Season 2 (Episode 2): The Sandwich Goes Global

Welcome to Episode 2 of Eating History’s sandwich season! This week, Stephen and Adrienne track the sandwich as it escapes 18th-century England and begins its journey across the globe. From a brief military ceasefire in France to a bustling railway station in Japan, discover how the sandwich traveled not as a rigid recipe, but as a flexible culinary category that adapted perfectly to every culture it encountered. In this episode, we explore: The 1802 French Crossover: Why France borrowed the English word "sandwich" during a brief pause in the Napoleonic Wars Silver Sandwich Cases: Eliza Leslie’s 1837 American cookbook that proved early sandwiches were polite, domestic luxuries, not brown-bag lunches The Convict Restaurateur: How Stephen Bax, an English convict exiled to Australia in 1813, helped establish the sandwich category in Sydney Nose-Tingling Mustard: The colonial food writings and sharp condiment philosophies of British Army officer "Wyvern" in India The Japanese Railway Sandwich: How international trade introduced Western ham to Japan, seamlessly merging the sandwich with the country's existing bento transit-food culture