Sandwiches

The British invented sandwiches, or at least gave them their name. So they know a thing or two about stuff squished between slices of bread. But the Americans can make a fine sandwich too. There are a few countries (um, France) that can't make sandwiches. They just can't get the ratio of meat to bread right. But the US and the UK are pretty evenly matched at coming up with interesting things to put on bread. America has the Philly cheesesteak and the Muffeletta from New Orleans. Britain has cheese and pickle and coronation chicken. It's all good.

There's only one area of sandwiching where one country stands miles above the other. That is little triangular packaged sandwiches from vending machines and gas stations. The little plastic packages of pre-made sandwiches. I wish I could buy a sandwich from a 7-Eleven in the US and a sandwich from a newsagent in the UK and do a side-by-side comparison, but that would not be worth the air fare. Honestly, side-by-side wouldn't be much different from eating them weeks apart. There isn't a mild, subtle difference between them. Packets of sandwiches from the UK taste pretty good and are usually fairly fresh. A gas station sandwich from the US will taste foul and probably give you botulism.

This is based solely on my own experiences. Here in the UK I've had a variety of pre-packaged sandwiches from corner shops. I've had coronation chicken, ham and cheese, roast beef, pastrami, and even a nice crawfish salad sandwich from a service station in England. They've all been pretty good. In the US I don't remember having any packaged sandwiches that didn't taste a little bit like damp sweatsocks. I also remember an unpleasant trip to an amusement park in which some gas station sandwiches led to half my group spewing from both ends with salmonella.

My advice is that if you are shopping and see a plastic packet of triangle-cut sandwiches, carefully check which country you are in before proceeding with the purchase. British sandwich = good. American sandwich = bad.