6 days of Christmas (Sandwiches) - day 5

Ah Waitrose, trust you to have such a middle-class offering this Christmas: the Three Bird Roast Wrap. I had high hopes for this, expecting a Heston Blumenthal surprise in the middle (liquid nitrogen balls or a duck basting itself in its own juices). But alas, it was merely a souped-up chicken mayonnaise wrap. Three birds? There was some darker meat in there which I think was duck but, to be honest, the mayonnaise drowned out most of the meaty flavours. The meat was on a whole succulent but I could not taste the cranberry at all. Average.

Description: Turkey, chicken, duck, cranberry, mayonnaise
Location: Waitrose
Accompaniments: Coke Zero
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 49 - Bacon Sandwich

You can't really go wrong with a bacon sandwich. Even the cheapest bacon tastes good. But you can't really do much more with a bacon sandwich either. Therefore this sandwich gets a respectable, but not great score.




Description: Bacon sandwich with ketchup
Location: Home, London
Accompaniments: Tea
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 39 - Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki

Yes yes I know, I did previously give Subway a slating, but I did have a sandwich I'd never had before. I thought I'd give it another chance with a tried and tested favourite (not of mine, but of Subway's clientèle in general): the chicken teriyaki. And it was a reasonable effort. The chicken was a little on the dry side, and it tasted nothing like chicken teriyaki, but it had a pleasant flavour nonetheless. The salad this time, with the sweet onion dressing, had more vibrancy and flavour. Unfortunately the bread was pretty dull. Overall, okay.



Description: Chicken teriyaki with sweet onion dressing
Location: Subway, Northampton
Accompaniments: None
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 37 - Boots' Coronation Chicken

Today I devoured another packaged sandwich. Yet again, my expectations weren't sky high, but, yet again, the result was a pleasant surprise. For the uninitiated, coronation chicken is a dish made from cold cooked chicken, mayonnaise, spices (such as turmeric and or curry powder), fresh herbs, raisins and almonds. It was invented in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, hence the name. It shouldn't really work, but somehow it does. It's sort of a sweet and spicy version of a chicken mayo sandwich. And the Boots version was tasty. Each spice and ingredient complimented the next, with sweet sitting alongside salty and spicy, all of which enhanced the flavour of the chicken. The problem with this sandwich, as with yesterdays, was the quality of the bread. There was just nothing to it. Still, a reasonably tasty sandwich.

Unfortunately, no photo today as I forgot to take one.

Description: Prawn and poached salmon with chive mayonnaise and spinnach
Location: In the car, driving to London
Accompaniments: Walkers Baked Cheese and Onion crisps, Coke Zero
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 36 - Tesco Finest Prawn and Poached Salmon

The problem with most pre-packed sandwiches is the level of freshness. Most pre-packed sandwiches I eat, usually taste like they have been pre-packed. By this, I mean that each ingredient tastes slightly more processed than its otherwise fresher alternative would. The bread regularly takes on a tasteless quality, often acting as a mere receptacle in which to transport the filling, not as an additional important ingredient itself. Ham is overly salty, cheese is hard and plastic, lettuce is white and flavourless. Saying that, I decided to purchase a pre-packed sandwich on day 36 of my sandwich journey, opting in this instance for a "higher end" version from the Tesco Finest range. The result was surprisingly good. The salmon was well cooked (albeit under seasoned), the prawns were succulent and sweet, the spinach added some bite and the chive mayonnaise melded the flavours well, although it could have done with some more lemon juice. The bread, however (and as alluded to earlier), was disappointingly flavourless pish.



Description: Prawn and poached salmon with chive mayonnaise and spinnach
Location: Home, Northampton
Accompaniments: Pretzels
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 34 - Spicy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe

As I post most of these entries a few days after I eat the sandwiches, unfortunately, I have missed one. But I'll slot it in at day 34 and we'll speak no more of it, okay?

For the uninitiated, Chick-Fil-A is a fast food chain that specialises in hot chicken sandwiches (think of a better McChicken sandwich or Zinger Burger). I've had it a few times before so by the time I got to the restaurant I was salivating in anticipation. I ordered the Spicy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe, which is spiced breaded chicken in a bun, with cheese, tomato and lettuce; pretty standard ingredients for a chicken "burger". This time it was a pleasant enough sandwich, although not as good as I remember because, unfortunately, the chicken was slightly on the dry side. The seasoned coating and the rest of the sandwich ingredients almost did enough to make me forget about the poorly cooked chicken. Almost.



Description: Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Sandwich Deluxe
Location: Chick-Fil-A, Chicago
Accompaniments: Waffle chips, Diet Coke
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 30 - Smoked turkey and cheese

Due to the ridiculously cold weather and time constraints I decided to purchase a sandwich from the 7/11. And it was better than expected. That is all I can really say about it.



Description: Turkey, cheese, lettuce
Location: Apartment, Chicago
Accompaniments: Cherry Coke Zero
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 20 - Homemade Spicy Turkey Meatball Flatbread

I'm good at making meatballs. I'm also good at making Italian style meatball sauce. Logically I should be good at making meatball sandwiches. But, on a whole, this sandwich was disappointing. It was made with left-over meatballs and sauce, which are usually better the day after cooking. I heated the meatballs and sauce, lay them on a pita flatbread and added cheese and rocket. The taste was okay, but lacking something, like hot sauce. The bread was also a poor choice, I should have used a baguette. Distinctly average.



Description: Homemade spicy turkey meatball flatbread with spinach and cheese
Location: Fiancée's Apartment, Chicago
Accompaniments: None
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 17 - The Pepe from Jimmy John's

Jimmy John's is a chain of sandwich shops that a quite well known for quality sandwiches that use "fresh" ingredients. What "fresh" ingredients means I have no idea. You could say anything that isn't rotten is "fresh" therefore, logically, anywhere that serves food uses "fresh" ingredients. Anyway I was looking forward to lunch here as I'd heard so many positive things about Jimmy John's sandwiches. I was, however, disappointed. It's not that the sandwich was bad, far from it, there was just nothing special about it. I had real applewood smoked ham (oh good, I'm glad the ham was real and not imaginary), with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. All of the ingredients were pleasant, but they weren't tasty. The homemade bread was relatively uninspiring and the ham was not smoky at all. The cheese was creamy but the salad was lacking in flavour. The whole thing needed seasoning, or a sauce that wasn't mayonnaise. I left feeling a little unimpressed.




Description: Real (!) applewood smoked ham with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise
Location: Jimmy John's, Chicago
Accompaniments: Crisps and Cherry Coke
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10

Day 14 - Buffet sandwiches

Day 14's sandwiches were a selection from the American Airlines Lounge food buffet area. I only had two, but both were your typical buffet sandwiches; white bread, lots of tasteless vegetable spread/margarine and fairly cheap fillings. The first filling was cheese. It was medium cheddar at best because it packed so little punch. The second was ham and tomato, which was more enjoyable, so I had another. The ham was tasty, but you could tell it is the sort of ham you buy in packs of 1000 and has so much water in it that you would fill a bath with it if you wrang it out. Still, there is something about these tasteless triangles that reminds me of my childhood; they were the sort of sandwiches you had a birthday parties. Therefore the nostalgic element probably has skewed the marking in this case.



Description: Cheese sandwich and Ham and Tomato sandwich
Location: American Airlines lounge, terminal 3, Heathrow
Accompaniments: Cognac and pretzels
Companion: Girlfriend
Rating: 6/10

Day 11 - Egg cress sandwich

Another classic sandwich. But not really one you can get too excited about. Egg, mayonnaise and cress. Simple, but effetive. This one was purchased from the Camden Food Company and was better than the average egg cress sandwich because the cress was actually peppery large English cress, not the tasteless tiny cress you usually get. The eggs were not over boiled which meant the yolk was not too chalky. But at the end of the day it's just an egg cress sandwich.



Description: Egg Cress sandwich
Location: Tower Hill, London
Accompaniments: Salted kettle crisps
Companion: Girlfriend
Rating: 6/10

Day 9 - Chip Butty

No detailed description needed really. Chips, bread, butter, ketchup, done. Unfortunately, in this instance the sandwich was made of whole meal bread. White bread would have been better. On the plus side I replaced the ketchup with Maggi masala hot sauce which makes everything taste better. Still, a pretty average affair.



Description: Homemade chip butty
Location: Home, Northampton
Accompaniments: Coke
Companion: Family
Rating: 6/10

Day 4 - Homemade Chicken Mayo

Warning - this post is like this sandwich; boring. There's nothing exciting I can say about this other than I made a chicken and mayonnaise sandwich. As I like spice, I added some chopped jalapeños and drizzled some Cholula hot sauce over the mixture.

It's not my favourite type of sandwich so I can't rave about it, but it was pleasant enough. The chicken was pre-cooked breast from a packet, and was not really of great quality but the jalapeños were an inspired addition.



Description: Homemade chicken mayo
Location: Home, Northampton
Accompaniments: Salt and vinegar McCoys, 7up
Companion: None
Rating: 6/10