Judging by the description of the tea and the sandwich that was a very long time ago indeed.

LOL! Decades. From your reaction, I infer things have changed?

It was back when the Brits were the loudest critics of the food. I was assured by them that lovely things were served at country pubs, but I was transient and pretty much stuck in London alone but for other similar travelling young met at hostels, and between planes elsewhere. The best (restaurant) meals I had in London were in a lovely West End Italian restaurant, staffed by cute Italian young men bringing me really good Italian food, with a delightful outdoor seating area--and lovely warm and clear weather to go with it--and a pokey Indian take away in an unmemorable street between here and there. I think the latter mostly served Indians. They seemed to find American me rather exotic and were impressed that I didn't want them to temper down the spices. Mind you, it was very well spiced, as in tasty, but not particularly "hot" to someone used to Mexican street food.

I do remember the post not all that long ago, when it was revealed that US people do not in general butter their sandwiches. What was natural to butter bread both in UK and AUST, wasn’t the done thing in US.

Regarding toasting of sandwiches I guess it’s a personal inclination at the time of making. “To toast or not to toast, that is the question “ ??!

Sandwich bars here are generally part of a Bakery where of course bread of all kinds is sold as well as rolls, pies, cakes and pastries. There are also sandwich bars attached to delicatessens. At these sandwich bars there is all manner of prepared toppings ready to be placed on the chosen bread slices or placed in sliced in half rolls and small “baguettes”. Regarding sandwiches, at some point the person preparing the sandwich will ask “would you like that toasted.” So the whole thing is placed into a top and bottom heat toaster and the outside bread is toasted.

At home it is different because generally everyone has a slot toaster so the whole two slices of bread are toasted both sides at the same time. Then home prepared fillings can be added.

Sometimes, bread is buttered on the outside, filling added and the sandwich placed in a “toastie machine and squeezed together in what some people call a toastie or a jaffle. Also when buttered on the outside, a sandwich can be fried in a pan or nowadays an Air Fryer, I guess, I don’t have one but my DDIL is always popping sandwiches in hers.

Sandwiches are one of my favorite meals - breakfast, lunch or dinner. I tend to pair the bread with the filling, preferring sourdough for any toasted or grilled requirements, rolls or baguettes for deli type sandwiches and a fine grained wheat bread for things like tuna or egg salad. I also toss in ciabatta, focaccia and the odd bagel or English muffin. And from time to time, deli rye.

I am fortunate to live only a couple of miles from an excellent artisan bakery so plenty of options!

And yes, no skimping on the fillings!!

I wanted to add that I too had a funny food experience when first landing in UK in the 70’s.

After first landing in Germany and buying a car there, we travelled around Europe a little, then onto the ferry at Ostend Belgium, night crossing and a drive into London in the dark. Stayed first night In a small hotel in the city somewhere. Early in the morning I was starving, so went out and found nearby, what I guess would have been called a “Caff” or “Greasy Spoon”. They had a pile of fruit buns and as I saw butter in a dish nearby I asked for a bun and could I have it buttered. The classic Cockney tea lady replied “we don’t butter buns before 10 o’clock luv”.

I still fondly laugh at my first conversation in UK. I eventually married a darling Englishman so came to understand English culture of all kinds.

Also wanted to add that I do appreciate your, plllog’s, desire for perfect toast and Yes gardengal I too like sandwiches a lot.

My usual sandwich is made with a multigrain bread and usually mayo, depending on the filling, but not toasted. I do eat grilled cheese and reubens and love panninis. I think there are probably as many people in the U.S. that eat non-toasted as toasted sandwiches. We just don't find it odd to toast bread for a sandwich, just a personal choice.

It depends on the sandwich! BLT toasted. Grilled cheese, buttered on the out side and grilled. Roast beef openfaced toasted with gravy. Roast beef two slices of bread, not toasted. Turkey same. Tuna fish salad toasted.

ETC……:

Toasted does also imply eating within, like, half an hour at the outside. Soggy toasted is not good. :) And hard/staling toasted isn't much better. School lunch sandwiches are better on soft bread (i.e., moist crumb) with a decent fat content. Chicken sandwiches dry out by lunchtime. Chicken salad sandwiches don't. Soggy bread is almost de riguer, as preferable to hard/stale and still kind of soggy.

Colleen, thanks for the wafer thin filling explanation. I encountered it so many decades after WWII I never would have thought of it. I know the years of privation lasted a long time in England, but it never occured to me that it would have influenced tastes so long into the future.

Re last night's bread, I went with the fruit, whirred up with the immersion blender to lumpy watery. It was basically melon and pineapple chunks. I think I should have left out the pineapple. I didn't think of weirdness from the enzymes and whatnot. It might not have been an issue, but things were odd. The dough kept getting wetter and wetter. I empty the bag of flour into it. Well risen but gloopy. I should have just baked it. I made a big mess trying to handle it. The second rise wasn't as strong and it sank about 1/4” and the thin edge that stuck to the bowl burnt. I also didn't think through that the sugar from the fruit—which was sweet rather than tart, but not sugary tasting—would brown so much. I did oil the bowl/baking vessel at the messy shaping point, but the too-brown loaf stuck anyway, and I had to scrape down the sides with my offset spatula to loosen it. Usually, the loaves tumble right out of the stoneware.

This also had a lot of citrus pepper and galangal. Also some large dollops of sourdough starter discard to balance the fruit. It's slightly sweet, but doesn't taste sugary at all. The crumb is moist and open. The crust is pleasantly crunchy. Should be ready for sandwiches tomorrow. It's too moist today and doesn't want toasting.

BTW, even with all the flaws, it tastes great!

The current loaf on our bread board is a stoneground wheat loaf. The bakery just calls it a Country Loaf. It is as good frozen as fresh.

I don't bake bread myself and am impressed by those who do, especially using invented recipes.

Thanks. ;) I've only recently started making "jungle" bread.. Previously, I'd make small changes to imperfect recipes until I got something that worked in repetition. "Jungle" is local slang for throwing away the rule book. Picasso was a brilliant realist before he ever did cubism or any kind of abstraction. The secret of improvisational baking is the same. Really know how to make it right first. I learned cake in my 20's, after seeing a friend do it. I knew the general ratios, and what cake batter should be like, so my rule became, "If it looks like cake batter and tastes like cake batter, and you didn't forget baking powder, it's a cake." Usually irreproducible because the stuff you add in is odds and ends. That friend used leftover breakfast coffee and granola. I still use recipes for specific cakes.

Same with bread, now. I've been baking bread from childhood, but the KA mix and bake bread bowl is so forgiving, I don't have to worry too much about structure using white high protein flour. This week's loaf has no "legs", but it rose nicely in the bowl and even though it kind of fell a little, it still baked a good loaf. In another vessel, it would have been flat. Nice bread, but a disk. The sugar snap pea and radish bread from a few weeks ago was superb in all ways and was a bit more orthodox. So being open to what you get is half the battle. The disgusting mess I started with made a good, tasty loaf even though it's flawed.

If you want to learn to bake bread, it's not hard, though even experienced bakers often make doorstops or sludge the first time with a new recipe (my improvisations rely on my oldest knowledge so don't count). Find a well recommended basic recipe for plain bread and make it a couple of times to see if you like it. If that passes, make small changes, like adjusting the salt or using a little more or less water, until you're super happy with it. Add some dried herbs. Add some dehydrated onion. Add some small seeds. All small and dry, so they won't throw off your recipe. Keep making bread until you can touch the dough and know what it needs. Until it looks, feels, smells and even tastes right. At that point, you can stop really measuring because your hands know how to make bread.

OTOH, that's such a nice looking daily bread kind of loaf, I understand the appeal of buying it. The bakeries I used to like have all gone away or sold out to corporations.

Interesting. But I don't think I'll be making my own bread anytime soon. For starters I don't have a KA, so it'd all be done by hand and we get through three large loaves a week. Luckily there are several reasonable bakers round here.

Roasted lamb (garlic, grain mustard, freshly minced rosemary) half sandwich with sourdough rye, very lightly toasted and very lightly buttered on the inside.

Chips, fresh, strawberries, and grapes.

Delicious.

ETA — This was the bread bakery rye that we found for Easter. It came sliced because apparently the stores and farm markets that bakery delivers to like it that way.

We liked the bread, god flavor and it had a substantial structure. There is nospace in the freezer, so it’s in the bag in the fridge. I toasted it a bit to warm, soften it and refresh it. We also have a sourdough with similar texture. Not soft at all.

If we don’t finish it soon, I will likely make some season croutons. DH was outside working, but came in and made a peanut butter (natural) on eith the rye or the sourdough.I was famished when I hurriedly put together the above sandwich. I got a bit carried away with the chips.