Who doesn’t love a great sandwich? They’re quick and easy to prepare. They’re pretty much self-contained, portable and are appropriate in almost any situation. The various possible combinations and ratios of breads and fillings are virtually endless. And, they are delicious!

When my father was alive, his office was right down the hall from mine. Even after he retired, he still showed up every day, for at least a few hours to putter around and socialize with the rest of us working stiffs in the building. One of his favorite things to do was to go out for lunch. We always knew when it was lunchtime by the sound of his telltale whistling as he made his way down the hallway. He whistled all the time! (When we were kids, that whistle was our alarm clock every morning!) Invariably, he’d pop his head into my office, cajole me into taking a lunch break and off we’d go.

Dad’s sandwich of choice was the reuben, which is a grilled sandwich made on rye bread with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and dripping with either Russian or Thousand Island dressing. Over the years, I think that dad sampled every reuben in every restaurant in town, and many others out of town too! Surrounded by all of that corned beef goodness, it was inevitable that I would develop a fondness for Reuben sandwiches too.

This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2010.