Today I’ll be talking about the English meal of the day- Sandwiches! It’s the main meal of the day but oddly connected to English culture and history.

Who told you breakfast is the most important meal of the day?

In a society today where coffee, tea and hot chocolate have become the norm and the new ‘pick me up’ lunch has taken the place of a hearty breakfast, now sitting down and having a meal before work or school in the morning has become a distant and farfetched memory.

But then where did the sandwich come from? It was named after the Earl of Sandwich who also served as Duke of St Neots in Cambridge. He wasn’t the inventor but it was said he used to order bits of meat tucked in bread so he could continue playing his game of cards without getting his hands greasy.

It’s funny to think that his friends would order the same, A ‘Sandwich’ please!

As a law student, waking up in the morning and travelling to school by public transport, breakfast was never an option. It was when it hit 11am after early morning lectures that hunger would hit and I would realise that I hadn’t eaten for the day.

My university town was small so I wasn’t really spoilt for choice so walking down to the local supermarket was a treat if I could steal 20mins of an extremely busy Monday morning-with back to back lectures-to have lunch. What was lunch? Many varieties of…… wait for it! Sandwiches! And there were so many to choose from: Bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT), ham and cheese, and for a non-meat alternative; tuna salmon and cream cheese or prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches.

You couldn’t go wrong with a 2.50 meal deal: a sandwich, crisps and a drink. To sit down, talk with friends and take a breather before the day continued was definitely worth the wait.

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