Suddenly I Get That Cheese Sandwich and Coffee for the Road
Adeline loves food, lots of it and often, both at home and out and about. She looks back wistfully on that little sandwich from years ago along the péage on the way to the holiday destination.
As a child, I would have happily catapulted myself out of the car when I spotted the cool box on the floor in front of the passenger seat. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing more boring than having to eat those cheese sandwiches and the occasional currant bun in a petrol station car park along the péage. The misery. The dreariness along that steaming asphalt. I hated it. Those soggy sandwiches from the shelf or some kind of lunch at a grimy roadside restaurant were so much more tempting.
I gazed longingly at children dipping themselves in fries sauce at some fast-food chain along the way. And there we were, eating in and next to the car… But suddenly I get those passengers with cool boxes.
Five layers of plastic
It did take me until somewhere in my mid-thirties, but suddenly I understand those fresh sandwiches with freshly shaved cheese in a lunchbox. Although I would preferably give them a 2.0 upgrade, the homemade concept is finally sinking in. It grows on me, as they so aptly say. The coffee along a motorway or on a plane is not worth wasting words on. All the food is wrapped in five layers of plastic with three layers of indeterminate sauce. Just looking at it makes you gain three kilos, so eating healthily is out of the question too. And if you’re unlucky, the whole lot has already been deteriorating for hours. Surely you’d much rather have something when you know how it was made? And with what? I would.
Homemade wrap
So on Wednesday I suddenly found myself on the plane peeling the aluminium foil off my homemade wrap. The woman next to me cast a sideways glance to see what on earth was coming out of that wrapping—it might well have stunk—but when she saw my creation, she nodded approvingly. She was also approximately the same age as me. The wrap, the layer of cream cheese with mustard, the fresh herbs, the (almost) crisp lamb’s lettuce and smoked chicken breast all tasted absolutely divine. Especially compared with the soggy toasted sandwich and the club sandwich our flying friends are so fond of serving.
This is why airplane food is often inedible
Cheese sandwich for the road
Those fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers and clever passengers already understood what I simply couldn’t grasp as a child. Road-trip food, such as a cheese sandwich, currant bun or jug of fresh coffee for the road, really isn’t such a crazy idea. Provided you leave the jar of peanut butter at home and dive into the local cuisine at your holiday destination, of course.
Because no homemade sandwich can compete with fresh pasta, chunks of feta with juicy tomatoes and gratinated onion soup on location. Let’s just be honest.
Read also:
- Eddie’s food frustrations: that the food abroad is better, but I live here
- Eddie’s food frustrations: one of those pretentious waiters at the table
- Eddie’s food frustrations: soggy tea bags left lying around
