My neighbor calls sandwiches “sammies.” I think that’s cute. I’ve never really heard them referred to as that. This is the sandwich I developed for my very boujie son. I found that by creative advertising I can get my son to eat 75% of the time. I learned this from my father who used to market meat as a choice dinosaur cut. My sister’s all time favorite buzzard was actually chicken. I tried this for the longest time by marketing pork as triceratops roast, but eventually my son went to school and learned that dinosaurs are extinct. Subsequently, I have had to adopt new marketing trends. My current trend is to call everything ‘power.’ “You don’t want these beans? But these are special green power beans?! Don’t you need a power up?”
For the last few weeks, my son has requested barbecue sauce cheese and jelly sandwiches. After so many weeks of the same sandwich, I knew I’d need an intervention. Each day I scaffolded a new ingredient without bringing to it much attention. First, I went from white bread, to “oh no, all we have is this amazing healthy artisanal wheat bread”- but I kept silent and played it all low key. Then I added parmesan cheese. Gradually I was able to add the meat. I didn’t expect him to like the smoked duck. Actually, I had hoped he wouldn’t, because frankly, I bought it for myself. We had other meat options, but I was making this creation for myself while developing his when he asked for a bite. In fact, he’s the one that inspired me to add the strawberry jelly. My son ate this sandwich everyday for a week. I don’t mind because he needs the protein. I think this definitely has the right umami and pairs well with flavor blasted goldfish.
