{"id":97336,"date":"2016-04-26T11:30:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T15:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=97336"},"modified":"2016-05-02T11:06:34","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:06:34","slug":"a-little-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/26\/a-little-present\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sandwich\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps it is surprising, considering my inauspicious start, that my best skill\u2014my only truly great talent, my art\u2014is making sandwiches. For eight years, give or take the odd day, I packed the same lunch to bring to school: turkey cold cuts with French\u2019s yellow mustard on Pepperidge Farm white bread. When I got to college, I often had turkey sandwiches for dinner as well as lunch. Newly sophisticated, I used Dijon mustard and added a leaf of wilted romaine. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I wanted a break from making turkey sandwiches in the dining hall, I bought a turkey sandwich from Darwin\u2019s, a nearby caf\u00e9. A sandwich at Darwin\u2019s was, to me, like a meal at Per Se. It was revelatory. The bread was a chewy, tangy sourdough; the lettuce crunched with each bite; the mustard was creamy yet sharp; the meat actually tasted like meat. I started going to Darwin\u2019s with increasing frequency, and I began to despise my old habits. The thought of the dry, bland bread; the shiny slabs of rubbery meat product; and the shock of fluorescent mustard revolted me.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sandwiches at Darwin\u2019s were expensive, though, so to afford them, I got a job. I got a job, in fact, making sandwiches at Darwin\u2019s. I was not, I must admit, a model employee. I could not count change correctly with a gun pointed at my head\u2014and, with the line snaking out the door, it often felt as if there were. I was so often late to work that I was occasionally fired.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I assembled every order with an unusual tenderness. I was careful to distribute the filling evenly, to make every bite consistent. I learned to tangle the meat so that the tongue would find it textured and pleasing. I practiced finding the right ratio of ham to apple, salt to sweet. I figured out how to stud the smoked salmon with capers without making a briny mess. I perfected slicing cheese with steady speed. I loved folding the finished product in white paper, delighting in each perfect package. Every sandwich was a little present. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These days, at home, I put falafel, roasted eggplant, and peppers in a swirl of harissa and hummus. I lay skeins of onions, jammy and sweet, on top of thin slices of pork tenderloin. I wrap chicken sausage and sauteed leeks in soft tortillas. I make turkey with mustard. It tastes delicious, as long as you make it for someone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

Louisa Thomas is the author of <\/em>Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, a new biography of John Quincy Adams’s wife. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps it is surprising, considering my inauspicious start, that my best skill\u2014my only truly great talent, my art\u2014is making sandwiches. For eight years, give or take the odd day, I packed the same lunch to bring to school: turkey cold cuts with French\u2019s yellow mustard on Pepperidge Farm white bread. When I got to college, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5027],"tags":[22070,22058,22068,22071,22072,19493,21988,22069,22067,14459,22073,1417],"class_list":["post-97336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-food","tag-chicken-sausage","tag-darwins-ltd","tag-falafel","tag-frenchs-mustard","tag-leeks","tag-onions","tag-peppers","tag-pork-tenderloin","tag-roasted-eggplant","tag-sandwiches","tag-tortillas","tag-turkey"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Art of Sandwich Making<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 26, 2016 \u2013 Perhaps it is surprising, considering my inauspicious start, that my best skill\u2014my only truly great talent, my art\u2014is making sandwiches. 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