National Sandwich Week: Birmingham's love for the perfect sandwich

National World - LocalTV

As Sandwich Week kicks off, we're celebrating this tasty tradition by heading to Anderson & Hill to see what goes into making a great sandwich. Then we'll also be hitting the streets of the city to discover what makes a sandwich the best according to Brummies.

Transcript

00:00 So today we're going to be making a Roman sandwich.

00:03 It's one of the most popular ones on the menu.

00:06 It has napoli, Milano salami, sun-washed tomatoes and taleggio.

00:10 As Alice crafts the popular Roman for me,

00:14 she shares the story on how challenging demands

00:17 shiped Anderson and Hill's current business.

00:20 Initially, this business was started off as, you know, a deli,

00:24 and it still is a deli primarily,

00:26 and the sandwich trade was always kind of secondary to the deli trade,

00:29 whereas, like, you know, Christmas we do loads of cheeses and stuff,

00:32 and the sandwich trade was like, we do like 20 during a week sometimes.

00:35 But then kind of post-Covid,

00:37 the sandwich trade really started to get, like, insanely busy.

00:40 Nowadays, we can sometimes do like 170 sandwiches in a day.

00:44 For a shop this size, it's, yeah, it's pretty crazy.

00:48 This increase in demand hasn't just changed their day-to-day operation.

00:52 It's also highlighted a clear local favourite.

00:55 Yeah, so we sell all sorts of sandwiches.

00:57 We do salads, we do toasties, but the Bavarian is the most popular.

01:01 A lot of new people that come in will just say to them, you know,

01:04 "Start at the top of the menu, work your way down,"

01:06 and then the Bavarian is the top of the menu,

01:08 so I think they just get stuck at the top.

01:10 The results of Alice's craftsmanship is a mouth-watering triumph,

01:14 though it would appear all manner of brummies have a certain expertise

01:18 when it comes to what makes a perfect sandwich.

01:22 It's got to be the bread first.

01:24 I mean, if you've got plain white bread, nah.

01:29 So when you go past a certain shop that makes sandwiches,

01:34 the smell that comes from them makes you want to eat a sandwich.

01:38 The main thing is getting your, you know, for me,

01:41 is getting the amount of stuff in the sandwich more than the actual bread.

01:46 It needs to be slightly more than the bread.

01:48 If it's too bready, you just feel like you're eating a load of bread

01:50 and no real sandwich.

01:51 You've got to get the good proportions between the two,

01:53 and the other key thing is it's got to be a good combination

01:57 between moist and dry.

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