The Sandwich Situation

This is an interesting one.  I had a quesadilla yesterday, and never even thought of it as a sandwich.  But I suppose it is a bunch of food stuffed between two pieces of bread.  But if that delicious barbeque chicken quesadilla from Pigskin is a “sandwich”, it would open up a whole new can of worms.  There are a lot of fringe sandwiches in the cooking world.  Panini are most certainly sandwiches.  I would make the case that a hamburger is, as well, simply because the bread is on the top and bottom, giving the burger vertical orientation.  However, if a hamburger is a sandwich, and a quesadilla is not, then what is the “Quesadilla Burger” at Applebees?  This item is just like it sounds: a medium well hamburger wedged into a tortilla, covered with cheese and salsa.  This greasy culinary hybrid is a personal favorite of mine, but I believe that with the presence of a tortilla, that the quesadilla burger is not a sandwich.

            Since I believe a tortilla cannot be the major bread layer of a sandwich, this eliminates the taco, burrito, quesadilla, and crepe from sandwichdom.  A sandwich needs to have bread (wheat, white, whole grain, or otherwise) as its base, some tortillas are corn based, and therefore do not qualify, and others are too flat to be considered a bread.  This also takes the ever popular pita out of contention too, as the pita is very thin, and usually used to wrap up tasty morsels instead of being on top and bottom of them.

            A hot dog is a tough one.  When one thinks of a sandwich, they think of two pieces of bread.  A hot dog meets all of the sandwich qualifications, except for this one.  There is only one bun that the hot dog is placed between.  I suppose a hot dog could be considered a sandwich if, and only if, the bun was ripped in two, making them essentially long and skinny pieces of bread on top and bottom of the dog.  This would make it a sandwich in name only, as it would taste nothing like that turkey and cream cheese that I am going to have for lunch as soon as I finish this blog post.  So those are my qualifications for a food creation to be considered a sandwich.  Two pieces of bread, not flat or corn based, and the bread has to be on top and bottom of the contents.  But that’s enough writing about food for me right now, it’s almost noon and it’s time for lunch.  For the last time, stay hungry Athens.