Our best sandwich recipes from around the world include recipes for everything from the ultimate tuna melt and a tamago sando to banh mi, num pang, hot dogs, filled baguettes, and burgers. If you’re a lover of sandwiches and your definition of a sandwich goes beyond a filling between slices of bread, do bookmark this page. We’ll be adding shawarmas, gyros, panini, tortas, and more.
I have to confess that the first time I heard a Lebanese colleague in Abu Dhabi call a shawarma a sandwich, I was a little taken aback. Growing up in Australia, our definition of a sandwich was much more narrowly defined. For Australians, a classic sandwich was a sweet or savoury filling between two slices of buttered bread.
Fillings between buns were rolls, burgers and hot dogs, and a banh mi was a banh mi, but they weren’t sandwiches. Or so I had thought. As I’d quickly learn after we moved abroad, there was a big wide world of sandwiches out there beyond Australia’s sangers, sarnies, toasties, jaffles, doner kebabs, and focaccia panini, a Nineties favourite.
The year before we moved to the Middle East, I’d spent a year in South America and Terence and I travelled Mexico and Cuba, where the only food available in Havana was the bocadito. It was the ‘special period’ of lean economic times with rations and shortages. That meant I was familiar with the bocadillo, tostada, bauru, choripan, chivito, butifarra, lomito, and arepa.
In Europe, we’d find the muffuletta, puccia, piadina, and tramezzino in Italy; the pan bagnat, jambon beurre, tartine, and croque Monsieur and croque Madame in France; the bifana, francesinha and sandes in Portugal; in Spain, beyond the bocadillo, there was the bocata, bikini, flauta, montadito, entrepans, and solomo; and in Scandinavia, home to the world’s finest sandwiches, we’d discover smörgås, smørrebrød, svamptoast, and, my favourite, the sublime toast skagen.
From time to time, I’m going to share some of our favourite sandwich recipes – who knew you needed a recipe for a sandwich?! Well, you do, for the world’s best sandwiches – so do bookmark this post as I’ll add them here from time to time.
Best Sandwich Recipes for Hot Dogs, Burgers, Banh Mi, Num Pang, Melts, and More
These are some of our best sandwich recipes from around the world. If you’re a sandwich lover, do bookmark this page, as we’ll add more recipes for sandwiches from time to time.
Japanese Rolled Omelette Recipe for a Tamago Sando
Terence’s Japanese rolled omelette recipe for tamagoyaki makes a soft, fluffy, rolled omelette that we love to eat between thick slices of Japanese bread to make a tamago sando or Japanese egg sandwich.
Japanese rolled omelettes are eaten everywhere in Japan, from izakayas to high-end sushi restaurants, but home-cooked tamagoyaki has a special place in the hearts of Japanese.
A tip: if you’re just starting your tamagoyaki adventure buy a tamagoyaki pan, or even better, a tamagoyaki kit with a brush and silicone spatula to roll the omelette. There are so many Amazon has a dedicated page on the types of Tamagoyaki pans. We love the cast iron tamagoyaki pans with wooden handles although we use a small pan we found in our Japanese recycle shop in Siem Reap that’s on the Amazon Japan shop.
This Japanese Rolled Omelette Recipe Makes Tamagoyaki for Your Tamago Sando
Creamy Curried Egg Sandwich Recipe
This creamy curried egg sandwich recipe made with soft boiled eggs, curry powder, creamy whole egg mayonnaise, and served as an open sandwich on lightly toasted sourdough is our take on the traditional Australian curried egg sandwiches that we grew up eating as children in Australia.
My dad and nanna’s curried egg sandwiches were made with Keen’s Curry Powder, finely chopped eggs thoroughly mashed with full creamed milk, between impossibly soft, thickly buttered white bread. There’s no Keen’s Curry Powder here in Siem Reap, so Terence uses Waugh’s Curry Powder, which is Thailand’s best-selling curry powder.
Terence makes our soft boiled eggs very soft for his creamy curried egg sandwich recipe but you do them to your own preferred degree of softness using the timings in his guide to making perfect soft boiled eggs every time.
Creamy Curried Egg Sandwich Recipe with Soft Boiled Eggs on Sourdough Toast
Best Tuna Melt Recipe
Terence’s ultimate tuna melt recipe takes the often-limp grilled cheese and tuna toasted sandwich and by replacing the milk bread with fresh home-baked sourdough bread turns it into a café-worthy gourmet open sandwich – which in our opinion is the best tuna melt we’ve ever eaten.
For our non-American readers, a tuna melt is a classic American sandwich. It’s essentially a toasted grilled cheese sandwich filled with a creamy tuna salad that’s typically made from tinned tuna, mayonnaise, diced onion, pickles, Dijon mustard, tomatoes, and salt and pepper.
Tuna melt sandwiches are usually served as closed sandwiches, although our easy tuna melt recipe makes an open face tuna melt as they are so filling, you really don’t need two slices of bread, especially if you’re using sourdough.
Ultimate Tuna Melt Recipe – How to Make the Best Tuna Melt Ever
Summery Greek Salad Bruschetta with Olive Sourdough Bread
Terence’s Greece inspired open sandwich recipe makes a Greek salad bruschetta made with olive sourdough bread, Greek feta and Kalamata olives which takes us back to languid lunches eaten barefoot at a beachside taverna where a Greek salad was always the first dish ordered.
Pile the classic salad ingredients atop toasted slices of homemade olive sourdough, heady with the aromas of olive oil, Kalamata olives and herbs, and you’ve got a snack you’ll want to eat in the sun after a swim.
Terence writes in the post: “As soon as I pulled my first loaf of olive sourdough bread with rosemary, thyme and sweet red capsicum out of the oven, I wanted to take a slice and throw some feta cheese on it. It already had the aromas of what we call a ‘Greek salad’, or what the Greeks call a horiátiki or village salad, a salad served from spring through to the end of summer when the ingredients are at their best.”
Summery Greek Salad Bruschetta with Olive Sourdough Bread for a Slice of the Mediterranean
Cambodian Num Pang with Meatballs Recipe
Our Cambodian num pang with meatballs recipe will make you the best baguette sandwich ever. Num pang is Cambodia’s less-famous but equally delicious cousin to Vietnam’s bánh mì, a popular street food snack in Cambodia, particularly here in Siem Reap. In some ways they’re a bit ‘same same but different’ when it comes to fillings and flavours.
French-style baguettes are filled with juicy fragrant pork meatballs, a quick pickle of carrot and daikon, salad, and fresh herbs. If you made and enjoyed our juicy pork meatballs recipe, then you’re going to love this Cambodian num pang with meatballs.
The moist meatballs are flavoured and fragrant with the quintessential Cambodian kroeung, a spice and herb paste that is the basis of so many Cambodian dishes. For extra flavour, we squirt on some of our homemade Sriracha sauce. Slices of bird’s eye chillies are optional, but we do love the extra bite.
Cambodian Num Pang with Meatballs Recipe for the Best Summer Baguette Sandwich
Hoi An Banh Mi Recipe
Banh mi recipe? Who needs a recipe to make a Vietnamese sandwich? Well, this isn’t any old sandwich, it’s Hoi An‘s best bánh mì, which we watched being made almost every day for three months when we lived there years ago.
This classic Hoi An-style Vietnamese banh mi recipe comes straight from the source, Bánh Mì Phuong, where for months we watched amazingly crunchy Vietnamese-style demi-baguettes get filled with porky delights and tart pickles nearly every day. Sadly, we can’t get the same crispy baguettes here in Siem Reap, as you can by the image.
The actual ingredients for our usual order were home-made mayonnaise, home-made pork liver pâté (made by Phuong’s sister-in-law, who became Lara’s buddy), Vietnamese sausage (a version with peppercorns called chả Huế), thin slices of char siu pork belly, cucumber slices, pickled carrot and daikon strips, fresh coriander (cilantro to our American readers), spicy chilli sauce, sliced chillies, and thinly sliced tomatoes.
Of course, Terence has tinkered with Phuong’s banh mi recipe here. He uses his char siu pork (which he also uses in our Chinese special fried rice and Hokkien noodles) and uses thicker slices of char siu and skips the sausage – we’re already using the pâté so we have quite enough protein for one sandwich.
Banh Mi Recipe – How to Make Hoi An’s Best Vietnamese Sandwich
Cambodian Num Pang Pâté Recipe
Our Cambodian num pang pate recipe makes Cambodia’s version of Vietnam’s bánh mì pâté – a French baguette, bread roll or sandwich filled with a thick spread of rustic French country-style pâté, along with generous layers of cold cuts, crunchy cucumber, fresh aromatic herbs such as coriander, basil and mint, and creamy French mayonnaise.
This Cambodian num pang pate is the sum of its parts. You need to start with good quality French baguettes from your local bakery that should be crispy on the outside and soft within, and then you jam-pack the thing with quality creamy French mayonnaise, fantastic rustic French country-style pâté, and crispy salad vegetables and aromatic fresh herbs.
Any style of pâté is fine. Here in Cambodia a rustic country-style pork pâté is typically used, but you can use a smooth duck liver or chicken liver pâté or mousse or a rustic terrine. Store-bought is perfectly fine but if you want to make your own French pâté or terrine, we highly recommend reading Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn’s excellent book Charcuterie, The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.
Num Pang Pâté Recipe – How to Make the Cambodian Version of Vietnamese Bánh Mì
Hoi An Banh Mi Op La Recipe
This Hoi An banh mi op la recipe, which is essentially a banh mi or Vietnamese baguette sandwich with an omelette, makes a great breakfast or brunch dish combining the Southeast Asian classic breakfast of grilled pork with the addition of an omelette all wrapped up in a baguette
We had been going to our favourite banh mi shop, Bánh Mì Phuong, in Hoi An for a couple of weeks into our three month stay in the Central Vietnam port town, when a local friend suggested we ask the ladies to make us their bánh mì ốp la (also written as ‘banh mi opla’ sometimes) instead of our usual banh mi ‘with the lot’, above.
Once we tried Phuong’s banh mi op la, there was no turning back. And then we were switched on to Madame Khanh’s bahn mi op la by our friend, Neville, who had named her the ‘Banh Mi Queen’. I hate to think how many eggs we ate a week during our months in Hoi An. This recipe is inspired by that banh mi.
Banh Mi Op La Recipe – Hoi An Style Banh Mi with Omelette Inspired by the Banh Mi Queen
Cambodian Num Pang Recipe for Num Pang Barang with Turkey Leftovers
Our Cambodian num pang barang recipe is a recipe for what I have called num pang barang – ‘barang’ means ‘foreigner’ in Khmer. Cambodia’s num pang is similar to Vietnamese banh mi – a baguette packed with pork, pate and salad. My num pang barang makes use of the Christmas turkey leftovers but you could use Thanksgiving turkey leftovers or leftover rotisserie chicken.
There are an infinite number of versions of num pang in Cambodia, with each mobile seller putting her own stamp on her num pang. A popular num pang in Siem Reap is stuffed with fried meatballs (above), another with tinned mackerel, while a filling of Spam sandwich meat is also popular.
In Battambang‘s markets, I’ve seen num pang sellers load their baguettes with fermented pickles and wet sauces (unfortunately the bread gets soggy quickly) and in Phnom Penh, a num pang with spongy fish cakes I once had was wonderful, although I’ve never seen it since. Feel free to tweak as you like to your taste.
Cambodian Num Pang Recipe for Num Pang Barang with Turkey Leftovers
Vegetarian Num Pang Filled with Fragrant Herb Frittata
This Cambodian vegetarian num pang recipe makes a ‘num pang’, a Cambodian baguette sandwich, slathered in mayonnaise and filled with a quick pickle of grated carrot and daikon, fresh crunchy salad ingredients, aromatic herbs such as coriander, mint and basil, slices of a fragrant herb frittata, and a generous squirt of homemade chilli sauce.
We make this veggie num pang with this fragrant Cambodian herb frittata recipe made with an intensely aromatic and garlicky Cambodian ingredient called climbing wattle or saom, or sa’om or sa-om in Khmer, the feathery shoots of senegalia pennata, also called acacia pennata or acacia leaf. In Thailand, it’s cha-om, and in Myanmar it’s su pout ywet.
Sa’om has a distinct taste, but if you can’t find climbing wattle (look in Asian markets and Asian supermarkets), try fresh dill. It’s the best substitute I’ve found. If you identify another herb that works, please let us know in the comments. If we’re not making our own mayo, we’ll use our favourite store-bought mayonnaise. Whatever you use, spread your mayo on thickly.
Cambodian Vegetarian Num Pang Recipe for a Baguette Filled with Fragrant Herb Frittata
Gourmet Hot Dog Recipes
These gourmet hot dog recipes make healthy hot dogs inspired by the Mediterranean cuisines of Italy, Morocco and the Middle East. If you’re planning on making hot dogs for Memorial Day, a Super Bowl party or another weekend game day gathering, but looking for healthier hot dog recipes beyond the classics, try out our Italian inspired, Moroccan inspired and Middle Eastern inspired hot dogs.
My parents owned a take-away specialising in hot dogs when I was a teen, so I’m a hot dog lover. I adore a traditional hot dog spread with mayo and mustard and topped with generous squirts of chilli sauce or ketchup as much as the next person. Add caramelised onions, bacon and melted cheese and I’m in heaven. But when I feel like healthier fast food or hot dogs that are a bit fancier, I make these gourmet hot dog recipes.
I’m not a fan of classic frankfurter sausages. I prefer to buy good quality butcher’s sausages, such as Italian herb sausages, Moroccan merguez and Lebanese makanek and fill the hot dogs with salads and spreads. But if you’re a lover of the classic hot dog or you can’t source quality artisanal sausages from a good butcher, you can definitely use traditional hot dog-style sausages with these spreads and salads.
Gourmet Hot Dog Recipes for Mediterranean Inspired Healthier Hot Dogs
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our best sandwich recipes from around the world as we’d love to know how they turn out for you. And don’t forget to bookmark this page as we’ll be adding recipes for sandwiches here from time to time.
