The eleventh Christmas Munch

Oh my god i just wet my pants!!!!! This sandwich is the piste de résistance, the dogs bollocks, supreme, the ultimate sandwich you're ever gonna have. The name, well, looking at the photo you would think maybe I would of created it, but no. These are specialists in freshly roasted meats which has become an institution in the City and West End. They're called Fuzzy's Grub and they have 8 shops (go to www.fuzzysgrub.com). Now its basically walking into a cafe which has a small carvery of most meats. Unfortunately they had no Turkey at the time, so I chose Beef. But, upon paying £4.95 for this munchmeister of a sarnie the Turkey was being added. But the beef turned out to be one of the best of all-time, no fat just pure manly meatiness!!!! Once you have chosen your weapon, I mean meat, they ask what bread and one of the many condiments to moisten the fillings. Then you can add even more british meat, bacon and cumberland sausage at an extra cost, but I passed. But you can have pea and carrots, weird, so I skipped these, but accepted the offerings of  Stuffing, Yorkshire Pudding, Roast potatoes or Mash and topped it off by pouring thick gravy, the final orgasm I think I'll call it!!! If you had to choose what would be your final meal before you're 6 feet under then this is it. So for the unfortunate who may live outside London, I would recommend this Christmas to make this sandwich yourselves from your leftovers or have it as your actual Christmas dinner while your Gran looks on in bemusement and says something like, "Where has all the tradition gone, in my day a sandwich was just a means to eat spam" So, I now feel full as I ever will and so with great pleasure I rate this a Top-Tastic-TEN OUT OF TEN. No nutritional values but who cares, it has got to be the winner...or is it? The twelfth Christmas sandwich will be the last and so I hope I have some left overs to make one of the best sandwiches that Christmas time brings on Boxing Day. Merry Christmas and Happy Munching.

The tenth Christmas Munch

So, here I am, sitting at my work desk eating a wholemeal bread sarnie and no turkey!! I just couldn't take myself to Budgens or Londis, because I am a snob, so I have opted for the Brie and Cranberry Pret a Manger Sandwich. Yes, I know no meat, so I have tried to counter balance this with a large pack of Smoky Bacon Crisps!!! Anyway, there was a gernerous helping of brie, which is one of my favourite cheeses and cranberry (not wild I don't think), with salad and that magic ingredient that pushes the Pret sandwich to another level! Like the previous Pret sandwich which incidently is still currently topping the charts with 9.5/10, they had the magic crispy onions, which made the sarnie. In this veggie option they do have roasted pine nuts that offer a flavour of hmmmm!!!!! The packaging is the same as the meaty one, so this veggie could easily be mistaken for the turkey option, like my friend from work did (silly fool), you know who you are!!! Cannot give the nutrional values today due to the pret server, but may try to add at later date.Now for the rating, I have to put aside that this is a veggie sandwich, it was tasty soI will rate this a solid 7/10. Thanks for all your comments, keep them coming as there is no need to register now! 

The ninth Christmas Lunch

Apologies for taking a short break from the turkey, but I needed a break!!! Anyway, today I'm munching on a Boots "The Collection" Turkey, stuffing and Cranberry sandwich. The packaging is of a clean design using such typefaces as Helvetica. This font is a widely used sans serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss designer Max Miedinger. Sorry my love of graphic design overwhelmed me then, back to munching! It has Turkey with sage, WILD cranberry sauce, mayo, sage and onion stuffing, smoky sweetcure bacon, rocket and spinach on malted bread. Its all good baby, very nice balance of ingredients, but maybe lacking a little quality but definitely better than most. The turkey was thickly sliced and could actually be real!!!! Just to give you more important FREE information on sandwiches, Boots are currently selling "Pub Gourmet Sandwiches", check them out before me and set up a blog!!!!! The nutritional values are 405 Calories and 2.7g sat fat. Wow, 2.7g that beats the Lunch @ Bermondsey sandwich by 0.6g this is very good and so for the health conscious I recommend to go to Boots. I rate this 8/10

No munching again!!!

Sorry munchers I went to pub today for lunch, well it is a festive time after all. It's the Woolpack on Bermondsey street, and the food is very good, but I didn't have anything christmassy. So for the eager readers of my blog, I hope to update tomorrow with another xmas sarnie. But for now with all the turkey I been eating, my guts need a break!!!!!!

No munching today!

No sarnie review today, I not at my desk, instead I'm going Go-Karting and then followed by beer and christmas dinner. But next week will bring some more festive feasts. Feel free to make any comments, as this is taking over my every working lunch hour!!!! 

The eighth Sandwich Munch

I hate Starbucks, so for me to step inside and give the yanks my dosh for a piece of overpriced crap, well, it just shows how committed I am to finishing my very first blog. On every fucking street corner they have pushed out the small independent coffee shops that bring a sense of community to the area. OK that's my little rant over, let's get down to business. Starting with the packaging, these squeeky ass fuckers cannot even create a new design for xmas, instead they place a sticker on the front which is just a little bigger than a postage stamp. It say "Christmas favourite", well it ain't mine!!!! I had to really search to find it on their chiller cabinet, along with the rest of the overpriced crap. Its called the Starbucks Turkey Feast Club, well it aint real turkey, it ain't a feast and where does the club come into it. My thoughts on a club sandwich are usually that you have bacon and turkey or chicken. Again they short sell you and charge you a figure that they pick out of thin air...Bastards!!!! I have one positive for this sandwich and that is that it has rocket salad, which I like. However, this is the dryest sarnie, it has the usual christmas ingredients and apparently does include butter and stuffing mayo, but they fucked us over again by putting in the minimal amount. Ian Beale in the BBC Tv soap 'Eastenders' who has the role of cafe owner has copied the ethos of Starfucks, as he is tighter than my dad (and that's saying something), and will just put enough butter on the bread because he is cutting costs!!! So, with 435 calories and 4.9g of sat fats, its one of the lower calorie sarnies and at £2.95 I guess that's not too bad, I wish it was higher so I could rant a little more! Although to have the privilege of sitting in one of there millions of coffee shops you have to pay £3.45!!!! I must stop now, I could carry on argueing my case against starfuckers though, but I rate this sandwich at a paltry 5/10.

The seventh Sandwich Munch

I'm hoping doing this blog won't effect christmas day when I sit down to a home cooked Christmas Dinner made by my lovely misses and I say, "I don't fancy turkey, can we have goose instead?!!? So to keep you guessing, today I have not gone for turkey but the M&S Aberdeen Angus rare roast beef & ale chutney. Now, to me it doesn't sound christmassy, but it is in christmas packaging sponsored heavily buy Help Shelter. The Ingredients are the beef with red onion & Arron ale chutney, mustard mayonnaise, caramalised shallots and mixed salad leaves on white bread. I love all the ingredients in this sandwich, but I think they went a step too far in putting in the mustard mayo. Why do sandwich makers always have to add mustard or horseradish to a beef sarnie, a good red onion marmalade does the job just nicely! I've a good mind to set up another blog titled "NO more horseradish or mustard in sandwiches"!!! On a dinner plate you can obviously have it on the side, but there is no getting past the overpowering flavour of the horseradish or mustard in a sarnie is there...is there!!! I must admit I got used to the flavours in the second part and enjoyed it more so I'll give this 8/10 and it certainly filled me up. It has 565 calories and 4.6 sat fat, so quite high, but hey its christmas!!!!! One other thing on the pull tab it says "pull the tab to open this pack up into a handy tray" I like this, they know what their market wants and mostly its us people who grab a quick sarnie and eat at the desk (less washing up to do)!

The Sixth Christmas Munch

I see I have my first comment on the fifth sandwich munch, but I'm sure its just a mate taking the piss!!!! Today I am reviewing the Waitrose Christmas Edition and again I'm annoyed that they have wafer thin processed turkey! I should talk to that fat tongued twat Jamie about the amount of processed food being added to sandwiches these days!!! This sarnie has the usual ingredients with stuffing, mayo, bacon and cranberry sauce on malted bread. However they use watercress, a bit different from the others, but not a good choice as there are many storks and not enough leaf! The packaging has a good shelf presence amongst the all the other own brand sandwiches and wraps etc. Its a good simple design with a Robin tweeting, but no sign of Waitrose donating a little money to the many charities that are out there. 472 Calories and Fat Sat is 3.6g, so in the same bracket as a lot of the others. I rate this 7/10, a good balance of flavours, but expected more from someone like Waitrose. I should weigh myself and check my bmi, maybe a film could be on the cards like "Supersize Me" I could call it "Gobble Gobble Me"!!!!!

The fifth Sandwich Munch

I'm starting to get a little bored of these sandwiches now, I don't know how long I can keep going! I tried to go to Greggs Bakers today but they had a queue out the door, and I was bloody hungry. So, today, I have gone off the beaten track to a place called Lunch @ Bermondsey Street. Its a slightly pretentious internet cafe for the modern professional and creatives in the area!!! I managed to get the last christmas sarnie, even without it having a name on the packaging, it shouted out at me, but noticing it had processed turkey in it, I left with disappointment. I thought what I need is a comment on my blog to keep my morale going, to keep my chin up. Then I can at least feel I'm helping someone make the right choice in the world of christmas sandwiches!! Anyway, the ingredients, I said about the turkey, the stuffing is overly stuffed with herbs and rosemary particularly, I feel I have herb vapour breath! The cranberry does the job and a little bit of salad is good but, I thought as they get there food from Smithfield market a fantastic meat market (no girls) the turkey would at least be real. The price was high at £3.10, thats what you have to pay for pretentious these days!! Calories was a very low 357.5, never seen half a calorie before and doesn't state sat fats except 3.3g fat. The packaging is actually quite stylish with a photo of roquette (salad leaves for those that hate salad) and black frontage that evokes a feel of a premium quality. However, in low morale for writing this blog, I will be rating this sandwich at a paltry 6/10, I feel so let down :(

The fourth Sandwich Munch

Afternoon munchers! Today I have tried Sainsbury's again, with their traditionally named "classic turkey feast". The pack says " A traditional turkey sandwich with all the trimmings combining turkey, honey sweet cure bacon, crumbly sage and onion stuffing and wild cranberry sauce". The turkey may be traditional but it certainly ain't real!!! It's like the processed crap that you get finely sliced in packs from Bernard Matthews. Am I allowed to say this, are their rules in what you can and not say on blogs!!! I love bacon but dry cure bacon, there isn't a need for sweet cure. Now here's is the science bit...they state crumbly stuffing, well, that ain't true. In their ingredients panel they say Stuffing Mayonnaise, so how can that be crumbly. They haved mixed the stuffing and mayo together, which in hindsight is a great idea, as this keeps everything moist, (who hates the word moist?!?!?!?). Last thing, Wild, wild cranberry sauce, I don't think so, they must grow it in fields especially for Sainsbury's. It's not like it's handpicked by girls in slow motion with a soft focus and skipping in the english country meadows with Heidi the cow girl music in the background!!!!! At £2.70 Sainbury's is good value but notice how it is more expensive than the organic. Calories 472 with sat fat 5.4g so not bad on calories, look back to the first munch and M&S are very very bad on healthy bit (who would of thought)!!!! The packaging is OK with the red, but as a designer using a tint of the red that creates a pink is very much a NO NO! SO they could of tried better on the xmas icons. Again no christmas charity donation. So to summarise an Ok sarnie, good balance of flavours but let down by quality. I rate this sarnie 7/10. I'm running out of shops near were I work, I have Londis, Budgens, Tescos (although they didn't sell xmas sarnies) and other varieties from M&S and Veggie option in Pret.

The third Sandwich Munch

Now, before I start, I have made a slight mistake in thinking this was a Sainsbury's sandwich, I bought it from there but it's called Fresh! Naturally Organic. I expected to find a Jamie Oliver led "Taste the difference" sandwich with his fat face plastered over it but thankfully no. So, the wholemeal bread in this sarnie is not my preference, but I have to give a balanced opinion I suppose, "it's like eating soft cardboard, I'd rather eat my pants after wearing them continuously for 5 days!!!!". Moving on, considering it's an organic sandwich you expect these days to pay a little extra, but no, this is £2.50!! So it is a good buy and has the usual christmas ingredients much like the Pret sarnie although no crispy onions, hmmm...crispy onions! It has real looking turkey pieces, but the immigrants may of added a little too much cranberry and so it is a little soggy inside, but maybe they did this to counteract the cardboard bread, keeping a good balance and good volume of each ingredient is the key to making a great sandwich. With the lowest calorie total of 500 and saturated fat content of 3.6g tells me that organic is the best way to go. There packaging hasn't changed for the christmas market, but they have a good style with a strong racing green and amber (orange) that has a good stand out off the shelf quality. No donation to charity, but at £2.50 they probably can't afford too! I rate this 7/10. Let me know if you have a sandwich that you want me to try before you do! I'm starting to be called the BUTTY BOY now... let me know if I should change my name by deedpoll.

The second Sandwich Munch

Wow, this is good, really good! Today I'm reviewing the Pret a Manger Christmas Sandwich and I thought the M&S Christmas Turkey sandwich was good, I might have to downgrade it from an 8/10 to a 7!!! This Pret sandwich is packed with great flavours with British Turkey, pork, sage and onion stuffing, with a cranberry and port sauce...wow alcohol. I wonder how many I would have to eat to get a bit drunk, nah what a silly thought... much like this blog! Anyway, a great addition to this fine sarnie are the crispy onions, they add a little something that no other sandwich can offer. The mayo keeps it moist but the ingredients are so good that it wouldn't be dry without it. To have the leaf spinach is again a fine choice that finishes off the lunch to high degree, and again malted wholegrain bread, is keeping the healthy balanced diet going! Speaking of diet, this has 542 calories, with a saturated fat content of 4.2g. This sandwich just gets better and better, M&S are not as good as you might think!!!! The packaging design is a good idea with the use of cranberrys, but maybe they have held back too much, maybe they could of added green holly or cranberrys set on snow. Also, like M&S they donate to charity with a 10p donation to 'Charity Run'. All in all I can see this being the best sandwich, I give it 9.5/10 just off full marks because of the design. Hmmm I could do with a second sandwich!!!!!!

The first sandwich munch

Hello, or dare I say it Merry Christmas!, Now as it is now December and you're already sick of the tacky retail shops ramming Christmas down our necks. I have decided to create my first blog. 

So the first sandwich I am reviewing today is the Marks & Spencers Turkey, Stuffing & Bacon Feast. 

Malted bread is a good start, trying to be healthy but not as much as wholemeal. Chunks of Turkey instead of processed slices and stuffing that reminds me of home. The bacon is good but I miss the chipolata that it should be wrapped around. A little more cranberry chutney would be nice but the addition of mayonnaise keeps the sandwich moist and very appetising. Also lets not forget that they promote the use of British Turkey's...hmmm!

It has 580 calories for those that care, and has a saturated fat content of 6.2g, which is only expected due to the bacon. The packaging is of a good standard and is recycled, which you always expect from M&S (Keep on recycling). There is 5% of the proceeds that go to Shelter to give the homeless and families a more secure future. However the design of the packaging is let down by all the copy and the front could be a little simpler while still trying to show that M&S has that prestigious feel. Christmas packaging doesn't always have to be over the top tackyness! I rate this sandwich 8/10. Until tomorrow...