilled cheese. And, indeed, this is evidenced by the fact that the phrase "grilled cheese with X" is widely used in this way. "with" may well be more often used in this sense when it comes to grilled cheese than it is for the "side dish" sense (though I am way too lazy to do the corpus linguistics to actually investigate that).
Fwiw the item is sold at the restaurant as a spicy apple bacon grilled cheese. When I make it at home I just call it my favorite sandwich.
My partner understands me and thus it works.
I usually don't bother to participate in "grilled cheese" vs "melt" debates because despite being wrong by any objective linguistic metric, the "melt" people will forever continue to be more obnoxious than they're worth. But insisting that meaning as use in general is a bad argument was good enough bait for me lol
Your favorite sandwich sounds lit and I wanna try it sometime.
It's so good, if you have Great Harvest Bread Co near you that's the restaurant
I may have messaged my partner about whether we have bacon
I never once used the word "melt" in my comments. I have no opinion on "grilled cheese versus melt" debate other than that a grilled cheese implies it contains only cheese.
You can appeal to authority all you want, but I know what the word means to me. Maybe that makes me more wrong than right, if you average all English-speaking experiences together, but fortunately or unfortunately the only experience that actually, fundamentally matters (in sort of the "I think therefore I am" way) is my own.
Edited to add: The very fact that the debate exists lends credence to the value of the debate, by your own logic. If there are enough speakers that find the usage obtuse or inconvenient and who go out of their way to address it that it becomes a recognizable debate, it must be a debatable position from the "this is how the word is used" perspective.
The "grilled cheese versus melt" debate is a debate on whether the word "grilled cheese" can be used for a sandwich that contains things other than cheese, and the "melt" side of that argument represents those who argue, as you do, that grilled cheese definitionally cannot contain anything but cheese. What term you personally use for a grilled cheese with other fillings is your own business; "melt" has become the shorthand due to it being the word of choice in a very public instance of this argument.
As for your edit, I've never said anything to deny that there is a debate or that a subset of the speaker community uses grilled cheese more narrowly. The argument I'm making is not invalidated by the existence of a subset of the speaker community that uses the word differently, but people aho insist on imposing a definition from that minority onto a speaker community for whom that is evidently not the definition are wrong.
Referencing the academic science of linguistics in a discussion about the meanings of words (and even providing references for the philosophical origins of this approach so that you can read about them in detail if you wanted to go deeper) is no more an appeal to authority than referencing biologists when discussing animals. You're insisting that your way is correct based purely on your own ideological grounds and refusing to engage with science because you don't like what it says. This conversation is the equivalent of a biologist arguing with a young earth creationist.
You're sure putting a lot of words, or at least expectations, in my mouth.
It literally is an appeal to authority. It's up to the reader to decide if that appeal matters to them or not, in their life.
There is no objective truth about what a word "must" mean. I guess I should have clarified that position from the start. I am "arguing" in good faith, in good fun, expressing my truth without expectation that anyone necessarily agree with it.
I didn't mean to start an argument with my tongue-in-cheek posting about linguistic determinism, so I apologize for that.
However, I think that there's a bit of a problem with calling any appeal to people who study the manner an appeal to authority. The appeal to authority fallacy has some limitations. If we are talking about the same idea of "appeal to authority" as I linked - ie. it is a logical fallacy and thus something that one should take with a grain of salt - then what @sparksbet has done isn't logically fallacious. It's simply referencing. Not all referencing, and not all education, is an appeal to authority.
Fair enough, I was probably overly provocative with my use of "appeal to authority"! I never called it fallacious use, but, that's definitely the common use of the phrase.
It is something that I have only ever seen yelled about on the internet. I've never had any confusion, debate, disagreement, etc. in real life. It mostly seems to stem from a reddit argument and even the chronically online non-redditors I know don't know of a disagreement.
Given the number of former/current redditors here I was just preemptively hoping to forestall such a complaint. No one in my real life would call what I described anything but a [modifier] grilled cheese, the way that a [modifier] club sandwich exists.
The only disparity in language over the sandwich I've heard IRL is the "cheese toastie" vs "grilled cheese"
For what it's worth, I did mean for it to be a throwaway comment expressing my own opinion, with the assumption being that I was doing so respectfully. I harbor no ill will, and I am genuinely sorry that I inadvertently made it a whole thing (which was exactly what you expressed you did not want).
I appreciate the intent was basically a joke, I admit to being frustrated that even with a warning I couldn't avoid the whole thing. I hope you're preternaturally aware of your feet.
However this has resulted in me ensuring I have the ingredients for my favorite sandwich and making it tonight
I hope you enjoy the best grilled cheese of your life!
I'll start by saying I agree with language being descriptive. In English, how a word is used dictates its meaning, not the other way around. Where I might disagree with you is from my personal experience. You have asserted that the original comment usage is common, and easily understood. From my personal experience, and common usage in my area, a "grilled cheese" is bread, cheese, fat. Anything else is served on the side for dipping. I was admittedly a little confused when reading the first description, just as F13 was. Like a garden-path sentence the list of ingredients was unexpected and required some mid sentence re-contextualizing. I was, however, still able to understand what was being said. If this "grilled cheese" discussion was not initiated in the original comment I would have likely just read it, figured out what they meant and moved on. There is something slightly dehumanizing to insist that my common usage is inherently not "real-world" usage, since for me it is the only usage I have known. Like F13 I have no preference for melt either, just that "grilled cheese" is unique in it's implied simplicity. If I were to name this I would have just split the grilled and cheese around the ingredients "grilled spicy apple bacon cheese sandwich".
It's a spicy apple bacon grilled cheese.
And it was delicious
I intentionally didn't reply directly to you since you originally expressed a desire not to discuss linguistics and only food.
I'm glad you found something you enjoy.
I literally nowhere said that there aren't speakers who use grilled cheese solely for when it contains cheese or that this wasn't real world usage. I instead said that referring to grilled cheese sandwiches with other fillings added as "grilled cheese" is common real-world usage. This is verifiably the case in at least the speaker community I'm in as well as the one in which the restaurant DefinitelyNotAFae visited was located. You and your speaker community can continue using the term however you use it, even if you use it differently than I do.
The problem is people coming into the comments of any discussion of grilled cheese by the wide swath or people who include sandwiches with other fillings added and insist that they're the ones who are wrong and using language incorrectly. The reverse does not happen and is not what I'm doing here. You're at best interpreting what I say extremely uncharitably by framing it as though I'm the one prescribing language use that differs from how it's descriptively used on someone else here, in a disagreement in which I am arguing against doing that very thing.
My main issue with the comment I initially replied to from F13 was the insistence on disparaging the linguistic scientific approach to defining words' meanings, which goes beyond just this particular example and essentially results in discarding the entire science of linguistics in favor of "all people who speak differently than I want them to are wrong because I said so."
I appreciate your clarifications. It was the part in the comment I replied to you said that using grilled cheese in the narrow scope means that you are not part of the "speaker community" that made me feel discounted. Phrases like "not remotely reflect real-world language use" and "You can insist on using the word differently yourself, but that does not change how the word is used by the speaker community" definitely made me feel like you were trying to say anyone who disagreed with your usage was not part of the real-world speaker community. If someone asked me if I wanted a grilled cheese and It came with anything other than bread and cheese I would be confused (and for my personal tastes, disappointed). If people are using "grilled cheese" the same way I might use say "burger" I am in the dark to it. For me "burger" can refer to an entire family of sandwiches with endless topping variation each still being called only a "burger".
When I refer to a "speaker community", I'm not referring to the existence of one single community of speakers and only they exist, but rather narrowing the scope of the conversation to within one of many speaker communities because that's linguistically relevant. There are other speaker communities where "grilled cheese" isn't used for this type of sandwich at all, for instance. Different regions use language differently and form different speaker communities, often ones that overlap each other to various extents. Similarly, some words have different or more specific meanings within a subculture or professional speaker community than they do in a broader speaker community consisting of the general public. When I use "speaker community", I'm using it to broadly describe a group of people using language in different ways without having to distinguish between the reasons why (as terms like dialect, sociolect, etc tend to be more specific and overly technical for this context).
Among the people who use the term "grilled cheese" for a griddled sandwich containing cheese at all, using "grilled cheese" to refer to sandwiches that contain other fillings in addition to cheese is widely done. If it's something you haven't personally encountered, it's possible you're in a different speaker community that's a subset of people who use the term "grilled cheese" more narrowly, and the meaning of the word in that speaker community is however people use it. But if that is the case, there are still a lot of people who use the term "grilled cheese" more broadly than your speaker community does, it is extremely widespread even if you haven't personally encountered it. Presumably DefinitelyNotAFae's restaurant menu item and my own personal experience growing up using it that way should serve as sufficient evidence of at least the existence of people who use the term this way. I'm not aware of any more rigorous academic research into absolute numbers, but this usage is widespread enough that prior to the famous conflict in r/grilledcheese, there was no shortage of people trying to post grilled cheese sandwiches that had other fillings added in addition to cheese, because that is how they used that word. There's a certain subset of extremely annoying people, mostly online, who like to badger people who use the word this way by insisting they're using the word "incorrectly". DefinitelyNotAFae references them in her initial comment specifically because it's so difficult to avoid these people online even when you're just trying to talk about your favorite sandwich.
Among those of us who do accept this broader use of "grilled cheese", the prototypical grilled cheese is still the same combination of just bread, cheese, and fat that you think of, and I too would be disconcerted if someone just offered me "a grilled cheese" and it had other fillings in it. The difference is that if I am offered "a grilled cheese with bacon" or "a grilled cheese with ham", that's a perfectly natural way of referring to a sandwich that is otherwise identical to that grilled cheese but has said protein included with the cheese.
The people who try to insist other people are using the word "grilled cheese" wrong are just as incorrect as those who make up other arbitrary, unfounded "rules" for the English language that have no linguistic basis, and what frustrated me about the comment I replied to was less the specifics of grilled cheese in the first place and more the paternalistic prescriptivist disdain for linguistics as a science because it doesn't support one's personal favorite such arbitrary "rule".
My rule for offering input on language is heavily inspired by xkcd 1576. In short I try to only offer input to improve communication, because ultimately communication is hard. I am clearly not online enough to know about this argument. I would say though, if there is enough people to sustain an argument, there must be people on both sides. Accepting that English is determined by it's usage, all methods must be correct. The way the restaurant chose to label their sandwich is also more clear than your offerings. This is because of the ambiguity of the word "with". It can either mean accompanying or comprised of. For your two examples I would probably understand, but for different ingredients I think the ambiguity grows. If it was a "grilled cheese with apple slices" I would assume side dish. If it was a "grilled cheese with pepper jelly" I would assume dipping sauce. Ultimately the ambiguity would likely make me at least ask for clarification. My read on the original interaction was that DefinitelyNotAFae made an in-group joke and F13 played along.
When was the last time you actually grilled your grilled cheese? It should be a griddled or skilleted cheese sandwich. Alton Brown has made the only true Grilled Cheese sandwich that I'm aware of.
Grilled a la Foreman grill. So like, nearly every time.
Ah, you see, to me that's a barbecue and grilling is using the top down heating element in your oven where you take the shelf and move it right up to the top
Are you a Brit? What you're describing is what we call a broiler in the States, at least in the regions I've lived.
I am!
It's okay, we still like you
I havent been this thrown by a grilled cheese recipie since I watched the Gordon Ramsay saga.
I know, and yet it's both melted (unlike his) and genuinely amazing.
The version you've described sounds amazing and I wish I could try it. My favorite variation is with cheddar, american cheese, thinly sliced red onions, and sriracha for dipping.
Ooh that also sounds really good!
"And you call it melted, despite the fact that it's obviously grilled" "Yes 😄"
I don't know the reference.
I grew up in a city, in the middle of the US, that called them cheese toasties for some unknown reason. Neither of my parents were born there, and so I grew up saying grilled cheese.
I have loathed the "melt" debate for years after being harassed for calling things a grilled cheese in the first place.
Huh, I'm from the US originally, but live in the UK now and they're also called cheese toasties out here. Had no idea anywhere in the US called them that too. No idea how it got the name, when they're usually griddled. Cafes will often use a toaster oven though.
Right it's literally like the UK, New Zealand (maybe Australia?) and my hometown.
I have no idea why, there's no obvious reason but even chain restaurants would call them cheese toasties there. It may have changed in the 20 years since I lived there
Haha, I have fun trying to figure out why the words are different somtimes. It's almost always that someone just had to pick something one day and that's what they went with.
I did search and it's still a cheese toastie/y
Idk why (and I know my hometown may be obvious if folks look for it but I don't live there anymore so meh), and there's never been any sort of town legend or anything about it.
But having people sneer at you saying "grilled cheese" (or pop) instead of cheese toastie (or soda) is exhausting and it's why I tried to be clear that I don't think it's even a funny joke to yell about "melts".
Yeah, people get very defensive about local dialects. I try to be understanding (particularly because in my situation I am the immigrant, it is polite for me to use the local dialect and I do use it, and there's the additional worry of American English overwriting British English), but I agree it is exhausting. I'm like, you knew what I meant.
Edit: I dunno, I just find it really rude to correct people's language like that.
I was also a kid, and kids are growing. I am more understanding of that now as an adult. But no one was confused about what the makeup of my sandwich is and there's no local dialect on the internet, ya know?
Yeah, totally. They were being jerks in my opinion, really no excuse. Cannot blame you for getting angry.
The reference is from Steamed Hams. Interesting to hear that you have places in the US that call them toasties, I always thought the Dutch term "tosti" had no English equivalent and that grilled cheese sandwich was the only translation.
I have no idea about any other place in the US that says "cheese toastie". I don't know if it's places at all, or just this one weird little city.
I did find this!
QT 121 – The Linguistic Gridlock of Grilled Cheese — Kitchen Catastrophe
Interestingly "grilled cheese" didn't become common until the 60s and toaster irons were probably why "toastie" became a thing.
The restaurant I first ordered this sandwich through does sell them as a spicy apple bacon grilled cheese and I don't live in my hometown anymore but it's a weird little linguistic thing
ETA: and yeah I'm not a simpsons person so that makes sense.
Interesting! I'm not a simpsons person either, but Steamed Hams has kind of trancended being a meme and has become a sort of template to try cool video stuff with, like animation or showcasing the medium of Ottoman Shadow Play (yes really). The rabbit hole is endless!
That meme missed me entirely. Feels a bit like the Downfall subtitle edits
A bit yeah
My favorite sandwich, made imperfectly, but with love
Pics
That looks so good!
I needed to add more or hotter jelly (I only had jalapeno available) but overall I was very happy with it. It's just a pain in the butt to have all the ingredients for at once and make the bacon before the sandwich or I'd make it more often.
I do love a basic grilled cheese too though so nothing goes to waste.
Oooh, I haven't had a cheese and apple toastie in 20 years, those were great!
One of these things: https://img.buzzfeed.com/video-api-prod/assets/46c4bfcf4d43466d9964e2696b7f71e2/BFV4751_PizzaToastie-Thumb1080SQ.jpg
Never used that kind of sandwich press, these were pressed but in more of a grill! (Or panini press? It had the ridges though)
For me it's a four way tie between:
The Reuben, but my favorite way to have it is with a cup of chili con carne and wavy potato chips. It's a whole meal. I have it maybe once a year.
A croque madame, which is a croque monsieur with a fried egg on top.
French dip, which is just hot roast beef in a French bread roll tipped in au jus. I like mine with cheese, but I'll eat it without.
The Cuban, as mentioned elsewhere.
Not to derail an otherwise-excellent conversation about food with grammatical details, but one of the most astounding things I ever saw on a menu was 'French Dip Sandwich - hot roast beef sandwich au jus with gravy'.
(In French, au jus literally means 'with juice', so the English with is redundant, and tacking on 'with gravy' is just absurd.)
Ouais, je sais parce que je parle un peu de français, mais les anglophones ne connais pas, ensuite j'utiliser les mots comme en anglais.
You can tell it's really me speaking French because of how terrible my French is...
You think your French is bad, you should hear my Spanish: it's brought native hispanophones to tears of laughter.
EDIT: Et honnêtement, il n'est pas si mauvais que ça, ton français; tu sais te faire comprendre sans trop de difficultés.
Mi esapňol no es malo… pero no es bueno. I have much more opportunity to practice and absorb Spanish here in Texas than I do French, but there is French around me if I wish to engage.
My biggest struggle with French is that it’s almost purely a written input language for me. I can read French just fine, just don’t ask me to write it, speak it, or understand it spoken…
Redundant redundancy is a wonderful feature of language though! Even in everyday French! If you trace the origins of the word aujourd’hui, it literally means “on the day of on this day”.
The Internet, which tells no lies, informs me that this particular usage is starting to loop in on itself, and au jour d'aujourd'hui is starting to appear.
Would this on a menu look less absurd, but still as informative to non French speakers?
I would say that it does, because the parentheses indicate that 'with gravy' is a translation of au jus.
(But then I'm compulsive about language. Occupational hazard.)
Haha I sort of get it, when I was in school they wanted to be inclusive and celebrate Lunar New Year by having people say Kung Hei Fat Choi, but while it's a phrase we say on new years, the phrase itself doesn't mean happy new year. So minor but it catches my brain a little bit
Interesting, Wikipedia and Wiktionary both claim the phrase means 'Happy Chinese New Year', but you seem to disagree. I'm curious, then: what does it actually mean?
It means "wishing you prosperity". It is commonly used to express happy greetings for chinese new year, but the literal meaning is about prosperous wishes. It is often accompanied by lyesee (not sure if I anglicized that correctly) which are red envelopes with cash in them.
I love 利是 cash gifts. It's the superior holiday gift.
The mistake runs that deep?!
恭喜發財 literally means "Congrats - You Rich!" In particular, the verb here, 發, is the kind of rich that suddenly happens upon someone, like a huge bump in profits or winning the lottery. The 財 is monetary wealth: different from Fortune 福 which is another word you see a lot everywhere on New years, sometimes written upsidedown to deliberately make a pun on Fortune having Arrived / Turned (到/倒). All in all, it's a greeting that's super common and we don't think too much of it, but those who do will know it's a greeting that's money based. There's an unspoken second half of this that rhymes:
恭喜發財 利是逗來 (kung hei fat Choi / lei see dou loi ) -- grats, you rich! Hand over the money envelope
As kids, we were explicitly forbidden from completing the rhyme in our greetings to relatives, on pains of severe punishment and garnishment of any lei see that would have been obtained in this manner. Even if the relative is laughing and hand over money, they're silently judging our parents and we'd "get it" when we got home. For that reason, as adults, friends have asked me for lei see using the rhyme, for laughs and giggles, and to signify "No I don't actually expect money, we're peers and this is a weird custom". (I got married young, and married folks give lei see to unmarried folks)
Anyway, actual happy new year is quite literally new year happy, 新年快樂 . Which is similar to Birth Day Happy 生日快樂 and Holy Nativity Happy 聖誕快樂 .
Lol I should have waited for your more in depth and more correct explanation.
Eh, you provided a first approximation. That's valuable too. Thanks!
Nooooo we need to hear from everyone >:D until they change the dang Wikipedia article
That was a fascinating and hilarious explanation. Thanks!
+1
Banh Mi, and I will fight anyone over that. Loser has to eat the other person's sandwich. So, no losers, really.
Any preferred filling? I only recently moved somewhere I can get banh mi easily and I love BBQ pork on it
I absolutely need the coriander/cilantro/pakuchi, but I know somebody have a bad reaction to it. Apart from that, the crispy baguette is key. You need to look like a sandstorm hit your shirt after you finish eating it.
I often refer to this legendary post that has some of the prettiest sandwiches -- link to comment on reddit
for me, its tough to beat mortadella with provolone.
Depends on the mood and season.
Best summer sandwiches?
Fall:
Winter:
No avocado for me. Just tomato, mayo, salt and pepper on toasted white bread. The tomato should be picked ripe off the vine, and smell like warm summer sunlight. There's no better sandwich.
I'm with you up until toasting the bread; the stiffness of toasted bread makes the the soft insides squirt out the back when you take a bite.
Peanut butter and Banana is good, but lately I have swapped the peanut butter for Nutella.
Okay, hear me out, do both. It's a game changer, PB on one slice, Nutella on the other, banana sandwiched between. It's super intense, but delicious
Don't sleep on a good PB&J. My normal go to was a peanut butter banana sandwich for the longest time. I'm a sucker for both the classic white bread and "elevated" with sourdough and nice peanut butter and some locally made jam.
Mmm sounds lovely.
PB and B is great but not grilled for me
Try it out if you haven't! Certainly indulgent but so gooey and good.
I don't enjoy toasted PB sandwiches. I'm not sure why.
Have you ever toasted the bread alone, not the whole sandwich?
Not for a sandwich but I don't like PB toast. It might be warm PB that I object to tbh
I find that PB and toast make for a pretty dry combo. Maybe that's why for you, too?
Maybe, I do like just a PB sandwich (with something to drink, childhood me drank milk) and I've never liked it warm. I have no idea.
Danish flæskestegssandwich!!
I want to have a series of buffet meals where it's [Item] from around the world themed. This week, sandwiches like flæskestegssandwich and Francesinha and the best dang grilled cheese with the best bread and cheese. And you can learn how to say each dish's name, read a short blurb about its history and local significance , and get a Sandwich stamp on your Buffet passport's page for that region for having tried it.
I have never seen this before. But I need it right now.
Had to look this up, it in deed looks delicious. Salty, tangy, sweet, and umami.
Central Grocery Muffaletta, New Orleans LA
As close as I am to New Orleans, I should really make some time to drive down there and at least try the French Quarter cuisine.
Glad someone said this so I didn't have to link out. This is the best sando ever created. Hot or cold.
...a well-made muffaletta, especially toasted, is really tough to beat...
I don’t know about toasted because part of the goodness is the cold, saltiness of it on a hot summer day, but this is the correct answer.
I don’t think I’ve ever run across a toasted option. It would be a hard pass, if I did. But I don’t think I have.
...it transforms into an entirely different experience with crispy bread, melty cheese, and warm meat - cold ingredients are added separately, after toasting - but each are great in their own way...
(mind, i quit eating meat fourty years ago, so it's been a long while since i've eaten a traditional muffaletta rather than a vegetarian variant, but they're all delicious)
I always thought it was crazy that subway toasted with salad included. People looked at me like I'd grown a second head when I suggested the salad should probably be added after toasting though!
I dunno, that diced olive spread seems like it would be even better if it was served warm.
Agreed, the best version of the muffaletta is the one from Central Grocery; made that morning, and room temperature (sitting out on the counter in big stacks, pre-bagged).
I had one from Central Grocery when I was in New Orleans, it was so good but so big. I bought an entire one for myself and saved it in my fridge at the hotel for a few days. I did my best to eat it all.
I can finish a half in one sitting, but I'm very full after. I've never tried to eat a whole one in one sitting, and while I'm sure I probably could, I think I'd be miserable after.
I am in mostly in agreement with the ranking from @Narry but mine is slightly different as I'm not a huge fan of ham or thick slices of pork (as would be in a Cuban).
NashvilleKorean hot chicken sandwichI upgrade the Nashville hot chicken to Korean hot chicken.
I picked my top 4, but honestly I love a bunch of sandwiches. Never had a Nashville hot chicken sandwich. The last one sounds pretty amazing as well, bagel sandwiches are amazing.
I realized after reading another comment that my favourite hot chicken is actually korean hot chicken - instead of the nashville style hot sauce, it uses gochujang. I like to put pickles and a bit of iceberg lettuce, and sometimes kimchi as well.
Sandwiches and wraps are my favourite things to eat.
Pretty much every day I eat some sort of wrap because I have a high fiber tortilla that I like to use to keep my daily fiber goals in line, and totally not because I’m looking for an excuse to have some sort of a wrap every single day.
Ha, I also frequently have wraps in high fiber tortillas as well. Usually it's scrambled eggs in a wrap for me.
We did those for a while, but had a hard time keeping the egg from falling out of it because we make ours a little bit on the crumbled side. Large chunks for sure, but still not enough to correctly bind together in a tortilla even with cheese melted in there. Now I mostly just have breakfast quesadillas and then eggs on the side when we have eggs.
After reading all the replies I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a slut for anything sandwich. I won’t pick any favorites because they are all yummy. Thanks for all the inspiration, I will be stuffing my face with some new additions to the repertoire, soon! (Banh Mi sounds amazing and I now wonder why I haven’t eaten that yet)
I think I'm with you. There's so many amazing sandwiches out there.
Bahn Mis are so good! If you can find an asian grocery store near you with a deli/restaraunt, thats where youll get the best ones.
Grilled cheese was my first thought, and it's amazing for sure and my favorite sandwich that I can make.
But my real favorite is a fried bologna sandwich. And of all fried bologna sandwiches I've had (many more than is safe, to be sure), the best is from a gas station (rural Americans will know what I'm talking about). It's made with a biscuit so tender it falls apart if you hold it wrong, a slice or two of American cheese for maximum melt, and a 1/2" thick slab of bologna, fried on the flat-top. Egg optional, but appreciated. It's heavenly.
My second favorite is a burger from Jack Brown's called The Elvis. It's a fantastic burger with perfectly cooked bacon, cheese, and peanut butter sauce. If you ask for it "on acid," they'll add jalapeño jelly to it. I always do.
Leftover thanksgiving turkey sandwich. Because it's the only time shredded turkey is available. It wouldn't be as good otherwise.
If you put cranberry sauce on it, I accept that but take it somewhere else so I don't have to watch.
Sometimes we just buy a turkey after the holidays when they're cheap and cook it for no reason whatsoever. Turkey sandwiches, turkey salad, turkey soup
Adulthood is when you realize you can make turkey outside of the holidays!
I've had a surprising number of conversations, at various times in my life, about cooking turkeys outside of the holidays. Normally they happen around thanksgiving, sometimes they result in plans, sometimes they even acknowledge the historically low ratio of plans to non-holiday turkeys. Rarely do they result in actual turkey.
Mostly because I'm ok with just annual turkey sandwiches.
That is a fair outcome
My goto is a ham & swiss. Mayo, lettuce, tomato, salt+pepper, and something with bite (black olives usually, but pickled red onions or something similar works great). Not as popular as italian subs when it comes to cold cuts, but I enjoy it more.
Shoutouts to chicken cutlets, ruebens, cubans, cheesesteaks, avocado BLTs, and salmon + cream cheese + capers.
That sounds like an excellent ham sandwich, save for the Swiss cheese. For some reason, I have just never been able to appreciate Swiss cheese. I have attempted to force myself to enjoy it, but I always bounce off for some reason. So I tend to go with Havarti or Gruyere or Muenster or Aldi’s Butterkase for my ham and cheese sandwiches. If I’ve got it, I will also sometimes do a slice of provolone (but never smoked provolone) and sometimes I will do sliced mozzarella from Aldi as well.
It's wild to me that "swiss cheese" in the US refers exclusively to Emmental and not Gruyere or other Swiss cheeses!
Everything about cheese in America is kind of a strange Through the Looking Glass situation compared to where cheese has been made and enjoyed for thousands of years elsewhere in the world.
American cheese, for instance, is basically just cheddar with some additional milk added to it in most cases. In fact, there’s a variety of it that is better than the yellow stuff that is a white cheese. Most people outside of America are only familiar with the plastic wrapped yellow stuff, but there’s an actual deli sliceable cheese that is called American cheese that is far superior to that that’s actually a pretty tasty cheese, but you wouldn’t know because that’s not the cheese that we exported.
Deli sliced American or "Deluxe American" when sold on the shelves is available in white or yellow (aka dyed) varieties depending on your location in the US and the selection at your store. The shelved version is generally pre-sliced but not wrapped in singles, much like other sliced packages of cheese.
My partner prefers deluxe American so I'm really familiar.
I guess I’d never paid attention to it being called deluxe versus the pre-sliced singles in the individual packaging. To my mind, the real American cheese is actually Colby.
I'm not a Colby fan and American is so good on a burger or grilled cheese so I pay attention!
For me, Colby is at its best when mixed with Monterrey Jack. But I do enjoy it solo. For burgers my preferred cheese is either cheddar if I can get it, or apparently deluxe American.
Yeah i was never on team Colby with or without Jack, but I like stronger tasting cheeses mostly, American's perfection for melting just hits perfectly so that I can let it slide (or do a slice of cheddar and a slice of American both
I like to experiment with my various burger cheeses. So far the best ones for me have been deluxe American, mild to medium cheddar (but not sharp cheddar), and Muenster cheese.
I don't eat burgers enough anymore but I also love a blue cheese burger.
I’ve been meaning to try some alternate veggie burgers myself. I’ve always enjoyed a good black bean burger. I vaguely recall Boca Burger having a good veggie burger. And I’d like to try a mushroom burger, either fully mushroom or a mixture with meat. Partly because beef is as expensive as it is, but also mostly because home made beef burgers haven’t tasted very good in about a decade. All the ones I’ve been able to find at the supermarket in my price range have had this low quality taste to them.
My sentimental favorite: Michigan Cherry Chicken Salad on a good croissant.
Grilled Cheese with Kimchi
Crispy pork belly bahn mi
Roast beef and blue cheese. There's a local market which uses London Broil and cambozola, and it's fabulous. Their Chimp Boy Gravel Pants sandwich is a turkey version with blue cheese and sun-dried tomatoes that's also wonderful.
Finally, the one everyone else will hate... the basic deli corned beef and chopped liver. From a deli that knows the ancient lore, on a really serious caraway rye bread.
Toast skagen is my favourite. It's a Swedish shrimp sandwich, usually with craime fraiche, mayo, dill, chives, fish roe, mustard, lemon juice and boiled egg. Plenty of variations exist, but they're usually always pretty good. A very summery sandwich.
This is very local to where I grew up, and is something you should only have once in a while if you like your arteries, but the Fat Darrell. Chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, french fries, and marinara sauce on a hoagie roll.
Honorable mention goes to a nice Philly cheesesteak with sauteed peppers and onions.
I live in the midwest and we have "East Coast style" sandwich shops and typically what that means is the fillings are chopped up and grilled on a flat top grill with sauces and cheese melted over then scooped into a nice crusty sub bun. This is one of my greatest comfort foods.
Specifically I'll usually order "Cajun chicken" or similar from one of these places which is real chicken breast, grilled onions and mushrooms with some cajun ranch and pepper jack cheese and then finished with lettuce and tomato.
Disclaimer: I haven't spent much time on the east coast so I have no idea if this is actually representative of the fare but either way it's delicious.
As a lifelong resident of the east coast, I cant say I have had something like that too often outside of some sandwich focused food trucks. The east coast is a large stretch of land with lots of diverse food cultures spread across it, so maybe I just dont live in the part of the east coast those shops are emulating.
I can definitely say that the style you're describing is delicious and I wish I had more access to that style of shop myself.
There’s a place called Grillbird in Seattle that makes a katsu chicken sando with shredded cabbage, pickles, and honey mustard on a Hawaiian roll. So good!
By the time I saw this thread all my other answers had been said by others, so good on you all for your excellent taste! Reading through this is making me hungry!
For the record my other faves are the bahn mi, reuben, grilled cheese, Cuban, and croque madame/monsieur. Philly cheesesteaks make me feel guilty but they’re darn tasty too.
Your mention of Grillbird reminded me of Katsu Burger. I've never been to Grillbird, but I can vouch for the deliciousness of many of the menu items at Katsu Burger. I used to go a couple times a month when I lived close by. The nori fries are really good as well.
I’m a big fan of most food options in Georgetown. Katsu Burger, Fonda La Catrina, Maruta Shoten, Donburi Station, Kauai Family Restaurant, Matcha Man, Fran’s, Hangar Cafe… such an unassuming industrial neighborhood but so much deliciousness! That whole area is one of Seattle’s best kept secrets.
I wholeheartedly agree. I worked near the Museum of Flight for a few years, and I enjoyed many nice lunches in that time. I also really liked Randy's. It was a terrific greasy spoon with lots of flight memorabilia and lore. My wife would often meet me there for breakfast with my young son, and the owners were always so kind to us. I'm sorry to see that they had to close it down during the pandemic and apparently never reopened. :(
I've not been there, but Grillbird sounds fantastic. Have you been to Un Bien at all? I think they make the best sandwiches in Seattle, and easily some of my favorite sandwiches ever.
I usually go for some version of a philly cheesesteak as my benchmark for a sandwich place I haven't been before. But it's so hard to just pick one, there's so many I enjoy. A Publix Chicken Tender sub, a good brisket sandwich, bahn mi, to name a few.
I'm surprised how much scrolling I had to do to find the Philly. It's an incredible sandwich that's hard to do poorly and amazing if it's done well.
The ultimate comfort food.
Maybe controversial, but I’m taking really really good bread with almost any choice of filling over mediocre bread even with my favourites.
If we’re in a wonderful world of excellent bakery and abundant options then roast pork belly, falling apart tender and dripping with fat, along with a big shard of extra salty crackling on two thick slices of a freshly baked bloomer is hard to beat. Apple sauce mandatory, whole grain mustard optional, some kind of dark leafy green highly recommended.
Ooh, it's so hard to choose a best sandwich, so many that I love. The bahn mi and grilled cheese are definitely on my favorites list, but I think I'll list ones that haven't been mentioned yet.
These are a tier down for me, but I still love them.
Ooh I hadn’t even considered pulled pork! That’s a great choice!
It's such a versatile sandwich, so many cultures have a variation on smoked pork shoulder.
From "The Hamburger Wagon" in Miamisburg Ohio: Four hamburger sliders (raw onion slice, salt/pepper, pickle) in a waxpaper bag and two cans of soda split between a friend, to be consumed sitting on some closed business' stoop in downtown during a sweaty-hot summer's day.
That is the best sandwich.
I've never understood sliders, why are two sliders better than one burger? Are they actually functionally different in any way apart from the packaging?
You can't eat a burger one-handed, but you totally can with sliders.
It's not a good sandwich per say, but the Clubhouse was ubiquitous on restaurant menus in the 90s and holds a special place in my heart as being a solid sandwich, but also the thing that my dad would always tell me to order because it was the cheapest lunch item on the menu after the quesadilla.
That was a BLT with turkey wasn’t it? It’s a solid 7/10, would eat it again.
Yes! Turkey, bacon, toast and often, those gross steak fries that only a starving person would eat.
Chicago Italian Beef
A fresh hot Vada Pav
Italian beef and sausage combo is peak
Here for the vada pav, will sometimes choose those over an actual burger
In my country there is a dish that is technically a sandwich but heavy on cooked meats and served with thick sauce (made with tomato and beer) and fries. It is as full of cholesterol as it looks but its delicious:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesinha
Edit: It is usually covered with cheese on all sides, but it looks like this on the inside:
random pic from internet
Oh wow, that sandwich looks amazing. I really want to try it now.
There are plenty of recipes online if you can cook. The only hard part should be getting the sauce right.
Oh wow this challenges the boundaries of a sandwich in another direction. I can see hotdogs being a sandwich more easily than this magnificent dish: it's covered entirely with sauce and cheese, surely one does not pick up to eat but with fork and knife like a French Toast ? Speaking of which, is French Toast (and its HK descendant, with Peanut Butter and Condensed Milk) a sandwich?
It also challenges the boundaries of the stomach :)
It is eaten with knife and fork because its usually too big to bite, and full of sauce. Once I saw a video of a tourist eating one by hand and it was hillarious.
It goes by many names, but the best sandwich is fried chicken cutlet, lots of bacon, melted mozzarella, and an obscene quantity of Russian dressing on a hero.
The chicken cutlet sub, with lettuce, tomato, and mayo as toppings.
A sandwich with a solid floor but an infinite ceiling.
To level up:
Turkey & Crossaint melt
Under a sufficiently permissive definition of sandwich, I suppose the real winner is pizza: just put two slices together with the toppings facing inward and you got a sandwich.
My real answer though it's spanish pa amb tomàquet with jamón ibérico. A good slice of bread, ripe tomato, olive oil, salt, and thinly sliced ibérico ham. You could add avocado or other things if you want but the simplest version just tastes so good it doesn't need more help.
Honorable mention to just bread with all the Spanish dips and spreads like alioli, almogrote, zurrapa and chorizo de Teror.
There’s a lot of good sandwiches here, but my heart is always going to belong to the humble cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard, pickles and onions.
My favorite sandwich would be a proper Cuban sandwich, preferably a Tampa-style, not Miami-style.
My second favorite sandwich would be a Muffuletta.
My third favorite would be a Reuben with pickled red cabbage instead of standard sauerkraut.
My fourth favorite would be a Philly Cheesesteak.
What can I say, I love sandwiches!
I will say that I haven't been able to eat a good proper Cuban since moving away from Florida. I think the bread is a big part of it.
Already so many great sandwiches mentioned, so I will take a slightly different angle.
PB&J with sliced (red) onions is so satisfying. It is not at all fancy, but when you are going to have a PB&J, raw onions on it really add a lot to the experience.
That is interesting, does it work with any type of jelly or best with a particular flavor?
I'm also curious to try this
I feel like any sweet something on there works well with the onion. I really like the tang of raspberry with it, though. Maybe some chutney?
In terms of general sandwiches anyone would know, my top three include a well crafted bacon egg and cheese with a runny fried egg on a biscuit or bagel; a classic italian sub with bonus points if its served hot; and the Philly cheese steak, authentic or otherwise. As good as a cold sandwich can be, I tend to lean towards hot sandwiches in most available instances. I find the flavors are better able to pop but its probably just personal preference.
In terms of specific sandwiches, there is a delicatessen near me that has a sandwich called the Wildwood, which has smoked ham, muenster cheese, lettuce, tomato, deli mustard, and horseradish served hot on pumpernickel. Its so simple but so well put together it makes my brain light up every single time I eat it.
The pepito instantly joined bánh mì in my pantheon of damn good sandwiches. The particular version I had got some cilantro and tomatoes in it, which bring a nice brightness in that overall very meaty sandwich.
It’s a toss up between a fried egg and ketchup sandwich and a BLT. I could probably subsist off either of these indefinitely.
Chicken salad (willow tree)
American cheese
Black olives
Sub roll
heavenly
The “not so fried” chicken sandwich from Mendocino Farms.
They put some crispy bits on a grilled chicken sandwich to make it feel like a fried chicken sandwich and it’s honestly better than any fried chicken sandwich I’ve ever had.
I like this question and need to mull it over. I like the whole Colbert Questionnairet. It's been fun hearing people's answers. I'm afraid it's been a long time since I've had a really good sandwich, so I can't come up with anything good. For now my answer is a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich on a croissant. I'm not saying this is a bad sandwich--it's excellent, as a matter of fact--but it's not really what comes to mind when I think of a sandwich. I'm looking for a traditional lunchtime kind of thing, not a breakfast one.
I'll say that I usually get something with turkey and probably with avocado, but the last few sandwiches I've gotten like that have been so mediocre. Boo to mediocre restaurants. I've also had a barbecue chicken sandwich semi-recently, but again--mediocre.
I guess this is a new goal for the summer: have a great sandwich. Wish I could go back here. 😭
I love a ton of different sandwiches, and everyone has had great suggestions, but one that hasn't been mentioned yet is Beef on Weck. It's essentially roast beef on a kimmelweck roll that you dip into broth. If you've never had one, I highly suggest it. It's salty and savory and just overall amazing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_on_weck
Lots of ideas but nah! I stick to the classic; ham, egg and cheese on a toasted bagel (either plain or everything)! All or nothing on my side of the house.
Nothing beats an ice-which when payday’s around the corner.
When I used to work at McAlisters Deli, I would perform my take on Italian by
Holy fuck I still think about it 12 years later. I haven’t been to McAlisters in a long time, so I’m not sure if their quality has gone down, but this specific combo was insanely delicious.
I enjoy McAlister's still but wasn't eating it a decade ago, so not sure how to judge. Worth trying this though if I can hack it somehow.
Yesss, it’s great. If they have the croissant still, just ask for the normal Italian but sub the baguette for a croissant, and now that I think about it, I recall I used to sub the Dijon for Italian dressing instead of using both. Freaking incredible sandwich.
Egg and cheese, aka the "animals politely excreted these for me" sandwich.
Maybe not THE best, but in summer I take a loaf of bread, cut it in half, take out most of the white part of the one half and fill it with cucumber, tomato, feta cheese, olive oil and oregano. Basically a version of Greek-salad-in-a-bun