may as well be true to the name

i changed my mind, at least for the time being. why not just write about sandwiches? everyone likes them, at least in theory. honestly, if you're one of those people that avoids them due to their seemingly declasse-ness or carbiness and ALWAYS ignores them in favor of "fancier" things like salad or stuffed sole, you may either (a) continue reading as a learning experience or (b) go away. i don't care, really. no one reads this anyway.

now, by sandwich, i mean any sort of filling placed in between any type of bready thing. in this i include panninis (obviously), burgers, hotdogs, calzones (but not pizza), shawarma (and the like), and burritos. a chicken ceasar salad wrap, however, is NOT a sandwich, argue as you may.

admittedly, there was a time in my life when i too took sandwiches for granted. one too many boring peanut butter on whole wheat, and burnt grilled cheeses made me wary (thanks mom). but my current obsession with sandwiches can be traced all the way back to my most recent (and only) trip to paris in 2000, where something as simple as gruere shoved between a freshly baked, thickly buttered baguette proved to be 24 inches of sheer gustatorial bliss. since then i've had many an interesting sandwich, but it took years before i located another, truly euphorial one, maily because i just didn't bother ordering them.

menu items like canned chicken salad on untoasted wonder bread do not help the sandwich's cause. despite the mistaken belief that mayo and/or bacon fixes everything, a sandwich, like all meals, is only as good as its ingredients- house baked bread is a plus under most circumstances. after that, it's all about layering flavors- bread, spread, filling, vegetables or even fruit, sauce or dressing. even then, how everything is put together matters- should the bread be toasted first, does the whole thing get grilled? pressed? baked?

confused? it's not actually so hard to get right, which is why it comes as a shock when one just plain sucks. more often than not, what you get will be decent. in fact, you're probably better off ordering a basic sandwich over anything else if you're unsure of a restaurant. it's very hard to go wrong with a turkey club, for example, since both mayo AND bacon are involved, and, if you ever get served one with untoasted bread or flacid bacon, you have the right to leave without paying.

i'm looking for something better than decent though. i'm looking for god. in my sandwich.