You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

A sad looking roll really, but I recall devouring it greedily as I stood waiting for the Overground at Queen's Road Peckham station, calling at . . . Picking up the roll at Blackbird Bakery below, along with their delicious Scotch eggs, the English roll is far inferior to the Scottish roll, and yet, the English Scotch egg is always far better. Cholesterol conundrums.

The basic breakfast roll pictured above was four bucks, already twice as much as it once shortly ago. I got it somewhere near Sullivan Street, starved out after some bad, expensive coffee that cost just as much. I don't see many bodegas in Manhattan proper anymore, so when I do, I pay my respects. Staying in Brooklyn, the corner bodegas still offer this type of sandwich, but more and more, they are being pushed out by the cafe bistros that already dominate Manhattan by offering upscale versions of the classic, like the greasy mess of a Reuben pictured here, which was no Reuben in my books. Putting together more expensive ingredients does not a good sandwich make, especially if the maker is unskilled in sandwich preparation. While your storefront may showcase the finest baked sweets, if you don't know how to make a sandwich or pull a long shot, then you are charging twenty bucks for me to look at your haircut. Gentrification has ruined entire neighborhoods, if not entire ...

The classic bacon and egg roll. I want one. Every time.  This beaut comes from Bijou's , down in the Leith Links, during a rare Scottish heat wave.

Attending a conference in uptown Manhattan is a disaster for cheap breakfast options. Nothing is even that good, and overpriced, so on the second day of said conference, I stopped for a breakfast roll at one of the many corner shops in Bedford. I haven't had anything called a roll since Scotland times, and here lies a cheesy eggy bacon roll made fresh to order. I also eyed the pulled pork, but I restrained myself. Eating it as I waited for the subway, the train ride into Manhattan seemed half as long for some reason.

While a roll is a sandwich in the UK, I've never had a sandwich in China, though I've had many tasty meaty morsels tucked between freshly made dough-based pockets. The issue once again of what makes a sandwich reared its ugly head as I ate this western-style (or alternately, "Beijing-influenced") Xin-Jiang cumin beef roll. The sesame covered pan-breads are the best thing about this dish, and they themselves are often ordered to eat, as they are flaky on the inside and crispy on the outside, and go with anything that you put into it. Sounds like a sandwich, but is it? One of the best dining experiences I repeat whenever I visit Hong Kong is at a Beijing restaurant with hands-down the BEST lamb dish ever. They come as separate dishes, but they go together always as you stuff the lamb into these little sesame rolls that comes with a sharp spicy sauce to ladle over the whole mess. I want to buy a plane ticket right now just to have one. Are they sandwiches? No, because th...

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...