One of my favorite things about London was the
quality and availability of pre-made sandwiches. Before going to
England, my idea of pre-made sandwiches were those old and dry saran-wrapped
things that you found in gas station convenience stores. In London,
there are an infinite variety of freshly made sandwiches in these cute
triangular containers. There are chicken thai sandwiches with green
curry, chicken tikka, lots of vegetarian options, and the standard tuna
salad, ham and cheese etc. What makes these sandwiches so great is
that they add the exact amount of extras, such as cheese, mayo, sprouts,
basil, whatever. They combine foods that I would never have thought to
put together and the combinations are quite tasty. I tried several
different sandwiches and they were all great!Every morning these large trucks arrive at the various places that sell pre-made sandwiches, including the "food halls" which are these markets in the large department stores that sell everything from fresh produce to specialty pre-made items such as marinated octopus. They deliver the sandwiches that were just made that morning. Besides the food halls, you can also get pre-made sandwiches at "Pret-A-Manger" which is a fast-food place that specializes in making them. Unlike sandwich shops in the States where you go up to the counter and tell them what you want, at Pret-A-Manger you pick out your sandwich from a refrigerated display area and then line up to get your drink and pay. It's quite efficient. The theory behind Pret-A-Manger is that their sandwich ingredient combinations are better than whatever you could generate yourself. It's very pretentious and presumptuous, but they're right! Their sandwiches are incredible! Bernard and I ate pre-made sandwiches everyday for lunch--it was a tasty, inexpensive option, especially given that eating-out is generally very pricey in London. On our last day, I actually felt sad about going back to Los Angeles because I wouldn't be able to get any more of these sandwiches! We woke up at 6 am so that we could grab a couple before catching the Tube to Heathrow. While waiting to board our flight, I took out my sandwich and ate it very slowly, savoring every bite. I'm crossing my fingers, in hope that Pret-A-Manger will make it to Los Angeles -- it's already in New York, those lucky bastards!
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