Things people like to bite. Other than the big one the top answer I believe is sandwiches.
I know a lot about sandwiches. I’m of english blood, have managed a bistro that sold tons of sandwiches and have a copy of Pret Manger’s salad and sandwich recipe book.
Everyone knows the english invented sandwiches, primarily to keep their hands kind of clean while playing cards. Apparently bread wipes preceded the invention of the British napkin. Bread wipes must have seemed highly preferable to soiling your clothes or letting the dogs lick you clean. I can imagine a table full of noble gamers, sitting around a pile of meat. Grab a chunk of bread, grab some meat and shove it in your face. The sandwich is born.
Today we are infinitely more delicate but sandwiches remain potentially messy creations. Wet ingrdients like ripe tomatoes drip, mustard and mayonaise ooze and red catsup seems magnetically drawn to shirt linen.
Perhaps everything eaten by hand is a sandwich? Think about Mexican cuisine; tortas, tacos, burritos, chimis and the ever present tortilla always in hand. Bread is not always in a loaf. There’s pita, nan, injera, fry bread and all sorts of pancakes. How about things wrapped in eatible leaves? My Dad has been wrapping turkey and cheese in a lettuce leaf since I was a kid. He calls it a sandwich.
Maybe sandwich is more of an idea than a thing, the possibilities seem endless. Mom went grocery shopping on Saturdays so Dad was left alone with the kids. Dad had to get us lunch. He was a master of the fried egg sandwich. The kids got to invent their own. My favorite was egg with a slice of tomato warmed through and topped with cheese. We also experimented with endless peanut butter varieties. We’d beg Mom for peanut butter and pickle in our school lunch bag but she thought this a craziness and would not do it.
The best sandwich in the world might be the ‘Cubano.’ It’s worth a trip to Miami just to eat one of these in a busy Cuban diner, amid the rapid fire Spanish chatter and the blaring salsa music.
The sandwich is made on Pan Cubano which is kind of a cross between a long Italian loaf and a Mexican Bolillo. A full Pan Cubano is about 16 inches long, the whole sandwich is grilled in a press or on top of a plancha (Spanish grill) and the customer signals to the cook how big of a piece he wants cut off. The sandwich consists of sliced roast pork, thin slices of ham, dill pickle coins and Swiss cheese. The sandwich is grilled in a press or under a weight until it is crusty brown and the cheese has begun to melt. Dressing the finished sandwich with mustard is optional and kind of a gringo thing that some Cubans have picked up after living too long in America.
These are great to serve at football parties as they can be assembled ahead of time and grilled to order. You can even grill them outside on a sheet of metal.