• 1984@lemmy.today
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    7 months ago

    Which one of the pictures is a sandwich? They all look like burgers to me. Maybe I need glasses but they do. :)

    In my native language, all of these are just called hamburgers. The word sandwich is just used for typical breakfast sandwiches with ham and cheese and flat bread on the bottom only.

    Of course there is Subway with those larger sandwiches with filling inside, and we call those sandwiches too…

    • GinAndJuche@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      All of them are sandwiches. The last two aren’t burgers. The term burger has shifted a bit over the years, but for the most part it still retains the assumption that it is made of beef and circular. A square piece of beef like the chain Wendy’s does is still a burger, but a swuare piece of fish would but be unless somebody has a rather loose take on what’s. Burger is.

      For example, I’m vegan and don’t call grilled tofu slices between circular buns a burger. I would call it a tofu sandwich. If it was a circular piece of grilled tofu, that would be “close enough” to burger.

      Shape, cooking method for the protein, and the “caps” that the buns usually serve as are all factors in how much something fits the ideal of “burger”.

      For example: a grilled, circular patty served in between two small corn tortillas could be called a tortilla burger, but wrap the patty in a single larger tortilla and it’s not a burger. It’s now a wrap.

      Something I should probably add: put damn near anything on a piece of bread it’s an open face sandwich. Put a k the piece on top it’s just a sandwich. Wrap it something it’s a wrap. A grilled patty wrapped in lettuce would be a lettuce wrap. Two chonky pieces of lettuce above and below, and many people would call it a lettuce wrap still but due to the lack of wrapping it would be a sandwich. The use of bread isn’t required for sandwich functionality. Side note: is there a term for the role the buns fill? What do we call the absorbent thing that allows your hands to stay relatively clean while you eating the things placed between them?

      I’m too fucking American, I’ve put more effort into this than anything else I’ve posted today lol.

    • SerLava [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      7 months ago

      In the US nobody would ever say “damn I could go for a sandwich right now” while entering a burger joint- that would be insane.

      Sandwich is definitely an umbrella term covering burger, but since there’s no word for “a normal sandwich” we usually reserve the word sandwich for the normal sandwich.

      We do very occasionally call burgers sandwiches in certain contexts, such as when we are talking about several different sandwiches and one of them is a hamburger.

      That usually only happens when talking about things like fish or chicken sandwiches at a burger restaurant. We wouldn’t even expect the question “what is your favorite sandwich?” to be answered with “hamburger” - that would be sort of weird too. It’s a very limited usage