Food energy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_energy

Food energy is chemical energy that animals (including humans) derive from their food to sustain their metabolism, including their muscular activity.

Most animals derive most of their energy from aerobic respiration, namely combining the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins with oxygen from air or dissolved in water. Other smaller components of the diet, such as organic acids, polyols, and ethanol (drinking alcohol) may contribute to the energy input. Some diet components that provide little or no food energy, such as water, minerals, vitamins, cholesterol, and fiber, may still be necessary to health and survival for other reasons. Some organisms have instead anaerobic respiration, which extracts energy from food by reactions that do not require oxygen.

The energy contents of a given mass of food is usually expressed in the metric (SI) unit of energy, the joule (J), and its multiple the kilojoule (kJ); or in the traditional unit of heat energy, the calorie (cal). In nutritional contexts, the latter is always the "large" variant of the unit, also written "Calorie" (with symbol Cal, both with capital "C") or "kilocalorie" (kcal), and equivalent to 4184 J or 4.184 kJ. Thus, for example, fats and ethanol have the greatest amount of food energy per unit mass, 37 and 29 kJ/g (9 and 7 kcal/g), respectively. Proteins and most carbohydrates have about 17 kJ/g (4 kcal/g), though there are differences between different kinds. For example, the values for glucose, sucrose, and starch are 15.57, 16.48 and 17.48 kilojoules per gram (3.72, 3.94 and 4.18 kcal/g) respectively. The differing energy density of foods (fat, alcohols, carbohydrates and proteins) lies mainly in their varying proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Carbohydrates that are not easily absorbed, such as fibre, or lactose in lactose-intolerant individuals, contribute less food energy. Polyols (including sugar alcohols) and organic acids contribute 10 kJ/g (2.4 kcal/g) and 13 kJ/g (3.1 kcal/g) respectively.

The energy contents of a complex dish or meal can be approximated by adding the energy contents of its components.

History and methods of measurement

Direct calorimetry of combustion

The first determinations of the energy content of food were made by burning a dried sample in a bomb calorimeter and measuring the temperature change in the water surrounding the apparatus, a method known as direct calorimetry.

The Atwater system

Main article: Atwater system

However, the direct calorimetric method generally overestimates the actual energy that the body can obtain from the food, because it also counts the energy contents of dietary fiber and other indigestible components, and does not allow for partial absorption and/or incomplete metabolism of certain substances. For this reason, today the energy content of food is instead obtained indirectly, by using chemical analysis to determine the amount of each digestible dietary component (such as protein, carbohydrates, and fats), and adding the respective food energy contents, previously obtained by measurement of metabolic heat released by the body. In particular, the fibre content is excluded. This method is known as the Modified Atwater system, after Wilbur Atwater who pioneered these measurements in the late 19th century.

The system was later improved by Annabel Merrill and Bernice Watt of the USDA, who derived a system whereby specific calorie conversion factors for different foods were proposed.

Dietary sources of energy

The typical human diet consists chiefly of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, ethanol, and indigestible components such as bones, seeds, and fibre (mostly cellulose). Carbohydrates, fats, and proteins typically comprise ninety percent of the dry weight of food. Ruminants can extract food energy from the respiration of cellulose because of bacteria in their rumens that decompose it into digestible carbohydrates.

Other minor components of the human diet that contribute to its energy content are organic acids such as citric and tartaric, and polyols such as glycerol, xylitol, inositol, and sorbitol.

Some nutrients have regulatory roles affected by cell signaling, in addition to providing energy for the body. For example, leucine plays an important role in the regulation of protein metabolism and suppresses an individual's appetite. Small amounts of essential fatty acids, constituents of some fats that cannot be synthesized by the human body, are used (and necessary) for other biochemical processes.

The approximate food energy contents of various human diet components, to be used in package labeling according to the EU regulations and UK regulations, are:

Food component	Energy density
	kJ/g	kcal/g
Fat	37	9
Ethanol	29	7
Proteins	17	4
Carbohydrates	17	4
Organic acids	13	3
Polyols (sugar alcohols, sweeteners) (1)	10	2.4
Fiber (2)	8	2

(1) Some polyols, like erythritol, are not digested and should be excluded from the count.

(2) This entry exists in the EU regulations of 2008, but not in the UK regulations, according to which fibre shall not be counted.

More detailed tables for specific foods have been published by many organizations, such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization also has published a similar table.

Other components of the human diet are either noncaloric, or are usually consumed in such small amounts that they can be neglected.

Energy usage in the human body

Main articles: Bioenergetics and Energy balance (biology)

The food energy actually obtained by respiration is used by the human body for a wide range of purposes, including basal metabolism of various organs and tissues, maintaining the internal body temperature, and exerting muscular force to maintain posture and produce motion. About 20% is used for brain metabolism.

The conversion efficiency of energy from respiration into muscular (physical) power depends on the type of food and on the type of physical energy usage (e.g., which muscles are used, whether the muscle is used aerobically or anaerobically). In general, the efficiency of muscles is rather low: only 18 to 26% of the energy available from respiration is converted into mechanical energy. This low efficiency is the result of about 40% efficiency of generating ATP from the respiration of food, losses in converting energy from ATP into mechanical work inside the muscle, and mechanical losses inside the body. The latter two losses are dependent on the type of exercise and the type of muscle fibers being used (fast-twitch or slow-twitch). For an overall efficiency of 20%, one watt of mechanical power is equivalent to 18 kJ/h (4.3 kcal/h). For example, a manufacturer of rowing equipment shows calories released from "burning" food as four times the actual mechanical work, plus 1,300 kJ (300 kcal) per hour, which amounts to about 20% efficiency at 250 watts of mechanical output. It can take up to 20 hours of little physical output (e.g., walking) to "burn off" 17,000 kJ (4,000 kcal) more than a body would otherwise consume. For reference, each kilogram of body fat is roughly equivalent to 32,300 kilojoules of food energy (i.e., 3,500 kilocalories per pound or 7,700 kilocalories per kilogram).

Recommended daily intake

Many countries and health organizations have published recommendations for healthy levels of daily intake of food energy. For example, the United States government estimates 8,400 and 10,900 kJ (2,000 and 2,600 kcal) needed for women and men, respectively, between ages 26 and 45, whose total physical activity is equivalent to walking around 2.5 to 5 km (1+1⁄2 to 3 mi) per day in addition to the activities of sedentary living. These estimates are for a "reference woman" who is 1.63 m (5 ft 4 in) tall and weighs 57 kg (126 lb) and a "reference man" who is 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) tall and weighs 70 kg (154 lb). Because caloric requirements vary by height, activity, age, pregnancy status, and other factors, the USDA created the DRI Calculator for Healthcare Professionals in order to determine individual caloric needs.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the average minimum energy requirement per person per day is about 7,500 kJ (1,800 kcal).

Older people and those with sedentary lifestyles require less energy; children and physically active people require more. Recognizing these factors, Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council recommends different daily energy intakes for each age and gender group. Notwithstanding, nutrition labels on Australian food products typically recommend the average daily energy intake of 8,800 kJ (2,100 kcal).

The minimum food energy intake is also higher in cold environments. Increased mental activity has been linked with moderately increased brain energy consumption.

Nutrition labels

The nutritional information label on a pack of Basmati rice in the United Kingdom

Many governments require food manufacturers to label the energy content of their products, to help consumers control their energy intake. To facilitate evaluation by consumers, food energy values (and other nutritional properties) in package labels or tables are often quoted for convenient amounts of the food, rather than per gram or kilogram; such as in "calories per serving" or "kcal per 100 g", or "kJ per package". The units vary depending on country:

Country	Mandatory unit (symbol)	Second unit (symbol)	Common usage
United States	Calorie (Cal)	kilojoule (kJ), optional	calorie (cal)
Canada	Calorie (Cal)	kilojoule (kJ), optional	calorie (cal)
Australia and New Zealand	kilojoule (kJ)	kilocalorie (kcal), optional	AU: kilocalorie (kcal)
United Kingdom	kJ	kcal, mandatory
European Union	kilojoule (kJ)	kilocalorie (kcal), mandatory
Brazil	caloria or quilocaloria (kcal)		caloria

Omnivore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnivore 

 

Examples of omnivores. From left to right: humans, dogs, pigs, walking catfish, American crows, gravel ant

An omnivore (/ˈɒmnɪvɔːr/) is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed. Often, they have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into their diet.

Omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms (Carnivora) while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms (Artiodactyla). Despite this, physical characteristics such as tooth morphology may be reliable indicators of diet in mammals, with such morphological adaptation having been observed in bears.

The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into further sub-categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frugivores include maned wolves and orangutans; insectivores include swallows and pink fairy armadillos; granivores include large ground finches and mice.

All of these animals are omnivores, yet still fall into special niches in terms of feeding behavior and preferred foods. Being omnivores gives these animals more food security in stressful times or makes possible living in less consistent environments.

Etymology and definitions

The word omnivore derives from Latin omnis 'all' and vora, from vorare 'to eat or devour', having been coined by the French and later adopted by the English in the 1800s. Traditionally the definition for omnivory was entirely behavioral by means of simply "including both animal and vegetable tissue in the diet." In more recent times, with the advent of advanced technological capabilities in fields like gastroenterology, biologists have formulated a standardized variation of omnivore used for labeling a species' actual ability to obtain energy and nutrients from materials. This has subsequently conditioned two context specific definitions.

• Behavioral: This definition is used to specify if a species or individual is actively consuming both plant and animal materials. (e.g. "vegans do not participate in the omnivore based diet.") In the fields of nutrition, sociology and psychology the terms “omnivore” & “omnivory” is often used to distinguish prototypical highly diverse human diet patterns from restricted diet patterns that exclude major categories of food.
• Physiological: This definition is often used in academia to specify species that have the capability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal matter. (e.g. "humans are omnivores due to their capability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal materials.")

The taxonomic utility of omnivore's traditional and behavioral definition is limited, since the diet, behavior, and phylogeny of one omnivorous species might be very different from that of another: for instance, an omnivorous pig digging for roots and scavenging for fruit and carrion is taxonomically and ecologically quite distinct from an omnivorous chameleon that eats leaves and insects. The term "omnivory" is also not always comprehensive because it does not deal with mineral foods such as salt licks and the consumption of plant and animal material for medical purposes which would not otherwise be consumed (i.e. zoopharmacognosy) within non-omnivores.

Classification, contradictions and difficulties

Though Carnivora is a taxon for species classification, no such equivalent exists for omnivores, as omnivores are widespread across multiple taxonomic clades. The Carnivora order does not include all carnivorous species, and not all species within the Carnivora taxon are carnivorous. (The members of Carnivora are formally referred to as carnivorans.) It is common to find physiological carnivores consuming materials from plants or physiological herbivores consuming material from animals, e.g. felines eating grass and deer eating birds. From a behavioral aspect, this would make them omnivores, but from the physiological standpoint, this may be due to zoopharmacognosy. Physiologically, animals must be able to obtain both energy and nutrients from plant and animal materials to be considered omnivorous. Thus, such animals are still able to be classified as carnivores and herbivores when they are just obtaining nutrients from materials originating from sources that do not seemingly complement their classification. For instance, it is well documented that animals such as giraffes, camels, and cattle will gnaw on bones, preferably dry bones, for particular minerals and nutrients. Felines, which are usually regarded as obligate carnivores, occasionally eat grass to regurgitate indigestibles (e.g. hair, bones), aid with hemoglobin production, and as a laxative.

Occasionally, it is found that animals historically classified as carnivorous may deliberately eat plant material. For example, in 2013, it was considered that American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) may be physiologically omnivorous once investigations had been conducted on why they occasionally eat fruits. It was suggested that alligators probably ate fruits both accidentally and deliberately.

"Life-history omnivores" is a specialized classification given to organisms that change their eating habits during their life cycle. Some species, such as grazing waterfowl like geese, are known to eat mainly animal tissue at one stage of their lives, but plant matter at another. The same is true for many insects, such as beetles in the family Meloidae, which begin by eating animal tissue as larvae, but change to eating plant matter after they mature. Likewise, many mosquito species in early life eat plants or assorted detritus, but as they mature, males continue to eat plant matter and nectar whereas the females (such as those of Anopheles, Aedes and Culex) also eat blood to reproduce effectively.

Omnivorous species

General

Although cases exist of herbivores eating meat and carnivores eating plant matter, the classification "omnivore" refers to the adaptation and main food source of the species in general, so these exceptions do not make either individual animals or the species as a whole omnivorous. For the concept of "omnivore" to be regarded as a scientific classification, some clear set of measurable and relevant criteria would need to be considered to differentiate between an "omnivore" and other categories, e.g. faunivore, folivore, and scavenger. Some researchers argue that evolution of any species from herbivory to carnivory or carnivory to herbivory would be rare except via an intermediate stage of omnivory.

Omnivorous mammals

Various mammals are omnivorous in the wild, such as species of hominids, pigs, badgers, bears, foxes, coatis, civets, hedgehogs, opossums, skunks, sloths, squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks, mice, hamsters and rats.

Most bear species are omnivores

Most bear species are omnivores, but individual diets can range from almost exclusively herbivorous (hypocarnivore) to almost exclusively carnivorous (hypercarnivore), depending on what food sources are available locally and seasonally. Polar bears are classified as carnivores, both taxonomically (they are in the order Carnivora), and behaviorally (they subsist on a largely carnivorous diet). Depending on the species of bear, there is generally a preference for one class of food, as plants and animals are digested differently. Canines including wolves, dogs, dingoes, and coyotes eat some plant matter, but they have a general preference and are evolutionarily geared towards meat. However, the maned wolf is a canid whose diet is naturally 50% plant matter.

Like most arboreal species, squirrels are primarily granivores, subsisting on nuts and seeds. However, like virtually all mammals, squirrels avidly consume some animal food when it becomes available. For example, the American eastern gray squirrel has been introduced to parts of Britain, continental Europe and South Africa. Its effect on populations of nesting birds is often serious because of consumption of eggs and nestlings.

Other species

Various birds are omnivorous, with diets varying from berries and nectar to insects, worms, fish, and small rodents. Examples include cranes, cassowaries, chickens, crows and related corvids, kea, rallidae, and rheas. In addition, some lizards (such as Galapagos Lava Lizard), turtles, fish (such as piranhas and catfish), and invertebrates are omnivorous.

Quite often, mainly herbivorous creatures will eagerly eat small quantities of animal food when it becomes available. Although this is trivial most of the time, omnivorous or herbivorous birds, such as sparrows, often will feed their chicks insects while food is most needed for growth. On close inspection it appears that nectar-feeding birds such as sunbirds rely on the ants and other insects that they find in flowers, not for a richer supply of protein, but for essential nutrients such as cobalt/vitamin b12 that are absent from nectar. Similarly, monkeys of many species eat maggoty fruit, sometimes in clear preference to sound fruit. When to refer to such animals as omnivorous, or otherwise, is a question of context and emphasis, rather than of definition.

Submarine sandwich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_sandwich 

 

Submarine sandwich

A submarine sandwich
Alternative names

List
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	Northeast
Main ingredients	Multiple
Variations	Multiple
Media: Submarine sandwich

A submarine sandwich, commonly known as a sub, hoagie (Philadelphia metropolitan area and Western Pennsylvania English), hero (New York City English), Italian (Maine English), grinder (New England English), wedge (Westchester, NY), or a spuckie (Boston English), is a type of American cold or hot sandwich made from a cylindrical bread roll split lengthwise and filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and condiments. It has many different names.

The terms submarine and sub are widespread in the US and not assignable to any certain part, though many of the localized terms are clustered in the northeastern United States.

History and etymology

The Italian sandwich originated in several different Italian American communities in the Northeastern United States from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. The popularity of this Italian-American cuisine has grown from its origins in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island to most parts of the United States and Canada, and with the advent of chain restaurants, is now available in many parts of the world. Edwin Eames and Howard Robboy identified thirteen different terms for the submarine sandwich in the United States.

Submarine

The use of the term "submarine" or "sub" (after the resemblance of the roll to the shape of a submarine) is widespread in the United States and Canada. While some accounts source the name as originating in New London, Connecticut (site of the United States Navy's primary submarine base) during World War II, written advertisements from 1940 in Wilmington, Delaware, indicate the term originated prior to the United States's entry into World War II.

Fenian Ram submarine, c. 1920

One theory says the submarine was brought to the U.S. by Dominic Conti (1874–1954), an Italian immigrant who came to New York in the late 19th century. He is said to have named it after seeing the recovered 1901 submarine called Fenian Ram in the Paterson Museum of New Jersey in 1928. His granddaughter has stated the following:

My grandfather came to this country circa 1895 from Montella, Italy. Around 1910, he started his grocery store, called Dominic Conti's Grocery Store, on Mill Street in Paterson, New Jersey where he was selling the traditional Italian sandwiches. His sandwiches were made from a recipe he brought with him from Italy, which consisted of a long crust roll, filled with cold cuts, topped with lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, oil, vinegar, Italian herbs and spices, salt, and pepper. The sandwich started with a layer of cheese and ended with a layer of cheese (this was so the bread wouldn't get soggy).

Party sub

Party sub is the name for a particularly long submarine sandwich, usually cut into pieces and served to guests at parties. The longest on record measured 735 meters (2,411 feet, 5 in).

Hoagie

Workers read the Hog Island News

 

Salami, ham and cheeses on a hoagie roll

The term hoagie originated in the Philadelphia area. In 1953, the Philadelphia Bulletin reported that Italians working at the World War I-era shipyard known as Hog Island, where emergency shipping was produced for the war effort, introduced the sandwich by putting various meats, cheeses, and lettuce between two slices of bread. This became known as the "Hog Island" sandwich; shortened to "Hoggies", then the "hoagie".

Dictionary.com offers the following origin of the term hoagie - n. American English (originally Philadelphia) word for "hero, large sandwich made from a long, split roll"; originally hoggie (c. 1936), traditionally said to be named for Big Band songwriter Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (1899–1981), but the use of the word predates his celebrity and the original spelling seems to suggest another source (perhaps "hog"). Modern spelling is c. 1945, and may have been altered by influence of Carmichael's nickname.

The Philadelphia Almanac and Citizen's Manual offers a different explanation, that the sandwich was created by early-twentieth-century street vendors called "hokey-pokey men", who sold antipasto salad, meats, cookies and buns with a cut in them. When Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta H.M.S. Pinafore opened in Philadelphia in 1879, bakeries produced a long loaf called the pinafore. Entrepreneurial "hokey-pokey men" sliced the loaf in half, stuffed it with antipasto salad, and sold the world's first "hoagie".

Another explanation is that the word hoagie arose in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, among the Italian community in South Philadelphia, when "on the hoke" meant that someone was destitute. Deli owners would give away scraps of cheeses and meats in an Italian bread-roll known as a "hokie", but the Italian immigrants pronounced it "hoagie".

Shortly after World War II, there were numerous varieties of the term in use throughout Philadelphia. By the 1940s, the spelling "hoagie" had come to dominate less-used variations like "hoogie" and "hoggie". It is never spelled hoagy. By 1955, restaurants throughout the area were using the term hoagie. Listings in Pittsburgh show hoagies arriving in 1961 and becoming widespread in that city by 1966.

Former Philadelphia mayor (and later Pennsylvania governor) Ed Rendell declared the hoagie the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia". However, there are claims that the hoagie was actually a product of nearby Chester. DiCostanza's in Boothwyn claims that the mother of DiConstanza's owner originated the hoagie in 1925 in Chester. DiCostanza relates the story that a customer came into the family deli and through an exchange matching the customer's requests and the deli's offerings, the hoagie was created.

Woolworth's to-go sandwich was called a hoagie in all U.S. stores.

Bánh mì sandwiches are sometimes referred to as "Vietnamese hoagies" in Philadelphia.

Hero

New York style meatball hero with mozzarella

The New York term hero is first attested in 1937. The name is sometimes credited to the New York Herald Tribune food writer Clementine Paddleford in the 1930s, but there is no good evidence for this. It is also sometimes claimed that it is related to the gyro, but this is unlikely as the gyro was unknown in the United States until the 1960s.

Hero (plural usually heros, not heroes) remains the prevailing New York City term for most sandwiches on an oblong roll with a generally Italian flavor, in addition to the original described above. Pizzeria menus often include eggplant parmigiana, chicken parmigiana, and meatball heros, each served with sauce.

Grinder

Pastrami grinder

A common term in New England, especially Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, is grinder, but its origin has several possibilities. One theory has the name coming from Italian-American slang for a dock worker, among whom the sandwich was popular. Others say that it was called a grinder because the bread's hard crust required much chewing.

In Pennsylvania, New York, and parts of New England, the term grinder usually refers to a hot submarine sandwich (meatball, sausage, etc.), whereas a cold sandwich (e.g., cold cuts) is usually called a "sub". In the Philadelphia area, the term grinder is also applied to any hoagie that is toasted in the oven after assembly, whether or not it is made with traditionally hot ingredients.

Italian

The term "Italian sandwich" or simply "Italian" is used in Maine. Local folklore claims that a baker named Giovanni Amato invented the Italian in 1899.

A cross-section of an Italian sandwich

The traditional Maine Italian sandwich is prepared using a long, soft bread roll or bun with meats such as salami, mortadella, capocollo or ham along with provolone, tomato, onion, green bell pepper, Greek olives, pickles, olive oil or salad oil, salt and cracked black pepper. Additional ingredients, such as pepperoni, banana pepper, or lettuce may be added to the sandwich. The sandwich is often cut in half to make it easier to handle.

Wedge

The term wedge is used in the New York counties of Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester, as well as the Connecticut county of Fairfield – four counties directly north of New York City.

Some base the name wedge on a diagonal cut in the middle of the sandwich, creating two halves or "wedges", or a "wedge" cut out of the top half of the bread with the fillings "wedged" in between, or a sandwich that is served between two "wedges" of bread. It has also been said wedge is just short for "sandwich", with the name having originated from an Italian deli owner located in Yonkers, who got tired of saying the whole word.

Spukie

The term spukie ("spukkie" or "spuckie") is unique to the city of Boston and derives from the Italian word spuccadella, meaning "long roll". The word spuccadella is not typically found in Italian dictionaries, which may suggest that it could be a regional Italian dialect, or possibly a Boston Italian-American innovation. Spukie is typically heard in parts of Dorchester and South Boston. Some bakeries in Boston's North End neighborhood have homemade spuccadellas for sale.

Other names

A Gatsby sandwich

• Blimpie (shaped like a blimp) – from the Hoboken, New Jersey–founded chain, Blimpie
• Gatsby – Cape Town, South Africa
• Po' boy – Louisiana
• Cosmo – Williamsport, Pennsylvania
• Zeppelin or Zep – eastern Pennsylvania
• Smoske – Belgium
• Dagobert – Belgium
• Continental roll ('Conti roll') - Western Australia

Popularity and availability

Rolls filled with condiments have been common in several European countries for more than a century, notably in France and Scotland.

In the United States, from its origins with the Italian-American labor force in the northeast, the sub began to show up on menus of local pizzerias. As time went on and popularity grew, small restaurants, called hoagie shops and sub shops, that specialized in the sandwich began to open.

Pizzerias may have been among the first Italian-American eateries, but even at the turn of the [20th] century distinctions were clear-cut as to what constituted a true ristorante. To be merely a pizza-maker was to be at the bottom of the culinary and social scale; so many pizzeria owners began offering other dishes, including the hero sandwich (also, depending on the region of the United States, called a 'wedge,' a 'hoagie,' a 'sub,' or a 'grinder') made on an Italian loaf of bread with lots of salami, cheese, and peppers.

— John Mariani, America Eats Out, p. 66

Subs or their national equivalents were already popular in many European, Asian, and Australasian countries when late 20th-century franchisee chain restaurants (such as Subway) and fast food made them even more popular and increased the prevalence of the word sub. Many outlets offer non-traditional ingredient combinations.

In the United States, there are many chain restaurants that specialize in subs. Major international chains include Firehouse Subs, Quiznos, Mr. Sub, Jimmy John's, and the largest restaurant chain in the world, Subway. The sandwich is also often available at supermarkets, local delis, and convenience stores. These include Wawa, which annually runs a sub promotional event during the summer called Hoagiefest, and Publix, whose sandwiches are often referred to as "pub subs".

Bánh mì

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_m%C3%AC 

Bánh mì

Alternative names	Vietnamese roll or sandwich, Saigon roll or sandwich
Type	Sandwich
Place of origin	South Vietnam
Invented	1950s
Main ingredients	Vietnamese baguette (also called bánh mì)
Variations	See below
Cookbook: Bánh mì   Media: Bánh mì

In Vietnamese cuisine, bánh mì or banh mi is a short baguette with thin, crisp crust and soft, airy texture. It is often split lengthwise and filled with savory ingredients like a submarine sandwich and served as a meal, called bánh mì thịt. Plain banh mi is also eaten as a staple food.

A typical Vietnamese roll or sandwich is a fusion of meats and vegetables from native Vietnamese cuisine such as chả lụa (pork sausage), coriander leaf (cilantro), cucumber, pickled carrots, and pickled daikon combined with condiments from French cuisine such as pâté, along with red chili and buttery mayonnaise. However, a wide variety of popular fillings are used, from xíu mại (a Chinese cuisine) to even ice cream. In Vietnam, bread rolls and sandwiches are typically eaten for breakfast or as a snack.

The baguette was introduced to Vietnam by the French in the mid-19th century, during the Nguyễn dynasty, and became a staple food by the early 20th century. In the 1950s, a distinctly Vietnamese style of sandwich developed in Saigon, becoming a popular street food, also known as bánh mì Sài Gòn ("Saigon sandwich", "Saigon-style banh mi"). Following the Vietnam War, Overseas Vietnamese popularized the bánh mì sandwich in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States. In these countries they are commonly sold in Asian bakeries.

Terminology

Bánh mì and bì cuốn

In Vietnamese, the word bánh mì is derived from bánh (which can refer to many kinds of food, primarily baked goods, including bread) and mì (wheat). It may also be spelled bánh mỳ in northern Vietnam. Taken alone, bánh mì means any kind of bread, but it could refer to the Vietnamese baguette, or the sandwich made from it. To distinguish the un-filled bread from the sandwich with fillings, the term bánh mì không ("plain bread") can be used. To distinguish the Vietnamese-style bread from other kinds of bread, the term bánh mì Sài Gòn ("Saigon-style bread") or bánh mì Việt Nam ("Vietnam-style bread") can be used.

A folk etymology claims that the word bánh mì is a corruption of the French pain de mie, meaning soft, white bread. However, bánh or its Nôm form 餅 has referred to rice cakes and other pastries since as early as the 13th century, long before French contact.

History

The word bánh mì, meaning "bread", is attested in Vietnamese as early as the 1830s, in Jean-Louis Taberd's dictionary Dictionarium Latino-Annamiticum. The French introduced Vietnam to the baguette, along with other baked goods such as pâté chaud, in the 1860s, at the start of their imperialism in Vietnam. Northern Vietnamese initially called the baguette bánh tây, literally "Western bánh", while Southern Vietnamese called it bánh mì, "wheat bánh". Nguyễn Đình Chiểu mentions the baguette in his 1861 poem "Văn tế nghĩa sĩ Cần Giuộc". Due to the price of imported wheat at the time, French baguettes and sandwiches were considered a luxury. During World War I, an influx of French soldiers and supplies arrived. At the same time, disruptions of wheat imports led bakers to begin mixing in inexpensive rice flour (which also made the bread fluffier). As a result, it became possible for ordinary Vietnamese to enjoy French staples such as bread. Many shops baked twice a day, because bread tends to go stale quickly in the hot, humid climate of Vietnam. Baguettes were mainly eaten for breakfast with some butter and sugar.

A bánh mì stand in Ho Chi Minh City

Until the 1950s, sandwiches hewed closely to French tastes, typically a jambon-beurre moistened with a mayonnaise or liver pâté spread. The 1954 Partition of Vietnam sent over a million migrants from North Vietnam to South Vietnam, transforming Saigon's local cuisine. Among the migrants were Lê Minh Ngọc and Nguyễn Thị Tịnh, who opened a small bakery named Hòa Mã in District 3. In 1958, Hòa Mã became one of the first shops to sell bánh mì thịt. Around this time, another migrant from the North began selling chả sandwiches from a basket on a mobylette, and a stand in Gia Định Province (present-day Phú Nhuận District) began selling phá lấu sandwiches. Some shops stuffed sandwiches with inexpensive Cheddar cheese, which came from French food aid that migrants from the North had rejected. Vietnamese communities in France also began selling bánh mì.

After the Fall of Saigon in 1975, bánh mì sandwiches became a luxury item once again. During the so-called "subsidy period", state-owned phở eateries often served bread or cold rice as a side dish, leading to the present-day practice of dipping quẩy in phở. In the 1980s, Đổi Mới market reforms led to a renaissance in bánh mì, mostly as street food.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese Americans brought bánh mì sandwiches to cities across the United States. In Northern California, Lê Văn Bá and his sons are credited with popularizing bánh mì among Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese Americans alike through their food truck services provider and their fast-food chain, Lee's Sandwiches, beginning in the 1980s. Sometimes bánh mì was likened to local sandwiches. In New Orleans, a "Vietnamese po' boy" recipe won the 2009 award for best po' boy at the annual Oak Street Po-Boy Festival. A restaurant in Philadelphia also sells a similar sandwich, marketed as a "Vietnamese hoagie".

Since the 1970s Vietnamese refugees from the American War in Vietnam arrived in London and were hosted at community centres in areas of London such as De Beauvoir Town eventually founding a string of successful Vietnamese-style canteens in Shoreditch where bánh mì alongside phở, were popularised from the 1990s.

Bánh mì sandwiches were featured in the 2002 PBS documentary Sandwiches That You Will Like. The word bánh mì was added to the Oxford English Dictionary on 24 March 2011. As of 2017, bánh mì is included in about 2% of U.S. restaurant sandwich menus, a nearly fivefold increase from 2013. On March 24, 2020, Google celebrated bánh mì with a Google Doodle.

Ingredients

Bread

Loaves of bánh mì at Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery in New Orleans

A Vietnamese baguette has a thin crust and white, airy crumb. It may consist of both wheat flour and rice flour.

Besides being made into a sandwich, it is eaten alongside meat dishes, such as bò kho (a beef stew), curry, and phá lấu. It can also be dipped in condensed milk (see Sữa Ông Thọ).

Fillings

Assembling a bánh mì

A bánh mì sandwich typically consists of one or more meats, accompanying vegetables, and condiments.

Accompanying vegetables typically include fresh cucumber slices, cilantro (leaves of the coriander plant) and pickled carrots and white radishes in shredded form (đồ chua). Common condiments include spicy chili sauce, sliced chilis, Maggi seasoning sauce, and mayonnaise.

Varieties

Many fillings are used. A typical bánh mì shop in the United States offers at least 10 varieties.

The most popular variety is bánh mì thịt, thịt meaning "meat". Bánh mì thịt nguội (also known as bánh mì pâté chả thịt, bánh mì đặc biệt, or "special combo") is made with various Vietnamese cold cuts, such as sliced pork or pork belly, chả lụa (pork sausage), and head cheese, along with the liver pâté and vegetables like carrot or cucumbers.

Other varieties include:

• Bánh mì bì (shredded pork sandwich) – shredded pork or pork skin, doused with fish sauce
• Bánh mì chà bông (pork floss sandwich)
• Bánh mì xíu mại (minced pork meatball sandwich) – smashed pork meatballs
• bánh mì thịt nguội (ham sandwich)
• Bánh mì cá mòi (sardine sandwich)
• Bánh mì pa-tê (pâté sandwich)
• Bánh mì xá xíu or bánh mì thịt nướng (barbecue pork sandwich)
• Bánh mì chả lụa or bánh mì giò lụa (pork sausage sandwich)
• Bánh mì gà nướng (grilled chicken sandwich)
• Bánh mì chay (vegetarian sandwich) – made with tofu or seitan; in Vietnam, usually made at Buddhist temples during special religious events, but uncommon on the streets
• Bánh mì chả cá (fish patty sandwich)
• Bánh mì bơ (margarine or buttered sandwich) – margarine / butter and sugar
• Bánh mì trứng ốp-la (fried egg sandwich) – contains fried eggs with onions, sprinkled with soy sauce, sometimes buttered; served for breakfast in Vietnam
• Bánh mì kẹp kem (ice cream sandwich) – contains scoops of ice cream topped with crushed peanuts

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  Bánh mì chả lụa (pork sausage sandwich)

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  Bánh mì đặc biệt ("special combo" sandwich)

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  Bánh mì bì (shredded pork sandwich) at Eden Center

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  Bánh mì xíu mại (minced pork meatball sandwich)

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  Bánh mì thịt nướng (barbecue pork sandwich)

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  with Chicken Schnitzel

Nowadays, it is popular with different type of bánh mì: bánh mì que. Its shape is thinner and longer than a normal one. But it can be fulfilled with different ingredients as normal bánh mì.

Sandwices similar to Vietnamese bánh mì are also found in Lao cuisine called khao chī pate (Lao: ເຂົ້າຈີ່ປາເຕ້) and in Cambodian cuisine called num pang pâté (Khmer: នំបុ័ងប៉ាតេ).

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  Khao chī pate in Laos, with spice paste on the side

Notable vendors

Bánh mì sold in Lee's Sandwiches.

Prior to the Fall of Saigon in 1975, well-known South Vietnamese bánh mì vendors included Bánh mì Ba Lẹ and Bánh mì Như Lan (which opened in 1968).

In regions of the United States with significant populations of Vietnamese Americans, numerous bakeries and fast food restaurants specialize in bánh mì. Lee's Sandwiches, a fast food chain with locations in several states, specializes in Vietnamese sandwiches served on French baguettes (or traditional bánh mì at some locations) as well as Western-style sandwiches served on croissants. In New Orleans, Dong Phuong Oriental Bakery is known for the bánh mì bread that it distributes to restaurants throughout the city. After 1975, Ba Lẹ owner Võ Văn Lẹ fled to the United States and, along with Lâm Quốc Thanh, founded Bánh mì Ba Lê. The Eden Center shopping center in Northern Virginia has several well-known bakeries specializing in bánh mì.

Mainstream fast food chains have also incorporated bánh mì and other Vietnamese dishes into their portfolios. Yum! Brands operates a chain of bánh mì cafés called Bánh Shop. The former Chipotle-owned ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen chain briefly sold bánh mì. Jack in the Box offers a "bánh mì–inspired" fried chicken sandwich as part of its Food Truck Series. McDonald's and Paris Baguette locations in Vietnam offer bánh mì.