My friend Michelle had me over for lunch one day last week. Michelle is not actually her real name, its a pseudonym. Michelle is her American nickname. A name she chose after moving her family to this country. A name she chose that wouldn’t get mangled, garbled and repeatedly mispronounced and confuse the American people she lived among. Man-bin is her given name. Now that does not really seem too difficult to pronounce but she told me about an incident at the doctors office which became very confusing very quickly when they called out her name Man and she stepped forward.
It must be difficult for immigrants to give up their names when they live in a foreign country. I am pretty successful at pronouncing foreign names correctly when I am introduced but try to remember his or her name the next time we meet? Forget about it. It is just that the sounds and combinations of sounds do not make any connections from my ears to my brain. Admittedly, the problem has gotten worse as I have gotten older.
I feel pretty certain Americans living in foreign countries are probably given nicknames that make it easy for their friends and co workers in those countries to pronounce and remember as well. For example, my name seems pretty simple, but I have been called “Katra” , Kah Teh, and in Japan Ke ee toh (they actually made it into 3 syllables). Weird huh?
I have gotten way off track. I wanted to tell you about the strange sandwich my friend, Michelle, made me.
Potato salad sandwiches anyone?
I saw these sandwiches for the first time many many years ago when I lived in Japan. BUT Michelle is from Korea so her sandwich had a twist that I did not expect but was ohhh so nostalgic and ohhh so yummy. I could not wait to share with you.
There are several steps involved in the making of this sandwich but none of them require too much time. The basics consist of steaming the potato to make it soft and mushy enough to cling to the lightly salted vegetables.
Squeeze the water from the vegetables and mix them with the mashed steamed potato.
Add a bit of mayo and you have got yourself a potato salad sandwich! Now what Michelle did and what she explained is typical of Korean dishes is to add a little sweet flavor to balance the saltiness. She spread raspberry jam on another slice of bread and we ate that with the potato salad. Oh my!
Eat them together or try them separately. You will not be disappointed either way!
Potato Salad Sandwich
- April 23, 2019
- 4
- 30 min
- Print this
Ingredients
- 1 small Persian cucumber, sliced thin
- 1/4 c shredded cabbage
- 1/2 carrot chopped
- 1 large russet potato
- 1/4 c mayonnaise
- 1/4 c ham, chopped (optional)
- 1 hard boiled egg (optional)
- raspberry jam or other favorite
- sandwich bread
Directions
- Step 1
- Peel then cut the potato in 4 equal pieces and put into steamer and steam til soft. About 15 -20 minutes.
- Step 2
- While potato is steaming combine shredded cabbage and chopped carrot and cucumber in a bowl and sprinkle with 1-2 teaspoons of salt. Set aside for at least 10 -15 minutes then squeeze the water from the vegetables and drain.
- Step 3
- When potato is done remove to large bowl and let cool 5-10 minutes then mash
- Step 4
- Combine the salted drained vegetables with the mashed potato and add the optional ingredients at this point then mix together with mayonnaise to your taste.
- Step 5
- Cut crusts from bread if you like
- Step 6
- Make sandwich with potato mixture cut sandwich into 2 or 3 equal pieces
- Step 7
- Make sandwich with jam cut sandwich into 2 or 3 equal pieces
- Step 8
- Plate the sandwiches in a decorative manner
