You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

I grew up with Marks and Spencer as an exclusively high end clothing store, so it was to my great surprise that you can get all sorts of sandwiches and jaffa cakes en masse at any M&S store along with cheap tees and anything else you would need. This selection of bite size rolls including British ham salad, British chicken salad, and egg salad, was a nice little treat on a busy travel day, and their other snacks and wraps have been not so bad. The packaging is simple, though not ideal for travel. (A side note: A Glaswegian told me that she finds it comforting when she sees a M&S, to know one is nearby, and I can only possibly relay the same affection for Shopper's Drug Mar ts, though their sandwich selection is nowhere sufficient.) There are boxed sandwiches everywhere you go, especially in Edinburgh, and this lemon chicken salad concoction was from the cafe at the Royal Botanical Gardens , which paired with their homemade soup, was a bit of a disappointment. I've had ...

I am a full convert to the breakfast roll, starting with the classic bacon roll, which can be altered with an egg (see above), or with additional meats from black budding to lorne sausage to treats like cranberry and brie. The Hyndland Cafe in the west end of Glasgow serves up a fantastic breakfast and I mauwed down several different breakfast rolls while I stayed a weekend nearby. I wanted to stay a full week just to eat here every morning, which a sunny little street side patio and a solid americano. This is the most civilized of the experiences, but I do enjoy the feel of the greasy paper bag. The west end is considerably quite posh compared to the rest of Glasgow, and for a more local flavour, I smelled Crumbs from around the corner of Glasgow Central Station, where for less than the price of one roll at Hyndland, you got two sausage rolls. The bread wasn't as good, and they slathered butter inside each roll, which wasn't necessary as it was already quite salty, but I co...

The Chip Butty is an institution I am not sure I want to admit membership of, but in support of true scientific research, I shall admit - though, only once - to consuming this monochromatic staple of British diet. You would think Britain, with its history of Sandwiches (think "The Earl of...") would be more inventive with their bread-based food products, but therein lies the genius of the Chip Butty - it is so classically simple, understated and unexpected: who would have thought that you could get so much starch and empty carbohydrates into such a small, compact space? That its nutritional content hovers somewhere between zero and minus 20 makes the perfect base (or cap) of a night's heavy drinking, and this is part of its success, particularly in Scotland and working class cities across the UK. Its single colour and single taste could only be described as "unexpected" - in that when you eat something, you would expect it to taste of something...

Nestled in the heart of Merchant City, the Trans-Europe Cafe is a quiet little spot that boasts a selection of classic gourmet European sandwiches. Stopping in after a meeting a few doors down I felt I needed a pick-me up, and so I went with what I thought would be the spiciest, the Madrid: chorizo with pesto and mozzarella. The sandwich was all right, but not classic or gourmet, though perhaps relatively so to the aforementioned toasties. The flavour was arguably more Italian than Spanish, or worse, it was sort of American, as it was still a hoagie bun, just sliced diagonally and pressed. The accompanying sides of coleslaw, argula salad (which they listed as spinach), and salted crisps were a nice touch, as was my spiced apple tea. Taking a quick look over their menu , I would return to see what Zurich is all about.

My third meal in transit in 10 hours and I settled on something hot, but still, a sandwich, because it is the most convenient and perfect meal to eat on the go when you don't want to be bogged down by utensils or greasy fingers. A breakfast sandwich with sausage, ham and eggs (I am in Scotland now, no doubt), the heat of the sandwich was a warm welcome from the cold sandwiches I've been inhaling at every stop. A pretty good breakfast sandwich, if a bit on the heavy side, I savoured every bite of this hot griddle sammie and appreciated how the sausages were split horizontally down its side to accommodate the sandwich form.