Here is a celebration of the sandwich's diversity in the United States, an attempt to bring order to the wild multiplicity of its forms.
But first: What is a sandwich? The United States Department of Agriculture declares: "Product must contain at least 35 percent cooked meat and no more than 50 percent bread." But a sandwich does not require meat! Merriam-Webster is slightly more helpful: "two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between."
For the purposes of this field guide, we have laid down parameters. A hamburger is a marvelous sandwich, but it is one deserving of its own guide. The same holds for hot dogs, and for tacos and burritos, which in 2006, in the case known as Panera v. Qdoba, a Massachusetts judge declared were not sandwiches at all. Open-faced sandwiches are not sandwiches. Gyros and shawarmas are not sandwiches. The bread that encases them is neither split nor hinged, but wrapped.
There are five main families of sandwich in The New York Times Field Guide.
There are sandwiches made on Kaiser or "hard" rolls.
There are sandwiches made on soft buns.
There are sandwiches made on long hero or sub rolls.
There are sandwiches made on sliced bread.
And there are what we call "singulars," which are those creations on bread that falls outside these other groups but are still vital to the sandwich landscape, like the muffuletta.
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Kaiser or 'Hard' Roll
Round, crusty and light in the hand, these rolls originated in Vienna and are usually distinguished by the five-pointed star design on top. Any cold-cut sandwich can be made on a kaiser, also called a hard roll in many places; here are the sandwiches that are native to them.
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A beef on weck sandwich from Charlie the Butcher's in Buffalo, N.Y. Credit Ginny Rose Stewart for The New York Times
Beef on Weck
It is Buffalo's second-most-famous foodstuff behind the chicken wings that take the city's name: thin-sliced rare roast beef on a kummelweck roll, with horseradish and a pickle served on the side. "One of the great sandwiches in America," R. W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times declared in 1998.
The roll is of paramount importance. A kummelweck is essentially the same kaiser roll you'll find in delis across the nation, but at its best fluffier and always covered in a heavy coating of both pretzel salt and caraway seeds that encourages the consumption of beer.
Connoisseurs of the beef on weck seek out those sandwich shops that dip the cut side of the roll in beef juices before assembly, or those that serve the sandwich with a dish of au jus on the side. Buffalo residents, meanwhile, can often be identified by the copious amount of horseradish they pile on top of the meat. SAM SIFTON
Egg and Cheese
Also known as the breakfast sandwich. Egg (fried and runny, or scrambled hard), a slice of cheese (American or Cheddar) and optional breakfast meat (bacon, ham or sausage). New York corner deli protocol is to serve it on a buttered kaiser roll, but you'll also find it on a bagel, a biscuit, an English muffin or plain sliced bread.
Pit Beef
Top round, grilled until crusty on the outside but rare at the center, sliced paper-thin and piled on a kaiser roll with horseradish sauce and rings of white onion. "Baltimore's version of barbecue" is how Steven Raichlen, the barbecue expert, described it in The New York Times in 2000.
Brats
The stuff of Wisconsin's barbecues, cookouts and tailgates, and particularly associated with the small city of Sheboygan. Bratwurst sausages of pork or a pork-beef mix, grilled (though sometimes parboiled first, in water or beer, to reduce the risk of burst casings during cooking) and served with brown mustard, butter and onion. Tradition calls for them to be served on hard semmel or kaiser rolls, often two to a roll, though they are now commonly seen on brat buns, which are like chewier hot dog buns.
Roast Beef
Typically an eye round roast, sliced thin, served on any bread. But you're most likely to encounter it on a kaiser roll or burger bun, sometimes with cheese, more often without. Legend has it that this was the sandwich requested by John Montagu — the fourth Earl of Sandwich — so he could eat while he played cards.
Soft Bun
Generally thought of as hamburger or hot dog buns, the rolls are soft and a little sweet. That's because of the inclusion of butter, egg, milk or a mixture of all three, said PJ Hamel, a baker and blogger for King Arthur Flour.
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A pork tenderloin sandwich from Smitty's in Des Moines. Credit Ryan Donnell for The New York Times
Pork Tenderloin
Thanks to the pernicious influence of the Iowa State Fair, a signature event on the state's political calendar, many outsiders believe the state's delicacy is some novelty fare like deep-fried butter.
How wrong they are. The most glorious dish in Iowa is the pork tenderloin sandwich: flattened, battered, deep-fried and served between hamburger buns that cannot hope to contain the protruding porcine goodness. At a joint called Smitty's, not far from the Des Moines airport, you'd do well to take one with onions, pickles and mustard.
But Iowa does not have the only claim on the tenderloin. When the former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels first ran for that post, in 2004, he subtitled a book on his campaign odyssey: "16 Months of Towns, Tales and Tenderloins."
His favorite? "I'll go with the Top Notch in Brookston, in part for sentimental reasons," he said. "I'm usually a breaded fan, but when I asked which version was better and the waitress declined to pick, they agreed to bring me half breaded, half grilled. It later went on the menu as 'Daniels' Dilemma.' " JONATHAN MARTIN
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The fried mahi-mahi sandwich at Kakaako Kitchen in Honolulu. Credit Kent Nishimura for The New York Times
Fried Fish
The fried fish sandwich is found from sea to shining sea. In Florida, it comes with grouper; Minnesota, walleye; the South, catfish; New England, cod and haddock; Alaska, halibut.
In Hawaii — which once appeared on maps as the Sandwich Islands, a name foisted upon it in 1778 in homage to the Earl of Sandwich, a lord of the admiralty — the fish is battered and fried mahi-mahi, a staple of diners and drive-ins, typically smacked on a sweet-leaning burger bun with a slug of tartar sauce.
Kakaako Kitchen in Honolulu offers a slightly ritzier version: The firm white-fleshed mahi (as the locals call it) is dredged in fizzy tempura batter, so it attains an airy crust, and tucked into a lilac-hued taro bun. The taro is a salute to poi (pounded taro root), a much older Hawaiian staple from the time before sandwiches, when navigators followed not maps but stars. LIGAYA MISHAN
Loose Meat
This sandwich is also known as the Tavern, and associated with the Iowa-based Maid-Rite restaurant chain. Ground beef browned, simmered and then piled onto a hamburger bun with pickles, onion and yellow mustard.
Sloppy Joe
Ground beef, onion, tomato and Worcestershire sauce are served hot on a hamburger bun. The sloppy Joe is a cafeteria staple and close relative (some say descendant) of the loose meat sandwich.
Chopped Beef
This is the most popular barbecue order in Texas, according to Daniel Vaughn, the barbecue editor at Texas Monthly. "Smoked brisket slices or trimmings are chopped on the cutting block, gathered and cradled in the cutter's hand, and flipped onto a buttered, squishy white bun into a tidy heap," he said. "Barbecue sauce is then squirted on liberally, followed by crinkle sliced dill pickles (the kind that come in a five-gallon bucket) and sliced white onion."
Pulled Pork
Pork shoulder is smoked to ethereal tenderness and then chopped or pulled off the bone into shreds and piled on a hamburger bun. The barbecue expert Steven Raichlen broke the varieties down regionally: In North Carolina, vinegar sauce is mixed in; South Carolinians use mustard sauce; the Memphis version may be sliced instead, and comes with mustard coleslaw.
Lobster Roll
Chunks of lobster meat are served cold with mayonnaise (Maine style) or warm with butter (Connecticut style). True lobster rolls are served on split-top hot-dog buns, their outsides toasted in butter before the meat is added.
Clam Roll
Like the lobster roll, this is a New England seafood-shack sandwich, made with battered and fried clams and served with tartar sauce on a split-top hot-dog bun. Howard Deering Johnson, a Massachusetts native, took the sandwich national by putting it on the menu at his restaurants, though his version was made with clam strips, which traditionalists deemed to be inferior to the meatier bellies.
Fried Chicken
The fast-food chain Chick-fil-A claims to have invented the fried chicken sandwich — a boneless chicken breast, breaded and deep-fried, served on a bun with dill pickles — in the early 1960s. True or not, Chick-fil-A was the first to take the sandwich to a mass audience.
Grilled Chicken
Boneless chicken breast is grilled and served on a bun, often with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. According to the culinary historian Andrew F. Smith, the grilled chicken sandwich took off in the 1960s as it became associated with salads and dieting.
Chow Mein
Fried noodles and brown gravy are piled onto a hamburger bun. This southeastern Massachusetts specialty was born in Cantonese-American restaurants.
Mother-in-Law
Found only in Chicago: a cornmeal tamale is nestled on a hot dog bun and covered in chili.
Hero or Sub Roll
Otherwise known as the torpedo roll, or the hoagie, or just generically a long, crusty French or Italian roll. "They kind of look like a French baguette on the outside, but the crumb and the crust are completely different," is how they were described by Nick Malgieri, the author of several baking cookbooks, most recently "Pastry." Differences in crust and crumb from roll to roll, he said, are more about the bakeries than the bread itself.
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A grinder at Nardelli's in Naugatuck, Conn. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times
Hero, Sub, Hoagie, Grinder and Wedge
Sandwiches abound on the East Coast: sandwiches on long, crusty rolls filled mostly with meat. And what you call them can tell someone where you come from.
Order a hoagie, and your lunch date may guess that you hail from Philadelphia or southern New Jersey. You want a wedge? Did you grow up in Westchester County, N. Y.? The hero is often associated with Italian delis in New York City, whereas the grinder comes from points north, in Connecticut and deeper into New England, unless the folks up there decide to call it a sub.
So is there a difference?
"It's all the same stuff, just different ways of saying it," said Rich Torrisi, whose New York City restaurants include the sandwich-fixated Parm. Mr. Torrisi, who grew up in the Westchester County village of Dobbs Ferry, is a "wedge guy turned hero," he said. " 'Hoagie' I would sometimes hear at the Jersey Shore and always hated it."
But nomenclature aside, are the sandwiches really identical? They all draw their fillings from Italian-American staples, and many of the sandwiches in the Field Guide are variations on that theme, and are technically heroes, hoagies and the like.
For Ed Levine, the founder of the website Serious Eats, the distinctions can come down to quirks and habits, whether a local deli celebrates or disdains shredded lettuce, for instance, or "how crusty is the roll — how crusty should it be?" he said. "That does seem to be one of the regional differences."
In the end, the most crucial factor may be the mileage between your local sandwich shop and the bakery on which it depends. JEFF GORDINIER
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A po' boy at the Parkway Bakery and Tavern in New Orleans. Credit Cheryl Gerber for The New York Times
Po' Boy
Though people will argue the finer points of the history of the po' boy, New Orleans's delicious answer to the grinder or submarine, most locals agree that the sandwich was born during the violent street railway employees' union strike of 1929. Two sympathetic brothers who owned a coffee shop stuffed some of the leftover trim and drippings from roast beef into the ends of French loaves, and handed them out free to unemployed workers — the "poor boys" from whom the sandwich takes its name.
Although po' boys can be had across the country, the best are in New Orleans. Leidenheimer bakery loaves, with their thin, crisp crusts and cottony insides, are preferred. Fried Gulf shrimp or oysters (or both) of a seafood po' boy should tumble out onto the butcher paper that wraps it. A deep beefiness and rich gravy should infuse a roast beef po' boy. Other satisfying versions abound.
When the sandwich maker asks if you want it dressed (which means a smear of mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, tomato and a few slices of pickle), say yes. KIM SEVERSON
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Banh mi at Ba Xuyen in Brooklyn. Credit Emon Hassan for The New York Times
Banh Mi
To understand the banh mi, you must first understand the nomenclature. Banh is a general modifier to describe a variety of Vietnamese prepared foods. Mi refers to wheat bread. Put them together, and you have a sandwich that illustrates one of the many things Vietnamese cooks are great at: taking ingredients and techniques from countries that colonized their nation and making them their own.
Though other modifiers that refer to the fillings are added to the sandwich's name in Vietnam, banh mi is the term you'll find at American sandwich shops within Vietnamese communities. It's built on a small light French loaf with a crackly crust, and it usually contains pâté and mayonnaise. Those French ingredients are then given a hard Vietnamese twist with crisp cucumber, raw jalapeño, cilantro and a salad of shredded daikon and carrot moistened with fish sauce. You may also like a little soy sauce or chile sauce, or an umami-laden shake of Maggi sauce.
Fillings are far-ranging. They may include scrambled eggs, chicken, meatballs, head cheese or even sardines in tomato sauce. Most often, you'll find a variation on the banh mi thit (which means meat): ham, roast pork or pork belly and the aforementioned pâté. KIM SEVERSON
French Dip
Two Los Angeles restaurants, Philippe the Original and Cole's, offer competing narratives as to who invented this sandwich in the early 20th century. Sliced roast beef on a springy French roll that has been dunked in jus. Sharp mustard is encouraged; cheese is optional.
Sausage and Peppers
An Italian-American street fair staple. Browned pork sausage, sautéed onions and bell peppers piled on a crusty roll.
Spiedie
A native of the Binghamton, N.Y., made with cubes of pork, lamb or chicken marinated in oil, vinegar, herbs and spices, and grilled on skewers. Traditionally, a thick slice of white bread came with the skewers, both as an aide for unthreading the meat and for delivering it to your mouth. Now you are more likely to find the meat de-skewered and served on a roll. Authentic spiedies do not allow for toppings or condiments.
Cheese Steak
The classic South Philadelphia tangle of thinly sliced grilled steak and onions, blanketed with Cheez Whiz and served on a roll. The tale of its creation goes like this: In 1933, Harry Olivieri, who ran a hot-dog stand with his older brother, Pat, got tired of dogs and went to buy some beef, which he sliced and grilled with onions. A cabdriver demanded to buy one. Pat's King of Steaks was born and lives on as a 24-hour cheese steak operation.
Cudighi
From the Michigan Upper Peninsula comes an unusual take on Italian sausage, which combines pork with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cloves, and uses no fennel seed. The sausage is cooked in thin patties and served on a roll with tomato sauce and mozzarella; some include mushrooms, peppers and onions.
Italian Beef
A sloppy Chicago classic. Lean round roast is braised in beef stock, shaved paper thin, soaked in jus and served on a soft roll dense enough to absorb the juices. The whole sandwich is dunked in the jus and topped with giardiniera or sweet peppers.
Parm
An Italian-American icon. A chicken or veal cutlet, meatballs or eggplant; fried, napped with red sauce and served on a roll under a blanket of melted mozzarella.
Roast Pork and Broccoli Rabe
The other iconic sandwich of Philadelphia. Roast pork that's thinly sliced or pulled; doused in gravy; topped with sharp provolone, chopped braised broccoli rabe and hot peppers; and served on an Italian roll.
Pan Bagnat
A Provençal tuna sandwich dressed with anchovies, olives, tomatoes and other ingredients you'd find in a salade niçoise. The sandwich is traditionally wrapped, weighted down and left to marinate and condense, allowing flavors to mingle and the olive oil and red vinegar that dresses it to soak the bread.
Chicken Cutlet
The Italian-American fried-chicken sandwich, which starts with a cutlet pounded flat, breaded and pan-fried, served with either broccoli and provolone (Philadelphia style; see Pork and Rabe) or lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on an Italian roll.
Panini
The Italian hot-pressed sandwich that surged in the United States in the 1990s. Panini are traditionally made with ciabatta or focaccia (never sliced bread) and filled with cured meats, vegetables and cheese.
Sliced Bread
Not necessarily the packaged stuff, but rather any sandwich built on bread sliced from a larger loaf. Most of the sandwiches here are typically made on white bread, or whole wheat, but those on rye or other breads are noted as such.
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Credit Evan Sung for The New York Times
Pimento
A decidedly Southern sandwich with Northern roots, pimento cheese is a simple mix of Cheddar, red bell pepper and mayonnaise that touches both the upper classes and the lower.
In the early 1900s, American cooks in the North began mixing imported canned Spanish pimento peppers with cream cheese or Neufchâtel to make a fancy snack. Food manufacturers quickly took up the notion, and by the 1920s, farmers in Georgia and California started growing pimentos to feed the demand. Southerners, awash in peppers, made a version using that country store staple, hoop cheese.
As the South moved from an agrarian society to an industrialized one, pimento cheese sandwiches filled lunch bags and factory "dope carts," which also sold Coca-Cola and headache powders.
It remains a perennial offering at the Masters golf tournament, a mainstay of afternoon tea menus and a refrigerator staple in many households, where it is essentially the peanut butter of Southern childhoods, according to Emily Wallace, a pimento cheese scholar. The best versions are on white bread, with a hand-grated mix of sharp and medium Cheddars, just enough mayonnaise to hold it together, judicious distribution of finely chopped roasted red pepper and a kiss of cayenne. KIM SEVERSON
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The New Jersey sloppy Joe at Town Hall Delicatessen in South Orange, N.J. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times
New Jersey Sloppy Joe
The sloppy Joe sandwich served at the Town Hall Deli in South Orange, N.J., looks nothing like the ground-meat slushburger of middle-school cafeteria life.
It is a triple-decker sandwich built on Pullman rye: turkey and roast beef and dry coleslaw, with Russian dressing and Swiss cheese, cut into artful squares. The sloppy Joe is the sandwich king of Essex County: a regional favorite for more than 80 years, a central feature of life from birthday parties and christenings to wakes and shivas. No reunion party at Columbia High School or Seton Hall University would be complete without it.
But it was born in this shop, said Matt Wonski, the second-generation deli man who owns Town Hall. The vest-pocket history: In the early years of the 1930s, Mr. Wonski recounted, a local politician returned from a trip to Cuba, where he had enjoyed a triple-decker tongue and ham sandwich at the Havana bar Sloppy Joe's. The politician asked the countermen at Town Hall to recreate the sandwich.
"The most important thing in delis," Mr. Wonski said, "is to give the customer whatever they want." The New Jersey sloppy Joe was born. SAM SIFTON
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An avocado sandwich with sprouts at the Stand in Laguna Beach, Calif. Credit Stuart Palley for The New York Times
Avocado
Los Angeles is a burger-and-taco town. When far-flung Southern Californians step off a plane at LAX, they head for In-N-Out Burger or a curbside taco truck.
That said, there is one sandwich that has come to embody California consciousness. It doesn't really have a name, but its contents, rooted in the hippie rumblings of the 1960s and '70s, remain immediately identifiable to anyone who has eaten at some "health food" bungalow in Laguna Beach or Topanga Canyon.
There must be fat, ripe wedges of avocado. There should be a fistful of alfalfa sprouts and juicy slices of tomato. Mayonnaise is helpful, to avoid dryness, but purists (and vegans) often opt for hummus instead. Ideally, the bread for this sandwich has to be so rustic and nutty, so stone-ground and multigrained, that your jaw later feels as though it has spent an hour at Pilates.
The mystery of this virtuous repast? It works. On a Santa Barbara patio in the sunshine, this is the sandwich you find yourself wanting to eat. JEFF GORDINIER
Club
This double or triple decker has sliced turkey or chicken, bacon, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise on toasted white bread. The club first came to prominence in the 1890s, appearing in home cookbooks and upscale places like the Waldorf Astoria.
BLT
Bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo. The BLT's ancestors most likely include the tea sandwich, the club sandwich, the bacon sandwich, the tomato sandwich or all of the above.
Grilled Cheese
American or Cheddar on white sandwich bread, toasted in a skillet, is the basic (and arguably best) model. Often paired with tomato soup in cafeterias across the nation.
Patty Melt
A mash-up of the hamburger and a grilled cheese, in which the ground beef is mixed with onion and other seasonings, pressed into a patty and grilled, then layered into a sandwich on rye with Swiss and caramelized onions that is grilled again.
Ham
Sliced boiled ham served on white bread with mayo or mustard. The 19th-century cookbook writer Eliza Leslie is said to have introduced the sandwich to Americans in her 1837 book, "Directions for Cookery."
Croque-Monsieur
A French cafe sandwich that has flourished in America. At its simplest (and most hand-holdable), it is grilled ham and Gruyère on white bread. But it is rarely at its simplest. Many versions are also filled with béchamel, and some are also topped with it, along with a layer of melted cheese.
Soft-Shell Crab
Richard Gorelick, the restaurant critic for The Baltimore Sun, said the ideal soft-shell crab sandwich is "just simple as possible. A fried soft-shell crab. Light breading, very simple breading. Fried up in oil. Served on toasted white bread, with lettuce and — this is key — a slice of in-season Maryland tomato." Finish with mayo or tartar sauce. "Marylanders tend to yawn when they see the crab cake," he said. "They get a little more interested in the soft-shell crab sandwich. It's a little more idiosyncratic and interesting."
PB&J
Peanut butter began life as health food, said Laura Shapiro, the culinary historian, but by 1900 it had become chic for entertaining; recipes for peanut butter canapés were published in cookbooks and magazines in the decades that followed. "Jelly wasn't a big part of the picture until peanut butter sandwiches became more strongly associated with children," she wrote in an email. That timing most likely coincided with the advent of sliced packaged bread, which meant that children wouldn't need a sharp knife to assemble their own sandwiches.
Pittsburgh-Style
This overstuffed sandwich on soft, thick slices of white Italian bread includes both French fries and coleslaw in its interior, and is most famously found at the Primanti Bros. sandwich shops.
Fluffernutter
Marshmallow creme was invented in Somerville, Mass., in 1917, and paired with peanut butter soon after.
Denver or Western
An omelet of diced ham, green pepper and onion on toasted bread. There are several theories around its creation: that it was made for cowboys to carry in their saddlebags, for instance. But James Beard believed that the sandwich originated with Chinese laborers working out West sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, who developed it as an Americanized egg foo yung. A likely relative of the Chinese-American St. Paul sandwich.
St. Paul
Actually a St. Louis specialty. Chinese-American egg foo young (scrambled eggs, onion and bamboo shoots) with lettuce and pickle on soft white bread. Very similar to the Denver or Western sandwich; some believe it was its ancestor.
Fried Bologna
A thick slice of bologna fried, served on toast spread with mustard. Some cooks crown it with a slice of American cheese.
Oklahoma "Prime Rib"
According to Mr. Raichlen, the thick slice of barbecued bologna on this regional sandwich is often scored for better smoke penetration. Served on white bread or on a hamburger bun, usually with barbecue sauce.
Corned Beef
Beef that is brined and boiled; the name comes from the grains, or "corns," of salt used in curing process. Often served on rye with mustard, though the meat is also a key ingredient in the Reuben.
Reuben
Sliced corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing on rye toast. There are competing stories of its origin, but experts tend to agree it was created in Omaha in the 1920s, when Reuben Kulakofsky asked for a corned beef and sauerkraut sandwich at a poker game at the Blackstone Hotel.
Pastrami
Beef that is brined, smoked and then steamed. "A Romanian-Jewish-American hybrid of barbecue, basturma (Turkish dried, spiced meat) and corned beef," as Julia Moskin once described it in The New York Times. It remains closely associated with Jewish delicatessens, where, like corned beef, it's served on rye with mustard.
Dagwood
A multidecker sandwich, layered with many kinds of cold cuts and sliced cheeses, named in 1936 for the "Blondie" comic strip character who loved it.
Tomato
The ultimate in simplicity: juicy garden tomatoes between sliced bread, dusted with salt and pepper. Mayonnaise is often added. A favorite of the young heroine Harriet M. Welsch, better known as Harriet the Spy.
Chopped Liver
Ground cooked livers of beef or chicken, or both, mixed with schmaltz (rendered poultry fat), hard-boiled eggs and onions, and spread on rye.
Egg Salad
Chopped hard-boiled eggs, mayonnaise, salt, pepper. Some cooks add Dijon mustard or chopped celery.
Tuna Salad
Canned tuna tossed with mayonnaise and often celery and onions. Tuna rose to prominence in America at the expense of sardines, the popular choice before albacore was first canned in 1903.
Tuna Melt
A variation on plain tuna salad, in which the salad is topped with Cheddar and baked or broiled until the cheese melts. Some leave the sandwich open-faced (not a sandwich, according to the rules laid out in this Field Guide), but enough cooks serve it closed that it warrants inclusion here.
Chicken Salad
Cooked, skinned and chopped chicken tossed with mayonnaise and a host of other possible mix-ins. Variations show up in several 19th-century American cookbooks.
Meatloaf
A thick slice of meatloaf between two slices of bread. An American diner staple.
Singulars
These sandwiches are served on breads that fall outside the categories above, but are no less vital. Some, like bagels, are increasingly common vehicles for any kind of sandwich, but have become closely associated with the specific ones below. Others are so distinct — the telera or bolillo of a torta, for example — that they cannot be listed under any of the other categories.
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A torta at King Torta in Los Angeles. Credit Laure Joliet for The New York Times
Torta
If you ask Rick Bayless, the chef who's behind a torta-mad spot in Chicago called Xoco, the ascendancy of the Mexican sandwich was inevitable in the United States. "They've got way more textures and flavors going on than most sandwiches do," Mr. Bayless said. "In Mexico City, there are as many tortarias as there are taquerias."
There are countless regional varieties, but a torta is usually made with one of two different types of rolls: either a bolillo (which sort of resembles a half-inflated Nerf football and is often hollowed out a bit to allow for more fillings) or a telera (which has three humps and is often toasted on a griddle first).
Inside, there's frequently avocado and a smear of bean paste, but other factors are up for grabs, and there are countless regional varieties. "Stuff them with anything," said Margarita Carrillo Arronte, a chef and the author of "Mexico: The Cookbook." A torta milanesa involves a fried-and-breaded cutlet of meat. From the Yucatán, you get tortas de lechón al horno, made with suckling pig. Tortas ahogadas are placed in a bowl and doused in a spicy broth — spicy, as in "one of the hottest things you've ever had in your life," Mr. Bayless said. JEFF GORDINIER
Cemita
Born in Puebla, Mexico, cemitas are not served on the typical torta roll and include a Mexican herb, papalo, providing a distinctive cilantro-like tang. "Puebla has its own hierarchy and tradition of breads, salty and sweet breads that they use for different sandwiches," said Lesley Tellez, the author of the forthcoming book "Eat Mexico: Recipes From Mexico City's Street, Fondas and Markets." The best type of cemita roll, according to Ms. Tellez, "have a crunch on the outside and are softer in the middle.
Muffuletta
A New Orleans classic with roots in the city's Sicilian community. Salami, capicola, mortadella and provolone topped with olive salad and served on a round roll large enough to feed four. The name refers to the roll itself, which is soft but substantial and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Lox and a Schmear
Smoked salmon laid on a bagel with a thick mattress of cream cheese. Red onion, tomato, chopped hard-boiled egg and capers are optional (and excellent) additions. The pairing was likely born because true belly lox, sold from pushcarts in New York at the turn of the 20th century, was salt-cured rather than smoked. The resulting fish was so salty that bread and cheese were needed to cut the flavor.
Cubano
Pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard and pickles pressed together like a panino. Said to have been created in Tampa, Fla., in the late 1800s by cigarmakers, though R. W. Apple Jr. of The New York Times, in an ode to the sandwich in 2002, surmised that it came from Cuba. ("Slightly gooey and totally glorious: a perfect example of cheap, humdrum ingredients transformed into something spectacular.") The roll, pan Cubano, is at least eight inches long and made with lard or olive oil; the similar but smaller sandwich called the medianoche is served on sweeter, eggier bread.
Smoked Salmon Spread on Pilot Bread
In Alaska, you'll see salmon spread everywhere — at catered events and family gatherings, and on restaurant menus too, according to Julia O'Malley, a journalist in Anchorage who writes about food. Even more distinctly Alaskan is the pairing of the spread with pilot bread, hardtack that can withstand the elements and the passing of time out in the wild. "It's more something you'd see off the road system," Ms. O'Malley said, and more of a nostalgic (and acquired) taste for urban Alaskans, who are more likely to have regular crackers with their spread.
Beef Patty on Coco Bread
The Jamaican starch-on-starch specialty. A beef patty — the savory, flaky yellow pastry filled with ground beef, onion, thyme and Scotch bonnet chiles — tucked into a soft sweet roll called coco bread.
Arepa
Colombians and Venezuelans share the arepa, but only the Venezuelans split and stuff the savory griddled or grilled corn cake like a sandwich, with pork, beans, cheese, beef, chicken or plantains, or some combination of them.
Chivito
The national sandwich of Uruguay. Thinly pounded and grilled steak layered on a Kaiser roll with bacon or pancetta, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and fried egg.
Dutch Crunch Roll
A type of bread, not a sandwich, but enough of a fixture in Northern California sandwich to include here. Adrienne Kane, the author of "The United States of Bread," explained that it's a basic yeast roll with a deeply creviced crust that is made with a topping of rice flour, sugar, yeast and water. "When you bake it, it becomes the carapace and cracked shell on the bread," she said, "and it's delicious." Use as you would any Kaiser or sub roll.
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