What constitutes a sandwich is a hot topic of debate on some corners of the internet. Whether hot dogs are sandwiches is probably the most popular debate, and there have been recent legal rulings over whether things like burritos or tacos qualify as sandwiches. My search revealed that people also ask whether pizza, Pop Tarts, calzones, bagels with cream cheese, corndogs, or Oreos count as sandwiches often enough for Google to recommend the questions. Wherever you may stand on any of those debates, though, I hope we can all agree on the status of this Mexican Sandwich recipe from River Road Recipes II: A Second Helping (The Junior League of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; January 1977 fourth printing).
Tortas, pepitos, and cemitas are Mexican sandwiches. This "Mexican Sandwich" might be considered a Mexican bowl if you focus on the rice or a taco salad if you focus on the corn chips, lettuce, and fresh tomatoes, but this is by no stretch of the imagination a sandwich. The claims people could get away with in 1977, before people on the internet could argue with them!
That is an interesting interpretation of the world sandwich. Do they think that if foods are layered that makes a sandwich? Or maybe whatever is served with soup (chili) is a sandwich. Maybe someone changed the name of the recipe before they gave it to Mrs Ira Woodfin to see how gullible she was. Or maybe she named it a sandwich to make a jab at her husband since her name wouldn't be used anyway.
ReplyDeleteMy personal theory is that they thought something labeled "Mexican" would sound too exotic, so they had to pair it with a really familiar food name to make skittish eaters more likely to try it. Still, I don't know why they'd pick "sandwich" when "salad" is just as familiar and way more appropriate.
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