A Question For The Ages
Diogenes42
Member Posts: 597
Hello friends. As you know I am a lover of philosophy. I have a philosophical dilemma for you all and I shall present it this:
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
You might say, do not be foolish of course not. After all a hot dog only has one piece of bread. But what of the open faced sandwich my worthy allies? For surely if we allow such things then a pizza or a burrito is certainly a sandwich also. I would be very interested to hear some discussion on this matter that is so vital to our society.
Is a hot dog a sandwich?
You might say, do not be foolish of course not. After all a hot dog only has one piece of bread. But what of the open faced sandwich my worthy allies? For surely if we allow such things then a pizza or a burrito is certainly a sandwich also. I would be very interested to hear some discussion on this matter that is so vital to our society.
- A Question For The Ages45 votes
- Yes - A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich22.22%
- No - A Hot Dog Is Not A Sandwich77.78%
7
Comments
I have just consulted Barton Wigg's seminal book titled 'Montagu's Guide to the Earl of Sandwich and his Edible Delights', and according to Barton Wigg Hot Dogs are most certainly not Sandwiches.
It is interesting to note that (according to Barton Wigg) both more liberal Doverian interpretation of what constitutes a Sandwich, & the more narrow definition as laid down by the Lisbon convention, both refute the notion that a Hot Dog is a sandwich.
In fact, one has to venture as far afield as the Inverness Directive to find any Sandwich guide that admits the Hot Dog, and we all know what a despicable tome the Inverness Directive is!
In all seriousness, the term "hot dog" can mean a couple of things:
1. Cylindrical-shaped processed pork
2. A hot dog in a bun with all the trimmings
A hot dog on two pieces of bread is just a hot dog sandwich, which is different. A hot dog wrapped in one piece of bread is known as a hot dog.
If a sandwich must have two pieces of bread, then is the humble open-faced sandwich then not a true sandwich?
The classic pie is constructed from two pieces of pastry, the bottom part and the lid with stuff in the middle. Is a pie then considered a sandwich?
A lasagne is a dish with a wheat based medium on the bottom, some meat and tomato filling and another layer of the wheat based medium on top. Does this mean that lasagne is then, a type of sandwich?
I was under the delusion that slice of bread + thing(s) = sandwich.
So what then is the above? Most common meal there is and I don't even know the word for it
Open face sandwiches are not sandwiches. Just a descripitive of what is being served (like a sandwich but only with the bottom slice). It is also used to show off the culinary skill of the maker, which would be hidden if it had a top slice.
So the picture above is a cooked wiener on white bread dressed with caramelized onions and what appears to be tomato chutney.
Lasagna isnt a sandwich because it uses noodles, not bread. Also the dish is topped with a layer of cheese making it lose out on the noodles sandwiching everything in the dish.
A pie is not a sandwich because you are cooking the crust in an attempt to seal it together. When removed from the oven, the pieces are one.
Now, you can use sandwich as a verb which can muddle things. KFC's a double down is describe as cheese and bacon sandwiched between two pieces of their chicken. That doesn't make it a sandwich.
If a hot dog is allowed to be a sandwich then the gyro will get in too, and soon every time we eat both meat and bread in one sitting it will be a sandwich. And I doubt anyone wants to live in that world.
I wish to acknowledge that I believe the true nature of a food product is always, by its very nature, open to interpretations, and that these must take into account more than just its physical nature at the time at which it is observed.
Surely if a renowned sandwich-maker were to make me a hot-dog, I would consider it a sandwich, for what other name could I give to such a man (or woman)'s work?
But what if the man (or woman) afterward informs me that he views this particular part of his oeuvre not as a sandwich, but as a pizza?
This puts in perspective that a hot-dog is much more, in fact, than just a hot-dog. A hot-dog is a hot-dog is a hot-god, as once didn't write Gertrude Stein (but she totally could have, it just so happened that she wrote it about a rose). The hot-dog is both the physical object and its projection in our mind, triggered by seeing (or indeed, eating) the "physical" hot-dog. We cannot hope to fully define what a hot-dog is in a way that will transcend our mind and reach those of others because part of the hot dog IS in our mind.
With a calzone, it starts off flat (like a burrito) and the ingredients are rolled, or folded. over onto each other. There is no dish shape to form the calzone (or burrito).