Sandwich: A Global History (Edible)

Bee Wilson is a great author. This was my second book of hers and it did not disappoint. You will read several potential origin stories of the ubiquitous sandwich and get deeper into cultural variations, historical evolutions of sandwiches, and even recipes and descriptions of notable types of sandwiches.Food lovers will love this book. Highly recommend!

The is another volume of the Edible series which provides brief social histories of foods in a somewhat fixed format as well as a bibliography and a short selection of recipes of historical importance. This book is another solid entry in the series. Unlike most volumes, the range of the topic is not self-evident. The author chooses a definition that excludes the Baltic and Scandinavian open-face sandwiches arguing that the filling of a sandwich must be sandwiched between slices of bread. This definition is applied in a manner that allows wraps to be sandwiches but not tacos. The filled steamed buns of the far East are hesitantly accepted as sandwiches as are the stuffed flatbreads of Asia especially South Asian. This results in the chapter on sandwiches globally being at times quite awkward.The strength of the book is in the telling of two stories - that of the British sandwich and that of the American sandwich. Here the author is careful with her facts giving different competing stories of episodes in the development of the sandwich. The volume also has a ten-page addendum of named sandwiches e.g. club sandwich, Reuben, BLT ... which I found very interesting.

Excellent history of the sandwich and a fun read.

This is a magazine article in book form and, while interesting, is definitely not worth $10.I contrast it with her book, Consider the Fork, which was a tour de force.

I was very disappointed in this book. Loved Consider the Fork and expected better.