The Great British Sandwich Week quiz
Only someone with their head in a sandwich could fail to notice that it’s British Sandwich Week. All over the UK, people are taking time out to eat sandwiches. Sandwiches are everywhere. Not literally everywhere, but there are certainly a lot of them. People from every walk of life have been making sandwiches. Even high street shops have been selling sandwiches. Imagine that! So, what better way to commemorate Sandwich Week – apart from eating sandwiches – than with a sandwich quiz?
1. Apparently, the British eat a total of 12 billion sandwiches every year – although how they know what we get up to in our own kitchens is anyone’s guess. Anyway, to put that figure into some kind of unhelpful context: What do our American cousins eat 12 billion of every year?
A: Chickens
B: Bananas
C: Burgers
2. To celebrate sandwich week, The Frankonia Bakery in Surbiton has created “The Super Sandwich”, a baguette that it describes as being “as tall as Peter Crouch and almost the same weight as _______”
More like this
A: A double magnum of champagne
B: A Hewlett Packard Officejet 150
C: Princess Charlotte of Cambridge
3. There’s a famous scene in When Harry Met Sally where Meg Ryan gasps and squeals while sitting opposite Billy Crystal in Katz’s Deli in New York City. The scene ends with a woman sitting nearby saying “I’ll have what she’s having” – but what is she having? What was in Meg’s sandwich?
A: Turkey
B: Pastrami
C: Grilled cheese
4: John Montagu, the 4th Earl Of Sandwich, is generally credited as having invented the concept (and indeed the reality) of the sandwich at some point in the 1760s – but what was in the very first sandwich?
A: Cheese
B: Beef
C: Jam
5: Countless languages across the globe use various forms of the word “sandwich” to describe a sandwich, including the Hungarian “szendvics” and the Tagalog “sanwits”. But which of these languages has gone with a word that doesn’t sound remotely like “sandwich”?
A: Maltese
B: Swahili
C: Polish
6: In 2011, the Daily Mail reported that the UK’s favourite sandwich filling was prawns. In 2013, they reported that it was egg mayonnaise. In 2014, armed with survey data from the British Sandwich Association, they presented yet another alternative suggestion. What was it?
A: Chicken & Bacon
B: BLT
C: Fish Fingers
7: To celebrate British Sandwich Week, the cafe at the Sage Gateshead has created some musical sandwiches to tempt its artistically-minded clientele. Bearing in mind that it calls a ham, cheese and pickle sandwich “Strauss Serenade for Winds”, what do you reckon you have to ask for to get an all-day breakfast sandwich?
A: Beethoven Sonata
B: Schubert Overture
C: Bach Prelude
8: Only one British number 1 single has ever featured the word “sandwich” in its lyrics. But what was the filling of said sandwich?
A: Vegemite
B: Bacon
C: Tuna
9: The British eat 231 bananas every second. We also eat 150 polos and 47 KitKats. (Not simultaneously.) But how about chicken sandwiches? How many do we eat every second? (Not each of us. That would be dangerous. Collectively. As a nation.)
A: 16
B: 6
C: 1
10: On February 1st, 1976, Elvis Presley boarded his private jet and flew for two hours to Denver, Colorado, where he was met by the proprietor of a local restaurant who brought him 22 sandwiches. Elvis and his pals ate them all at the airport before flying home. What did each sandwich contain?
A: A jar of peanut butter, half a jar of jam and half a pound of bacon
B: A jar of peanut butter, half a jar of jam and a pound of bacon
C: A jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam and a pound of bacon
ANSWERS
1. B: Bananas
Yep, Americans eat 12bn bananas a year, 7bn chickens and 14bn burgers.
2. C: Princess Charlotte of Cambridge
Princess Charlotte weighs slightly more than an HP OfficeJet 150, a fairly light portable printer.
3. A: Turkey
Billy Crystal was eating pastrami, but Meg can be seen cutting her sandwich down to a reasonable size by removing several turkey slices.
4: B: Beef
Beef. Cold beef. And it caught on.
5: C: Polish
Yep, the Poles call the sandwich a “kanapka”. The Maltese say “sandwich”, as do Swahili speakers.
6: A: Chicken & Bacon
Surveys continually yield up different results. Lurpak reckoned it was cheese. Another survey said bacon and egg. There seems to be no definitive answer. Maddening.
7: B: Schubert Overture
And we’ve absolutely no idea why.
8: A: Vegemite
From Men At Work’s 1983 hit, Down Under. “Buying bread from a man in Brussels / He was six foot four and full of muscles / I said, "Do you speak-a my language?" / He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich”
9: B: 6
No data appears to exist on per-second consumption of any other sandwich variety.
10: C: A jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam and a pound of bacon
Healthy, no? It was known as the “Fool’s Gold Loaf” and cost $49.95.
Craving a sandwich after all that? Make our delicious reuben sandwich with this easy recipe:
Ultimate grilled reuben sandwich
Read more of Rhodri's features
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