Food of Kings...or at Least, an Earl

All hail the Earl! The Earl of Sandwich, that is. The inventor of one of my favourite lunches. Imagine the leap of logic, the audacity, the pure unadulterated genius of serving up your favourite luncheon meats and salad between two slices of bread!!!!

And this pioneering step paved the way for more and more adventurous permutations...the toasted sandwich (one of my personal favourites) and the salad roll. I reckon we could even trace the origins of the hamburger (or, in my case, the veggie-burger) back to the auspicious Earl. There's also the Turkish and foccacia varieties, multitudes of bread-choices in fact...white, wholemeal, grain, rye, gluten-free, crusty, seeded...the list is endless.

In fact, when I was a kid, and we always had make-your-own sandwiches together as a family for Sunday lunch, I went through a faze of making what I called a "lettuce sandwich boat". (I thought that was a cool name at the time, OK?). I started with a big lettuce leaf and tossed all my sandwich ingredients inside (including the bread), then wrapped it up and ate it. There was a sort of random surprise in which ingredients you ended up with in each mouthful!

In my humble opinion, there is something sublime in discovering a good sandwich shop with a multitude of fresh ingredients and a careful sandwich hand. One of these slap-em-together, only order off the set options on the menu (sandwich?) board-type people will never do.

I'm quite particular about my sandwiches (in case you can't tell). The ingredients that need to be available, the condiments on offer, the order and proportion of fillers are all vitally important to a good sandwich.

I'm quite lucky to have discovered at least one good sandwich shop nearby to wherever I've worked in the city, and I have a secret spot where I'm based now (shhh...I'm not telling or it'll get too busy).

I have also, however, discovered the mecca of sandwich shops. A little franchise I visited in WA called Mr Bird's MYO. You go in and choose your own bread and wander round an obstacle course filled with fabulous sandwich fillings and you literally make your own sami as you go! You get weighed at the end of the course (well, your sandwich does, not you of course. That would be silly) and pay for you lunch by weight.

It's sensational. Pity that they're in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne, but haven't made it to Sydney as yet. anyone feeling like they'd like to set up a franchise? I can guarantee at least one loyal customer!

J.