Sandwich Etiquette

So a friend and I walked downtown to go to H&M at a new outdoor mall yesterday. After H&M we went grocery shopping at a brand new special gourmet “signature” grocery store. It has lots of special imports, sushi, live lobster, and veggies I have never even seen before. My friend and her family don’t like taking taxis though, so as we were leaving, she called her mom to pick us up. She didn’t want to walk up hill with our groceries.

Anyways, so her mom picked us up. My friend asked her mom, what we she wanted to do with her evening and her mom, “have dinner with Laura.” So I accepted the dinner invitation on the first offer, which maybe I should have waited till the second one. I did want to eat with them, but you only know if they are seriously offering if they offer more than 3 times. I feel close enough to this family though, I didn’t think I had to go through all that. Mom said we were going to just have yogurt sandwiches. My heart sank a little. I am not a big dairy person. I don’t even drink milk. On the occasion that I have cereal, I just “wet” it with milk, and drain the milk from my spoon before each bite. I know, I know, I need to drink milk, but moving on…..

So I was discouraged that I would be having yogurt on bread for dinner, but I really wanted to hang out with her family, so I was going to do it. Then my friend spoke up and remembered that I don’t like milk products that much, because she didn’t think I would want the squeaky chewy cheese on my sandwich. Testing the honesty bounds of our relationship, I said that I would rather have the squeaky chewy cheese than the yogurt. And I got my wish! They offered me the turkey that they had left instead!

Okay so that was all in the car ride home. Once we got home, mom started washing up veggies for the sandwiches. We had cucumber, tomatoes, and then fresh mint, and 2 kinds of fresh thyme. She set out the yogurt, cheese, and turkey. And then she set out an assortment of jellies: fig, walnut, pumpkin, and strawberry. Oh and before we could eat our sandwiches, we each had a cup of lentil soup. Then it was sandwich time.

I should interject here, that Mom had her stomach stapled last summer. She was not large, but the people here are VERY conscience of their appearance. My friend and her mom are very health conscious and eat only health food. I had New Years Dinner with them, so I had seen that she eats in a very unique way. So I followed her lead in how she made her sandwich to know how I should eat mine….bet you never considered eating a sandwich this way.

She gave us each a sliced multigrain baguette. She took out the center of the bread and ate it separately, then she would tear a piece of the bottom, piece by piece and make mini sandwiches out of it by putting a spoonful of yogurt and then a piece of cheese and then top it with a tomato and either thyme or mint. When it was my time, they realized that I would need something to wet my sandwich so they offered me some fat free mayonnaise that they had just bought but never tried. So I had mayo, turkey, tomato, iceberg lettuce, cucumber and mint on my sandwich. When I put the top of the bread on my sandwich, I was asked what I was doing. Mom informed me that I was to only make a sandwich out of the bottom of my bread, and was supposed to save the top of the bread for the jellies later! (this is not the national way---this is just her way) According to Mom, it is better to separate your bread out and make 2 sandwiches so that you are not eating so many empty calories. So I took the top of the bread off and ate my half sandwich. Then when she noticed that I had put mint on my sandwich, she told me that was not good, and thyme would be better, so I had to add that to my sandwich. Evidently mint is best with dairy and not with turkey, in case you ever need to know. The thyme was good, but I thought the mint was good too. What little did I know! ;)

When I finished the bottom half of my sandwich, I was then permitted to try out the jellies. Actually, I should say force, I was not too keen on trying fig, pumpkin, or walnut jelly, but they were not bad so I did not mind. The pumpkin was actually chunks of dried pumpkin that were then jellied. So I broke apart the top of the bread and ate it with the 4 different kinds of jelly. They ate their jelly with cheese. Mom says there is nothing better than jelly and cheese; they are just so perfect for each other!

Anyways so that was dinner! That is their common dinner, but they usually did not set it all out on the table this way. So now, you know how to properly eat a sandwich!