I’ve never seen anything like that at the Carnegie Deli, or any deli in NYC.
I’ve never seen anything like that at the Carnegie Deli, or any deli in NYC.[/quote]
I’ve never been to the Carnegie Deli, but I’ve found some weird things in sandwiches in NYC. And triple slice sandwiches seemed to be common enough.
Tee hee. That’s up there with the “Rear gunner on a milk float” story. Was it garnished with a four-leaved clover?
Best thing for toast is salted butter and Koo marmalade.
I think the sandwich thing is just a case of let’s take something foreign, and therefore presumed to be exotic and/or expensive, and throw away all the expensive ingredients and methodology which make it taste good, and then fill it with whatever cheap shit we can get our hands on. As the locals wouldn’t know a proper sandwich from a hole in the ground, and couldn’t care less anyway, you get a premium price point and costs approaching zero. You can just imagine the foreign manager of the first delicatessan being taken aside and having it explained to him by the more canny local manager that a NT$200 sandwich with fine parma ham and a NT$200 sandwich made with scabs peeled off the arse of a syphilitic pig will sell in equal numbers, but at manifestly different profit margins.
Now, I also have to say that Subway sandwiches here are no better or worse than your average run-of-the mill sandwich where I come from for what you’re paying, and the bread’s not bad. You can’t compare that to a
[quote=“TonAng”]…because they can’t make decent bread.[/quote]It took me over two years to get used to the bread here. I am proud to say that I’m now able to eat 7-11’s white bread. Toasts, sandwiches, etc.
My advice to the OP is eat it, you’ll get used to it.
I find that since I’ve developed the ability to eat the local bread, I cope with Taiwan better. It was a breakthrough for me as far as assimilating the local culture and adapting to a new life here. 
No…Seriously.
bobepine
Get used to it! 
I suppose I could also start drinking tea made with evaporated milk so that it tastes like sugar water, except my Grandfather would be spinning so quickly in his grave the earth would veer off into the nearest black hole… 
:fume:
I think the bread here is unhealthy… too much refined sugar… but hey thats like all food here… MSG, sugar, a little more sweetner, fake milk, some kinda greasy crap instead of margarine…it doesn’t end. See all the little fat kids in Taiwan?
My prediction is that Taiwanese / Chinese will overtake the west with food related health problems in the next 20 years and the problem is they don’t know how to exercise. They use weight loss pills that would be banned back home. Food education seems pretty poor here and it doesn’t help that sugar and complex carbohydrates are both lumped into carbohydrates as if a bowl of sugar and a loaf of bread are equivalent :loco:
As for sandwhiches…if your lucky enough to live near the Ritz Landis they make top salmon sandwiches with real bread for $100 NT. :bravo:
[quote]But I have to say you can compare it to something like Pret a Manger in HKG where the sandwiches are simply better. But this is not Hong Kong. The locals do not demand excellence from their sandwiches, and it might be because they simply don’t know[/quote].
Oh you poor deprived bastard! Pret is some kind of standard in sandwhich making? Christ I forgot how depraved Taiwan was until I read that. 
Mercifully the ingredients for a good sandwhich are here in HK, but they’re certainly not available off the shelf in Pret.
Left to local tastes, everything becomes a hideously bland sweet melange. Personally, I blame the English.
Damn but your observations are always rock steady . . . except about HK food! :raspberry:
HG
Yeah, they’re called club sandwiches and they’re pretty f@#ing sweet. One lightly toasted slice of bread; then a thick layer of tuna fish, a melted slice of provolone, and then three strips of juicy bacon; one more slice of bread; then lettuce, tomato, and extra mayo; and one last slice of bread. Cut it into quarters, stick some toothpicks in there, get a large dill pickle and some chips on the side and that’s a proper lunch.
I used to live in the Philly are and the one sandwich I miss are Italian hoagies. The tourists ooh and ahh over the cheesesteaks, but the hoagies were where it’s at. Nothing like strolling into a Wawa drunk at 3AM and getting a large Italian hoagie with extra everything on top. Even the Subways in the States have pathetic Italian subs that are a mere shadow of anything you can get from a Wawa or a local pizza shop.
Depraved is fast-food sandwiches that insist on pairing ham and tuna.
Don’t forget that good old English treat the chip butty.
[quote=“TonAng”]Get used to it!
I suppose I could also start drinking tea made with evaporated milk so that it tastes like sugar water, except my Grandfather would be spinning so quickly in his grave the earth would veer off into the nearest black hole… :fume:[/quote]Why is it that your avatar is looking at me? It doesn’t matter what angle I look at the screen, it’s looking at me.
I used to really hate Taiwan’s sandwich bread but I like to eat eggs and toasts in the morning so I had no choice but to eat the stuff. It doesn’t bother me anymore. You only need to eat about 20 loafs to get used to it. It’s not THAT bad. 
bobepine
Yup, those syphilitic arse scabs are TOO BLOODY EXPENSIVE!
Best sandwich I ever had in Asia (apart from my own) was off the Tibetan bloke at the end of the pier on Lamma Island. Home-made ciabatta, avocado, bacon… mmmmm!
Yup, those syphilitic arse scabs are TOO BLOODY EXPENSIVE!
Best sandwich I ever had in Asia (apart from my own) was off the Tibetan bloke at the end of the pier on Lamma Island. Home-made ciabatta, avocado, bacon… mmmmm![/quote]
The best sandwich I ever had was with two birds in Batam. 
Oh, the culinary kind…Well, I don’t know why people complain about sandwiches in Asia. You can buy all the fixings at the specialty shops, buy a French baguette, and make a pretty decent one on your own. In Asia, I have to say the sandwiches at the chain store "DeliFrance" in Singapore are bloody good. :bravo: I would go there for lunch practically every day during my journalism time on the island. Their ciabatta buns are really good. Shame that is doesn’t expand to Taiwan. Maybe the owners are foreign and don’t like cosigning for a telephone line and credit card.
There was a DeliFrance shop in the Manila Airport. Not bad at all.
DeliFrance, Pret a Manger!!! . . . Oh you poor deprived people!
HG
I am totally Taiwanese(born here and grew up here~)… 
but I can guarantee you all that I can make good sandwiches~ 
I was doing a corporate gig at NanJing Software Park way out at the end of Junghsiao East, I think it’s section 7. I walked into the main building, B I think. I had some time to kill and noticed a sandwhich shop next to Starbucks. I’m from Washington but HATE Starbucks Coffee so I opted for the sandwhich shop. They had a complete menu of deli sandwhiches and thin sliced deli meats and cheeses. Decent bread. Not great but not bad. Certainly the best I have had in Taiwan. Prices were reasonable and service was great. Nice outdoor smoking area too with fountains and scultured rocks for art work. I stop in now every time I get out that way. Sure, I know there are others, but this place is good, cheap and convenient if your in that area.
We’re only talking about sanwiches here. It could be worse.
What ever soothes your palate mate. 
bobepine
DeliFrance, Pret a Manger!!! . . . Oh you poor deprived people!
HG[/quote]
I used to love the pain au chocolat from delifrance when I was in Malaysia.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Damn but your observations are always rock steady . . . except about HK food! :raspberry:
HG[/quote]
Food in HK rocks. You’re mad. Strongbow and sandwiches. What more do you want? I bet they’ve even got Vegemite. (Which is great for keeping the pigeons off the balcony, BTW)
EDIT: And another thing - when was the last time you made ME a sandwich? Who made you the world authority on sandwiches? So you’re this great sandwich connisseur? You kept that one fairly well hidden, eh! Didn’t hear anyone at the going away party saying “Dammit HG, now you’re off to HK there’ll be no more of those lovely sandwiches you used to make us!” No! So that explains the big coat. A sandwich in each pocket, was it? Jesus, no wonder there was never anything left at the buffet! You were away home with a week’s bleedin’ watercress and cucumber sandwiches in your duffle coat! And the fingerless gloves! So…! No wonder you looked so comfortable sitting on the balcony at Carnage when Bob got those gas heaters! Reminded you of under the bridge when the winter days were getting colder, eh? Eh? Eh! (Okay, now I’m beginning to sound like a Canadian, so I’ll stop.)
HAHAHAHA! Gotcha! :raspberry:
Next time we meet up I insist we have a sandwich-off. And can you bring us one of those crab meat and mayonnaise sandwiches from pret a manger while you’re at it?
She’s telling the truth!
She’s telling the truth![/quote]You mean she’s telling the truth when she says she can’t make a good sandwich. I believe her. 
bobepine