In Praise of the Humble Sandwich

In praise of the humble Sandwich (and Baguette).

If I carry on like this for much longer I will get a reputation of being the grumpy man from Reading who writes in this weblog..

There are some fine pubs that offer sandwiches or baguettes at lunchtimes and I will mention some of my favourites later on. However all is not ideal in this much maligned area of pub catering.

At weekends when we do walks, we often, as I have mentioned before, drop into pubs for liquid and food sustenance. I think some publicans think people like us who order sandwiches will end up sitting in the pub eating the sandwich and drinking a half of shandy making both last till closing time. Well there might be a few people like that but to be honest if we stay in a pub for half an hour during these visits that would surprise me to be honest.

We also usually time our walk to get the pub before its gets busy so that would be between twelve and one o’clock. This means landlords will easily get two covers on our table over the lunchtime session.

I would also say a lot of pubs we visit at night have been introduced to us by way of these walks - the Dewdrop in Ashley Hill (Burchetts Green, Maidenhead) is all but hidden in the woods so unless you did a walk in Ashley Hill you would never find it. Perhaps that is why he offers a free taxi service at night?

Anyway back to the food in question. In our area prices are at a premium and you will expect to pay a fiver for a sandwich with a small side salad.

Baguettes can be up to six pounds - some with chips some not. Some pubs put a measly filling in the bread and the salad can often look as tired as I usually am at the end of the walk. I usually have a sausage baguette if available once over a weekend some are just a sausage in a baguette which is a bit bland. Others from more enlightened pubs come well filled with two sausages and lots of well cooked onions. It only needs a brief squirt of Heinz (sorry ‘bout the product placement) tomato sauce to make the meal complete. I think the sausage baguette can tell you a lot about what a regular meal will end up being like, presentation, quality of sausages used and so on.

So here are some of my favourites all offer sandwiches on Sundays

Pineapple at Dorney - Maidenhead. An amazing list of sandwiches - they specialise in them offering many different types of bread and if you do not want chips you can have soup. Fantastic.

Kings Head, Little Marlow. It also has a large sandwich menu and nibbles on the bar on Sundays to keep you going while you wait for your food.

Wheelwrights Arms, Winnersh very good baguettes on Organic bread. Lovely pub now the smoking ban is in place.

Last in my recommended list is the Royal Standard of England at Forty Green. A real old style pub - the history of which you can read on the reverse of the menu and fantastic baguettes even on Sundays!

In conclusion I would like to see more pubs offering sandwiches and those that do also ensure they have them available on Sundays. As far as I am aware sandwich ingredients do not become invisible on a Saturday night to reappear on Monday mornings...