This was published 5 years ago
Bread of heaven: in praise of the perfect sanga
People are forever trying to invent a new sandwich. Congress in Collingwood will place a darling little pig’s head croquette injected with chicken stock between rounds of soft, crustless white bread with green herb aioli. Hector’s Deli in Richmond will make you a sandwich of crumbed mushrooms with tarragon butter, green oak lettuce and “hectic” sauce. At Mrs Palmer Sandwich in Surry Hills, NSW, the “monster made-to-order sambos” have included one of deep-fried chicken, bacon, cheese, hot sauce and chipotle mayo; the whole thing then deep-fried.
Why, I ask myself, do they bother? The best sandwich already exists, created by legions of Australian mums with little more than a loaf of soft white sandwich bread, a tin of pickled beetroot and a few common household salad items. The Great Australian Salad Sandwich is a totem of ordinary everydayness that lives on, far beyond its origins in smelly school bags, corner milk bars and Holden station wagons parked by the beach.
An exemplar of domestic and democratic virtues, it goes equally well with soft drinks (Passiona!), beer, Thermos tea, chocolate thickshakes or Campari spritzes. It is flawless, magical, transformative and healing – but only when properly engineered. This means the butter must be taken out of the fridge to soften, or it will tear the soft white bread. The sandwich’s innate capacity for sogginess must be thwarted by first draining the rounds of beetroot, sliced cucumber and sliced tomato on paper towel.
Layers must be socially distanced: the tomato should not be next to the bread, for obvious reasons. Place the cheese on one slice of bread and a lettuce leaf on the other to shield it from undesirables. Mayonnaise is an effective adhesive.
The correct order, for fellow pedants, is B(b)LHCTMBCB(b). Bread (buttered), Lettuce, Ham, Cucumber, Tomato, Mayonnaise, Beetroot, Cheese, Bread (buttered). That said, this is Australia, so do what you bloody well want. Add chimichurri, garlicky toum, XO chilli, plantains, yams, sambal oelek, pickles, saltbush or karkalla. Make it raw, vegan, gluten-free. Australia is but two slices of bread, and we’re the bright, fresh, colourful salad in between. That’s the magic.
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Terry Durack has been reviewing restaurants and seeking out new food experiences for three decades. Author of six books and former critic for London’s Independent on Sunday and the Sydney Morning Herald, Terry was twice named Glenfiddich Restaurant Critic of The Year in the UK, and World Food Media’s Best Restaurant Critic. Australian-born and a resident of Sydney, he brings a unique perspective on the global food scene to his travel writing.