Stinky Sandwich

When I was young there were two sandwiches which I absolutely could not stand-- egg salad and tuna fish. Although their lumpy appearances definitely did not appeal, it was above all their lingering odors that were so detestable to the sensitivity of my young nose.

I would head out to the kitchen, teeth brushed, shoelaces tied, and shirt tucked in (because yes, I was one of those never-play-in-the-mud, proper children), to pour myself a bowl of cereal. Before I even arrived in the kitchen, the sulfuric smell of my mother mashing a half dozen eggs, mixed with coarsely chopped dill pickles for her egg salad, would hit me like a ton of bricks . A proper, though never meek child, I would fuss about the smell making me gag first thing in the morning. Pleasant.

Then there was school lunchtime. I would pull out my peanut butter and jelly sandwich sandwich; the only sandwich I would tolerate for some years. Friends would gather next to me, we would chitter-chat absentmindedly, and then the odor would come wafting through the cafeteria table. There my friend Jane would sit, gobbling up a tuna fish sandwich straight from a crinkly waxed paper wrapper. Sitting for hours, warming in her Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox, it smelled of the ocean after a storm, one that had riotously blown all of the fish out of the sea to bake in the sun. But Jane was a dear friend who did not deserve my complaints like my mother did. Instead I simply did not breathe through my nose for the duration of lunchtime in the cafeteria.

It's funny how tastes (and smells) can change over the years, because fast-forward about twenty years, and I have been known to eat many a stinky thing: Cheese? Pass it over my way. Anchovies? But of course. Pate? Why not! I'll even eat the dreaded egg salad and tuna fish sandwich, get this-- together.

Ah yes, the good old stinky sandwich, all grown up, and made even stinkier, and brinier by the addition of fried capers. Made with olive oil packed tuna fish, drained (but not too well), a few perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs (11 minutes in boiling water), and some chopped fried capers mixed into one wonderfully smelly mess. I add a few leaves of crisp, peppery arugula, and serve the whole jumble on a fresh baguette. De-licious!

If you are wanting a little stink from your next meal (and truly, I jest, the odor is almost innocuous) the recipe for this stinky sandwich filling is on the Daily Specials page.