time flies

today as i was eating the rest of my leftover turkey and cheese subway sandwich, i found myself remembering the "old" subway sandwiches. you know, the ones with the wedge cut out of the top?  i wondered, "what ever happened to subway cutting their sandwiches like that?" now they just cut them like any regular sandwich and honestly it feels a little plain jane for me. surely it's only been a couple of years since they made the switch in the cut style, right? so i went to the trusty internet to do some investigation. what i found shocked me, it has been ten years, TEN YEARS! since subway moved from the "U-GOUGE" cutting technique (u-gouge, really? that sounds quite violent for sandwich terminology) to the "hinge", which sounds much more sandwich-like. the reason they made the switch? people felt like more meat fit in a sandwich cut with a hinge than with a u-gouge out of the top of it, when in fact they both contain the same amount of meat(who knew?).  apparently some subway restaurants will still cut your bread the old fashioned way if you ask them to. however many employees don't know HOW to cut the bread in the u-gouge manner as it is a very complicated task to master. really? how hard can it be if 15 year olds can learn to do it? exxxxactly. because it's been ten years since subway has moved away from the u-gouge there probably aren't a lot of stores who still employ "sandwich artists" who know how to make the cut; and i'm not sure that i would like to chance it and have somebody butcher MY future lunch.  

another question that i came across when searching the "subway wedge cut" (as i referred to it before i learned the proper terminology; but also known as a "meat boat") was "did they copy toasting from quiznos?".  the general consensus was that they had, in fact copied. i don't care, i'll take a "subway toasted sub" anyday over a "quiznos razor sharply toasted cardboard that they pretend is bread sandwich". there is a huge difference in the method that is used for toasting the breads. subway uses a convection oven and quiznos uses some type of blazing hot tiny pizza oven specially made for sharpening edges.  "the better to slice up the roof of your mouth with, my dear" should be their slogan.  

part of the reason that subway phased out the u-gouge was that toasting the wedge piece turned it into a "U" shaped crouton and that didn't jive well with the rest of the subway toasted sub experience. so there you go, for all of you who have wondered for ten years, TEN YEARS! what happened to the old style subway sandwich... wonder no more.