Sandwiches are quite possibly one of my favorite foods. They have so much variety and so many different tastes mixed together at once. The choice of components range from every kind of vegetable, fruits, meat, (if you're into that sort of thing) not to mention all the various butter, margarine, mustard, mayo, Nutella, peanut butter, jam and other kinds of spreads available. And don't forget all the choices of bread too! Obviously they don't all go together, but there are so many choices, it's impossible to get bored with sandwiches.
When building a sandwich (hereinafter referred to as "sammich"), I often wonder the best method of assembly. I always work with a definite top and bottom in mind. If I am making a sammich with mustard and mayo, I usually put the mustard on one piece of bread and the mayo on the other. But should the mayo go on the top, or should the mustard?! Also, I use slices of cheese, usually of the old cheddar (wrongly referred to as "Old Fort" by some Canadians) or mozzarella varieties. Sometimes I use sliced mushrooms and spinach or lettuce.
Many times I find myself using the mayo on the bottom, so as to act as a glue to hold very light object such as mushroom slices inside the sammich. This way they do not fall out when the sammich is initialized for eating. Wasted components are unfortunate and should be avoided at all costs. Remember that mom always said: "Waste not, want not!"
Another choice I make is to put flat and stable components nearer to the bottom, and rounded, slippery and tippy components near the top. This way component loss due to instable lettuce or slippery tomatoes is avoided. Also, juicy components such as tomatoes or pickles generally work best when they are not directly in contact with bread, as this causes mooshiness, dripping and fall-apartedness which can lead to a very unpleasant sammich consumption experience.
Finally, I never cut a sammich into triangles, rectangles or squares as this is a sure way to cause component damage or loss.
So far you have learned a few of the design patterns used whilst building sammiches. But one thing that I have always wondered about is whether or not the order of the components layered on a sammich affect its taste. Observe the following diagram:
As you can see, when the sammich is bitten into, the teeth will, for the most part, pass through the components from top to bottom. This assumes that the eater supports the sammich bottom on his or her bottom lip as their top teeth slice through the sammich. At the same time the tongue is making an upward motion, to taste and also remove the bitten-off piece of sammich from the front of the mouth. As the tongue passes through the sammich, it will encounter different tastes. Different parts of the tongue are of course sensitive to different taste sensations, so the location that components end up on different parts of the tongue also affect the yumminess of the sammich.
There are obviously a lot of factors to consider when assembling a sammich. The choice of components as well as their position within the sammich hierarchy are all difficult and careful decisions that must be made. There is still not enough understanding of sammich assembly and its affect on the overall sammich eating experience. Some of the the major questions to be answered are:
These are question which can only be answered after extensive real-world research and experience. I welcome your comments and reports on this important subject.
I do not write this because I have too much time on my hands. My work involves complex thinking that strains my brain and demands the most of my metal abilities. Bringing you my sammich report is my way of diverting my attention from the task at hand (i.e. procrastinating) so that my unconcious mind can figure stuff out. Try it sometime, it really works!