There’s only ONE crisp sambo
Imitation may be the best form of f lattery but…
THE English are at it again!
Not content with claiming our finest acting and sporting talent, our light-fingered neighbours are now trying to pass off one of Ireland’s great culinary traditions – the crisp sandwich – as their own.
Leading UK snack brand Walkers recently teamed up with irreverent sandwich guru Max Halley to create 20 recipes for sandwiches featuring a range of their crisp products.
The Leicester-based company also ran a campaign with sandwich chain
Subway in recent weeks in which customers were offered a sprinkle of ready-salted flavoured crisps on their sandwich for an extra 20p.
The campaign raised a few eyebrows on this side of the water over their description of the crisp sandwich as ‘a true British tradition’.
While archaeologists have so far been unable to declare with certainty that the crisp sandwich did indeed originate here in Ireland, folklore and experience assure us the custom of dumping a bag of crisps onto buttered sliced pan is one embedded in the Irish psyche.
Conversely, in Britain the Walkers campaign provoked debate online as to whether or not crisp sandwiches are even ‘a thing’.
Here, the revered ‘Tayto sandwich’ has had a special place in the hearts of generations of crisp and bread believers.
And according to celebrity chef Andrew Rudd, they have now become a mainstay of wedding menus.
Andrew tells the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Lots and lots of wedding parties ask for Tayto sandwich plates for the evening of the wedding. They’re a great snack when everyone has had a few drinks.’
Andrew runs his successful dining experience Medley in Dublin city-centre and caters for a myriad of parties, weddings and events.
His restaurant was chosen by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar for his 40th birthday party, but the chef is keeping tight-lipped on whether Leo is a Tayto sandwich fan.
Andrew said it’s each to their own as far as the bread, butter, crisp ratio is concerned, insisting: ‘There’s no magic recipe, it’s a matter of personal taste.’
Andrew is firmly in the camp of crisp sambo aficionados who specifically request Tayto as opposed to other brands.
‘People almost always ask for “Tayto sandwiches”. It’s rarely, if ever, “crisp sandwiches”. It’s obviously an Irish thing.’
And as for the idea of a marketing campaign based on crisp sandwiches, Tayto were off the mark long before their British rivals.
Back in 2015 the Irish snack company opened a dedicated pop-up shop in Dublin, where crisp sandwiches could be snapped up for €2, with a euro from each purchase going to The Simon Community.
The folk at Tayto did not wish to succumb to crisp war-of-words with their UK rivals this weekend.
But an industry source said: ‘They can take our land and our freedom, but by God they’ll never be able to show us how to make a proper Tayto sandwich.’