Speedy's Cafe - General Chat about anything you like!

[Carol the Dabbler]

I have a new question:  Do people actually eat watercress sandwiches or cucumber sandwiches?  Or are they merely one of those things that everyone assumes are eaten by somebody else?

 

[besleybean]

I do, cos I love them.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Both kinds?

In what sort of situation would you be most likely to eat them?   (They don't sound very filling.)

[besleybean]

Yes, these days they would tend to be part of an afternoon or high tea. So along with scones and cakes and biscuits.(cookies)etc.

[Carol the Dabbler]

That's kinda what I thought -- a snack rather than a full meal.  The question came up on another message board, so thanks!

 

[Artemis]

When I was in Scotland I went to some fancy place (I forget the name of it) for high tea and was very disappointed to see no watercress or cucumber sandwiches.  They've always sounded really good to me, I had been looking forward to trying them.  The sweets were all very pretty of course, but I really wanted the sandwiches!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Same experience here, except in England.  Apparently all of the sandwiches were meat, because I don't recall eating any of them.  The scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam were excellent, however.

 

[besleybean]

Yeah to be fair, you will often get some sort of range of cheese, egg and fish with the meat. Not much use unless you specify vegan.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Bev (or anyone else who knows) -- could you describe a "proper" watercress / cucumber sandwich?  One of the posters on that other board said they'd had a watercress sandwich and found it bland, but I suspect they had made it themselves without any specific information.

 

[Pawse]

On 11/3/2022 at 3:08 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I have a new question:  Do people actually eat watercress sandwiches or cucumber sandwiches?  Or are they merely one of those things that everyone assumes are eaten by somebody else?

 

I get the burps with cucumber slices. Come to think of it, my mother did too...

[Carol the Dabbler]

25 minutes ago, Pawse said:

I get the burps with cucumber slices.

Many of us do.  But if you grow your own, you can pick a variety that's advertised as "bitter-free" or "burpless" (and be sure to keep the plants consistently watered and fertilized).  I've read that peeling a cuke can remove a significant portion of the bitterness, which is apparently what tends to cause burping.  You can also check supermarkets for "English" type cucumbers, which have much thinner skin (even though the ones sold in the US were probably grown in the US).

Apparently cucumbers actually grown in the UK tend to be less bitter, partly because summers don't get as hot as in most of the US.  Perhaps they tend to grow the thin-skinned "English" type as well.

All of which may explain the popularity of cucumber sandwiches in the UK.

 

[besleybean]

Glad you explained that, cos I don't think cucumber is bitter at all!

[J.P.]

Sometimes they get bitter at the end, but it's getting probably succesfully eliminated by breeding. I still test every one for the taste.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/bitter-cucumber-taste-explanation/

[Carol the Dabbler]

12 hours ago, besleybean said:

Glad you explained that, cos I don't think cucumber is bitter at all!

Over here, some are, some aren't, and most are somewhere between.

But please enlighten us:  How do you make a proper cucumber (or watercress) sandwich?  Surely it's not just the veggie between two naked slices of bread!  And speaking of bread, does it matter what type, how thick, etc.?

 

[besleybean]

Daintily and traditionally with the crusts cut off...

[Carol the Dabbler]

What do you put on the bread?  And how much of the cucumbers or watercress?

 

[besleybean]

Thin layer of butter.

I think they take the rind off the cucumber, too.

[Caya]

Never heard of a cucumber sandwich round here (then again, I was baffled by the fact that apparently there are bitter cucumbers so what do I know) though they are used as vegetable garnishing in other sandwiches (like, ham with radishes and cucumber). Similar with watercress, though I've also seen that one as the main sandwich ingredient, served with a bit of cream cheese.

[Carol the Dabbler]

About the closest I've ever come to either of those sandwiches is bread and butter with thin slices of either radish or green onion.  That was back when I was a kid, and those were the first vegetables that were ready to eat from our garden in the spring.  We don't do "tea" here, though, so the sandwiches were, near as I recall, just an occasional impromptu snack.

 

[besleybean]

Often the same here.

[Caya]

Our local tea equivalent would be a Jause, but in Vienna that generally involves cake or pastries (Guglhupf is one popular choice). Sandwiches are more of a late morning / cold or on-the-move lunch item.

[J.P.]

Oh my. Vienna's tea. Never believed, water can have an influence on taste of tea or coffee, until I went to Vienna. You people could sell your tap-water.

(Vienna ist the only City I know having fresh spring water supply - it's ice cold and de-li-cious.)

[besleybean]

Scottish water is damn good!

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, J.P. said:

Vienna is the only City I know having fresh spring water supply - it's ice cold and de-li-cious.

They could definitely sell that in several US towns where I've lived!  In one case, the city water came from the local river, and wasn't too bad until spring, when all the dead leaves (and other things) that had accumulated on the banks over the winter were washed into the river by the rain.  In other cases, I think it was from wells, so you never knew what you were going to get, even from day to day.  Sometimes the tap water smelled like you'd just boiled eggs in it.

 

[Caya]

Vienna's tap water comes from a protected mountain spring area that has been municipal property since imperial times. More info here, please ignore the tourist-y spin:  https://www.wien.info/en/sightseeing/green-vienna/viennese-water-364316.

And yes, it's protected by the city constitution - we're fiercely proud of our water and when a politician made noises about privatization, it didn't go across too well to put it mildly, and that provision was the result.