Not everyone has the means for fine dining, and not everyone can afford to have the fridge stuffed to bursting with fresh ingredients. Sometimes you just have to make do.
Many has been the time when I placed a single slab of lunch meat between two slices of bread and chowed down.
Rather dull. But there isn’t any cheese to be had at the moment, and there won’t be until the end of the week when I get paid. No lettuce or fresh greens to lend a little texture to the soft blandness. What to do?
Use those leftover potato chips, of course!
Pile them on until the top bread slice is teetering precariously, and then push down to level out the structure. This lends a great deal more flavor and texture to the bland and soft. Crunch crunch, eat em’ up!
Don’t have potato chips, or crisps as our brothers and sisters in the UK and Ireland call them? Then use any other snack crisp you can get your hands on. Corn chips, tortilla chips, whatever. Thin, crunchy, and salty is the order of the day. When it comes to bland sandwiches, this is the spice of life!
McDonald’s has a Great Tastes of America menu that is available in the UK and Ireland. They trot it out for six weeks every summer, and try new variations on the old favorites. This year they offer something called the Tex-Mex Stack, and this is how a food writer describes the sandwich….
Another bloody weird one.
The Tex Mex Stack has two beef burgers, pepper jack cheese, spicy smoky sauce, CRISPY TORTILLA CHIPS, and a spicy bun. Whaaaa.
The author thinks chips on a sandwich is “bloody weird“??? What bizarro world did they come from?
Am I to understand that snack chips on sandwiches is unique to the United States? That is something I simply cannot believe!
I wish they would offer the Tex Mex Stack here in Texas where I now reside. The worthy residents of Ireland and the UK may find it to be shockingly odd to their palate, but it would fit right in with the residents of the Lone Star State.
Try making your own sauce to go on your sandwich.
I mixed some mayo, ketchup, and srirachi into a nice concoction.
Or you could go totally wierd. Ham or Turkey, with Swiss Cheese on white bread with mayo, and for the kicker. Sweet Whole Baby pickles, sliced and placed between the cheese and meat in the sandwick. Got yor cheese sweetness, the meat, and meaty goodness, and sharp sweet *crunch* of pickle.
I’ve not encountered crisp sandwiches but have often seen chip butties:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_butty
Your creation doesn’t seem any less weird to me than that.
Here in the US, there are many sandwich variations that call for french fries (or chips, s they are called in the UK). Breaded and deep fried onions, such as onion rings, are more common, but there are enough potato fries lurking under the bread to keep everyone happy no matter their preference.
The one major difference between chip butties and American fare is that the US sandwiches always have some kind of meat involved, usually a hamburger patty. I’m going to have to try a chip butty today, as I have bread and potato fries in the fridge.
And so a french fry sandwich brings me closer to celebrating a truly international cuisine. To think that people say you waste your time browsing the blogs!
I’m now told that a crisp sandwich is “a thing” in the UK as well, my other half even thinking it unique to this country, so it’s odd that I’ve never encountered them. This also reminds me that I used to like sandwiches with nothing but salad creamin them years ago.
Please let us know what you think to the chip butty.
“I’m now told that a crisp sandwich is “a thing” in the UK as well, my other half even thinking it unique to this country, so it’s odd that I’ve never encountered them.”
I don’t think you will find too many restaurants that advertise such fare, but it seems very obvious when faced with a dull sandwich and stale crisps while at home. Most people think it is something that only they do, a private culinary practice, but just about everyone indulges every so often.
Rather like dipping potato crisps into ketchup, I suppose.