Sandwiched nostalgia

The weather has been slightly confusing this past month – with spring knocking at the doors earlier than expected and the cold that usually begins to subside only after the festival of Holi, making way for a comforting nip, along with a bright and shiny sun, lending to warmer days. The hot and indulgent breakfast of stuffed parathas and aloo-poori are slowly making way for lighter dishes like poha and upma in my house. I woke up yesterday craving for something delicious but that didn’t require too much labour in the kitchen and could be put together in a jiffy – one of those days, I guess. I foraged inside my refrigerator and found a bulb of iceberg lettuce that I had got from a nearby farm recently - still shiny and plump!, one lone bellpepper that wasn’t enough to be turned into a subzi, juicy red tomatoes and cucumbers which are always in plenty at my home. I immediately thought of an old school cucumber-tomato sandwich which we’d eat in our childhood and which would find its way into our tiffin boxes, picnic spreads and in between major meals as a snack. It had been a while since I had that. I promptly placed an order for milk bread and as soon it arrived, I assembled a sandwich for myself with bread slathered with a copious amount of salted Amul butter, a cheese slice, and the necessary vegetables. I settled down with my sandwich at a sunny spot on my balcony and the first bite transported me back to happier and easier times of my life.

Growing up in a household where both my parents were working, sandwiches were one of the first filling and delicious meals that I learnt to put together for my younger brother and myself. He, being my guinea pig would swiftly lap up what was presented to him and would also hype me into making those more often. Many a time our mother would keep some leftover vegetable from dinner for us as she knew we liked to use it as a filling in sandwiches with an addition of cheese to make it slightly more ‘gourmet’, and then there were the simple aloo sandwiches with spicy potato filling and ketchup slathered on the bread and then toasted in ghee – this continues to remain a favorite.

Having spent the majority of our childhood and college years in Mumbai, like any good ‘Bombay’ kid, we too loved our ‘rasta’ sandwich. There are four simple rules to that though – the bread has to be a white bread from Wibs, the butter has to be salted Amul butter which has been used generously inside and outside the sandwich, the fiery green chutney that leaves your lips puckering, then the vegetables – boiled beetroots and potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and sharp red onions. Sliced on the go with the thinnest knives you’ve ever seen!, and of course, the sandwich masala on top of it all. Depending on one’s preference, the sandwich is then toasted in an old school over the coal toaster, or served plain, having been cut into six pieces, with a side of ‘sos’ which is a strange mix of tomato and pumpkin! The way the Bombay sandwich is prepared is sacrosanct, and no self-respecting Mumbaikar will deviate from this.

Here in NCR, there are various cafes serving delicious gourmet sandwiches (which I love!), but the simple cheese and vegetable sandwich from Wenger’s in Connaught Place still remains one of my most favourite. Many others swear by the ham and cheese sandwich at Novelty in Jangpura - a shop which still stays rooted in the late 80s and early 90s (thank god!).

Chef Tarannum Sehgal, head chef at Gurugram’s latest sensation - Espressos Anyday, though is serving some of the most talked about ‘sandos’ in the city, still remains rooted to the nostalgia of her childhood favourite sandwich – “my love for sandwich goes way back – to the tiffin my mum would pack for me. I was a paratha-dissing, sandwich eating Punjabi kid. I have carried tomato and Amul butter sandwiches for tiffin for as long as I can remember. Anything else my mum tried giving me, bread roll, paratha, even Maggi, I would bring back. Growing up, cucumber and cheese, even aloo tikki between bread and now the fried chicken sando at Espressos Anyday are my favourites!”