SUPER SANDWICHES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 130, 3 June 1937, Page 18

SUPER SANDWICHES

DANISH SPECIALTIES

. On five days out of the seven,'housewives clap 4wo slices 'of •bread;;;? together and cement; them with chopped egg, fish paste, the shavings of last night's joint or some other handy oddment, states the "Cape Times." ■>

Gulping the last mouthful of tea and pushing back their chairs in one comprehensively convulsive movement, clerks, typists, machine hands, and office boys sweep small, oblong packages into their pockets or attache cases . . . and hours later, as they.unwrap them at their desks or in:the Gardens, they long for the dsy w"h.en they need no longer look a sandwich in the eye again. %

/But there are such sandwiches, ns men will travel across the seas/,to eat. ■ - ', :•

The Danes have a name, for their national dish—"smorrebrod," meaning literally "smeared bread" which in Its descriptive baldness does not call up visions of Lucullan feasts.' ' Yet they have made of the sandwich a thijig of infinite delight and variety, a Gerjes of surprises for the palate <and an /export "article'''that counts for a great deal on foreign trade balance. ; i

Copenhagen boasts of a unique restaurant which trades exclusively iln sandwiches—but what sandwiches! , Their names are displayed .; 6r. the longest menu card in ; the world. It is exactly 39 inches ..in length, and it lists no less than -186 sandwiches—but eacWoi them.can ,/be made on five different varieties '. of bread, to order, "so that you may choose from among a variety hi exactly 930 kinds of sandwiches. History records only, one case in which a customer doubted the possibility of really being'able to/ obtain all the varieties.on the list' In order, to con-, vince .himself that he could' choose from '186 different of sandwiches he; ordered .;the lot. ; ; ■:•'•■ He was a Swede,'' constitutionally suspicious of Danes. But the tables were turned on him when within half' an hour his order was filled and 186 sandwiches appeared, scintillating in all'tha colours of the rainbow, the shell pinkness of ham and lobster, the luscious green of parsley and lettuce, the royal brown and crimsons of roasts, the sparkle of jellies, the delicate pastel tints of salads and their, infinite scale of blends. :,: .- ... ':'■: -;./. There is no record of what happened to him after he had partaken/of them all. . . , ■■, i THE SANDWICH KING. ;. Smorrebrod is a national institution and the "King of Sandwiches," the owner of this firm of Dayidsen, has Had a knighthood conferred upon him by the King of Denmark for having made it SO. : . - ■ . : " • l '. " You might think.that other peoples might acquire perfection in smearing butter and various dainties upon a piece of bread. It appears ■ that :this is a delusion. ../,.' Evidently nobody can make Smbrrebrod the way the Danes do it. Else how could you explain why Dayidsen's ship large case's of sandwiches by air mail* to cities all over .Europe every day? Or why a group of British members of Parliament, some forty 'of them, make an annual excursion p.to Copenhagen with the sole and only purpose of eating sandwiches-r-and incidentally, washing them : down with Danish spirits—at the .unique sandwich restaurant? .-/■;

An'evening in the "Sandwich KirigJs" garden is a sight 'worth seeing. .Coloured lanterns swing among the treps, reflected in polished oak tables s&is tablecloth.* •':•■ "■ ■ -■■',■■ .-.-.." , 'r :

Copenhagen's smartest; set and 'certainly all foreigners who wish to, get local colour throng the. benches around the bare tables., .And just^as you eat three times as much.at an .outdoor picnic than you would of your own dull leg of mutton at your; own dull din-ner-table, nobody seems-to tire of ■the infinite, temptations ~ of,, these sandwiches.- : '■■:•-: V/ - ; :".-;./

It is the glorification of the snack, to the detriment of the substantial meal of which our hustling and weightreducing days are growing weary.; ;i

But there are more- ways of getting a square meal than by sitting down to it. .■■■■ . ■:

You go in to get a snack and stay to try as many sandwiches as you .'can afford to pay for. And by the time you have finished you have absorbed more calories than- you—remembering your diet-chart—might care to think about. The fascination-of sandwiches is that of a- chilrden's 'game of cooking. '.You.- 'can mix everything -with everything and keep concocting new tastes and new tickles for your paldtes.

Arid when' the lights go out. ajtJ 2 o'clock—closing time for the sandwich restaurant—the Sandwich King.-, jfsits down to a meal. His idea of one isn't going to the ice-box and finding something to eat on a -piece of bread.and butter. He likes a plate of hot soup and "some honest vegetable dish with dumplings. • ■ . . ' Sandwiches are daily bread to him. If he wants a treat he eats boiled rice!