The bread has those nice dark stripes from the grill; the melted cheese is already dripping hotly on to the napkin. Mmmmmm. This sandwich is as good as I remember! Even though I last had it... oh, OK, it was yesterday. And the day before. And the day before that. Are you getting the idea? I am a serial same-sandwicher.
Some people may find the idea of repetitive lunching odd, but really, it isn't: according to research by Whole Foods Market, one third of Britons eat the same lunch daily, and half say they have been eating it for six years. Lightweights! The survey of 2,000 adults found that the most common choice is a cheese sandwich, followed closely by ham – which makes my choice of a ham and cheese sandwich, toasted wherever possible, doubly vindicated.
So why is it embarrassing to choose the same lunch? Philosopher Julian Baggini thinks that the emergence of a "foodie class" has created "a sort of fiction that we all eat adventurously" (he does, though, assembling a mackerel and tomato salad, a frittata – anything so long as it doesn't replicate what he had the day before).
But I don't see my ham and cheese sandwich as an antithesis to choice: it needs not to contain mustard, bechamel, chutney, mayo or pickle, and you have to walk quite a long way for that. Besides, I occasionally ring the changes (choosing smoked salmon instead), if, say, I'm planning cheese and ham pizza for tea, or if I'm on holiday and an hour-long search has still not located a bar willing to make one (luckily, ham and cheese toastie seems to be some sort of universal language for lunch). Neither is it an antithesis to foodiness: even Angela Hartnett regularly lunches on a cheese sarnie and crisps, and she is a woman who knows about interesting food combinations. Plus, as Baggini points out, many food snobs don't mind eating the same breakfast, as long as it's proper porridge or muesli.
Do we choose the same sandwich because the ritual offers comfort? Certainly there's a pleasure in choosing what you know you like, and it isn't necessarily dull. I am happy to report that whenever I finish my sandwich, I wish there was just a little bit more. Which, of course, there always is – just not until tomorrow.
