My history with sandwiches, like many others I’m sure, starts way back in my humble tupperware lunchbox with a very basic and monotonous beginning; fom the age of ooooh about 5 till 11 my packed lunch consisted of 1 white bread sandwich spread with margerine and marmite and was accompanied day in, day out, by a solitary chunk of edam, no exaggeration, my bother got honey sarnies, god forbid we ever got the wrong lunch box. I remember gazing longingly at the other childrens extavagent lunch affairs but knew that crisps and chocolate or sweets were not to be. To be honest though, the main event I was quite happy with, I’ve always loved Marmite and could quite happily still eat it evey day – as long as the spread was pushed right to the edges, and at that age I knew no better concerning the white pappy bread.

My experience with the sandwich has come on in leaps and bounds since then with a slightly shaky period of gastronomic wilderness in my late teens where pretty much every meal was served between 2 slices, in ever increasingly horrifying combinations, culminating in me regularly serving my poor Brother and I chicken nugget, baked bean and cheese monstrosoites topped with a fried egg – not that he ever complained….My love affair picked up momentum when I spent a year in Australia; enthralled with their fusion flavours and use of exciting breads I indulged wholeheartedly in steak, garlic aoli in ciabatta, and chicken, sweet chilli and avocado in turkish bread and their amazing chicken kebab wraps made the perfect conclusion to a night of drinking. Inspired by the endless possible combinations I invested in a panini press on my return, and to this day still use it easily 2-3 times a week for an easy and convenient meal when I’m sat at the laptop.

So even now I find that I am loyal to bread and eschew all other carbs, all my favourite meals have dough at the centre; there’s nothing wrong with rice, but I’d much prefer a plump, pillowy naan to mop up my curry, a kebab is nothing without it’s yielding pitta, or a georgian feast without the incredible khachapuri, I adore slices of rare steak crammed into and oozing unctuous juices onto a homemade roll with melted cheese, or chunks of sweet lamb tucked into fragrant flatbreads with aubergine pesto and halloumi. I’ve already mentioned my adoration of a good pizza, but then there’s the piadina’s I ate on the East Coast of Italy; a simple construction of lard enhanced, blistered flatbread filled with soft sheeps cheese, cured meat and peppery rocket. I’ve also always been a lover of a burger, but have only recently had my eyes opened to the ‘gourmet burger’ and enjoyed frankly awesome versions courtesy of both Hawksmoor Seven Dials and the Meat Wagon.

I think the appeal of bread, at least for me lies in it’s ability to be pulled apart, torn assunder, dunked, mopped, it enables me to play with my food a little, to pick and nibble in a way that rice, potatoes, cous cous etc just won’t allow . And then there are the many varieties available, obviously home baked is optimum but when I’m feeling lazy or time won’t allow, I love a loaf of St Johns sourdough which is just heaven served simply with butter or my other love – cheese (although that deserves a whole post of it’s own) and some chutney and fresh figs. It would be remiss of me to leave out the humble bacon sarnie, with it’s magical hangover diminishing properties, loved in force by the masses, I’m sure many wouldn’t start their weekend without one. The incarnation of which I’m most longing to try is that of the bacon naan at Dishoom – alas it is only on their breakfast menu, and I’m just never there early enough (did I mention I walk everywhere?)…..maybe one day.

This brings me to my quest (if you’ve managed to make it this far), I’ve found that on my travels, pounding the pavement for hours at a time, out of sheer laziness and bad planning, I’ve become a slave to those easy to find giants with their loyalty cards, weak coffee and uninspiring pre-packed crap. I’m vowing now to abandon those establishments and embark upon an adventure to find my perfect lunchtime haunt, a little hideaway that I can retreat to for half an hour or so, somewhere I can indulge my sandwich lust while enjoying a good coffee and maybe something sweet – you know I’m a chocoholic right? I’m not looking for anything fancy, merely an oasis amongst my day, to gather my thoughts and refresh. I’m looking for somewhere that is beguilling, I want to be enchanted, bewitched even, but also knocked sideways by flavours and outstanding produce…..does this place exist?

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Well, I promise to report back on my weekend discoveries and you can return here to read about my progress and thoughts on places I’ve tried. I’m already starting with a long list of places I’m excited to visit in Central London but I’d love to have some recommendations of anywhere you think’s great or that you think I would! Let me know what you think…

The post Sandwich Love and a Quest first appeared on The Faerietale Foodie.

I just about remembered to do what any good blogger does in these circumstances; I instagrammed my lunch.

Cue the best response for a pic I’ve taken to date so far. It’s all in that close-up buttered and seared crust and oozing cheese. I know, I know. It just so happens to be National Sandwich Week so I thought I’d pop it on here along with some past thoughts and ideas on the subject.

It was actually my fifth post, three years ago now where I vocalised my ‘Sandwich Love and a Quest‘ which was to be the very beginning of my, at first, tentative journey into coffee. It was simply, back then, a search for the best lunch spots, but you can see that over time this instigated in me a strong yearning to learn more about coffee and all it entails as I doggedly asked more questions and listened and absorbed, propped up at many a London coffee bar.

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I fell in love with the trio of Fernandez & Wells stores at the time, the unbeatable sandwiches and some short and intriguing long blacks (yes, that’s what I drank back then). There are, of course, double that number of stores now as well as their Somerset House residency. I marvelled at the absolute perfection of Kaffeine, that still stands out as one of London’s greatest cafes, and Shaun, who won over so many customers behind that bar has now taken his charm outside and has his own brilliant Noble Espresso. I rhapsodised over the chelsea buns, banana bread and monte cristo sandwich at Foxcroft and Ginger, who’ve just opened a second site, but always found their coffee a touch hit or miss. I can only reminisce over the incredible F.A.T. Ultimate toasties at Dunnefrankowski at Sharps while drinking delicious coffee and eating whatever pop up is currently doing so and serving. Oh and they make a damn fine sarnie, and damn fine coffee, at my local Fee and Brown, of which there’s now a branch in Orpington, yes really.

I wrote about Raw Duck , the little sibling to Soho’s Duck Soup, when it opened in the Summer of last year, it met an undeserved early demise after a short few months of trading but has come back bigger and stronger than ever before right next to Lardo up at the top of London Fields. They have a proper kitchen this time around and massively increased space to play with and you’ll be pleased to hear the epic Dirty Bird sanger is back. I popped in recently for a look, I didn’t have a sandwich this time but I can confirm the harissa eggs are very good, as is the Provence 75. Caravan are looking after the coffee and I had a good chat to the barista on the day, it sounds like that’s shaping up nicely too. I love that the reincarnated restaurant has the same vivid custom orange espresso machine and cute concrete bar, except stretched, all the way down the length of the long room and around in a loop to provide seating all around the central area.

I fully intend to return for evening, to try more of that extended menu and their delicious sounding wine list, they even have a wine refilling station.

Toasties and wine, a heavenly pairing? They are at Sager & Wilde.

I made sandwiches too. There was the love it or hate it deep fried avocado one, the pumpkin doughnut bacon one, the Boxing Day one and the haggis one to name a few that I’ve blogged. Trust me, I’ve eaten many more.

I don’t usually cast my eye back, have never done one of those end of year blog round ups, but well, this is a subject close to my heart and clearly to many of yours too.

My friend Helen has written a quite brilliant entire book on the subject that I highly recommend you take a look at.

The post Sandwiches – A Retrospective Post first appeared on The Faerietale Foodie.