Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Tiny sandwich big in taste
Many an article about sandwiches begins with ye tired olde origin story: The Earl of Sandwich, desirous of a snack easily and ungreasily handled whilst he continued to play cards, demanded his joint of meat or giant drumstick or what have you be ensconced between two slices of bread, and so forth.
The Earl’s idea, born though it was of laziness and/or addiction to gambling, was an excellent one. Sandwiches are very good! It is difficult to imagine improving upon the Platonic ideal of a food form that is the sandwich!
Or is it? I offer a radical proposition: This is the time for open-faced sandwiches. Why now? In an era when bread and/or yeast has sometimes been hard to come by, an openfaced sandwich reduces bread use by 50%.
Further, an open-faced sandwich represents a dramatic improvement on the traditional closed-faced sandwich’s filling-to-bread ratio. And, given an openfaced sandwich constructed with a not-too-floppy bread base, a skilled sandwich eater can continue to play cards or do whatever they care to with the other hand.
A version of the openfaced sandwich did manage to capture the fickle American interest with the momentarily ubiquitous and unfairly vilified avocado toast. Avocado toast is good!
But what’s even better: tiny open-faced sandwiches, or TOFS. Versions of TOFS have gained traction here as imports from other cultures, though mostly on toasted bread — for example, crostini and tartines.
What we’re talking about here is more like the seldom-seen Danish smørrebrød, in its smaller formats, or the oblozené chlebícky of the Czech Republic. These adorable little openfaced sandwiches, built on the likes of a slice of an undersized loaf of rye or a diagonal of good baguette, make larger open-faced sandwiches look out of scale and oafish.
With TOFS, the laborious bite-taking of a traditionally sized sandwich is exponentially reduced or even eliminated, depending on their size. TOFS also offer the opportunity to engulf several types of sandwich in one sitting.
And while regular-sized sandwiches, whether openfaced or lidded, are generally speedily assembled, TOFS provide both a fun project and festive eating experience during times of boredom, as well as many opportunities for aesthetic expression and nice photos for Instagram.
What goes on TOFS? This is limited only by how many different kinds of food exist and the strength of your imagination.
It is never a bad idea to start TOFS with a layer of nice-quality softened butter. From there, the possibilities for layers of toppings include mayonnaise (yes, atop the butter), mustard (same), cream cheese, herbed ricotta, other cheese, ham, roast beef, cornichon/pickles, slices of hard-boiled egg, sardines or other tinned fish, salmon in any form, any type of caviar, potato salad, tuna salad, radish, apple, tomato, olives, capers, chives, dill, parsley, basil and pesto.
A suite of around six ingredients may be combined in so many pleasing configurations. Slice your toppings thinly, then take your time and arrange them so they look pretty, like old-timey canapés, which, hey, they pretty much are.
One Seattle chef who’s exceptionally adept at TOFS is David Gurewitz of La Dive on Capitol Hill. His résumé includes Lark, Spinasse, Mamnoon, Little Uncle, Chicago’s Blackbird and the Michelin-starred Guy Savoy in Paris.
Having grown up in Minneapolis in a Jewish household, with grandparents from Belarus, Lithuania and Poland, he loves the food and drink traditions of Eastern Europe. So alongside the tasty dumplings on La Dive’s menu are some lovely TOFS.
One of his interesting and well-built combinations: kielbasa with slices of cucumber, strips of onion, a confetti of chopped chive and dots of horseradish dyed bright pink with beet juice, just for added prettiness. Another: split pea hummus, miso, walnut, pickled beet and dill.
Now it’s time to end the tyranny of the unnecessary upper slice of bread in the cutest, most fun and maximally delicious way.