The breakfast club

Each lunch here in The Netherlands pretty much consists of a sandwich. Now I have lived in the US for a while, and in America “sandwich” means choosing a bread (and a sub-type of bread, and which kind of seed is on the bread), a spread, a cheese, a green, a dressing and a whole lot of other personalization’s. To be honest it was really daunting and I always order the special, which was typically a Reuben.



Then I moved to Norway, where lunch was provided by my employer, but you had to pay income tax on the lunch if you had more than two toppings on your bread (that may not be true, but it sums up my lunches in Oslo, bread, butter and really brown cheese). Yes, butter plus brown cheese makes 2 toppings!

Here in Holland, we don't pay a "topping tax", but we pretty much only eat bread and cheese. Occasionally Pindakaas (Literally Peanut Cheese… gross!…, but actually normal peanut butter)is on the menu. If you are really on a roll, you can have bread with chocolate sprinkles. None of these options seem like a traditional sandwich to me, so what is the perfect sandwich? To me there are three classics which have survived the test of time, the Tuna Melt, the BLT, and the Club

Now I love the BLT, but I also love the towering structure of the Club. Then I look at the ingredients for a classic club sandwich, and it really is a BLT with an extra slice of toasted bread and a bit of turkey.

My step-son was very disturbed by the introduction of a third slice of bread during Sunday brunch, insisting that the classic Dutch toastie was the only way to go. But he has been converted; The Club is the greatest sandwich in the world.