World Sandwich Day
Every year on November 3rd, people all over the world celebrate one of the most ubiquitous forms of food on this planet – the humble sandwich – with the whole day dedicated to honouring this most simple, yet delicious creation. That’s right: it’s “World Sandwich Day”! Therefore, there is no better day to to make an actual World Sandwich – an Earth Sandwich, if you will.
Origins of the sandwich
The creation of the sandwich is credited to John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, in 1762. Born into the British aristocracy, he later held various military and political offices, including First Lord of the Admiralty (Head of the British Navy), Postmaster General (Head of the Post Office, a Cabinet Minister position at the time), and Secretary of State for the Northern Department (which today is called Foreign Secretary).
In addition to his range of high-ranking Government positions, he was also a prolific gambler. Legend has it that he was so enthusiastic about his gambling that he didn’t want to stop playing to eat. Instead, he asked the chef to bring him “some beef between two slices of bread”, so he could eat it with his hands and carry on gambling, without leaving the table, and without needing to put down his cards to hold a knife and fork, or get his cards greasy by eating meat with his bare hands.
His fellow gamblers took note, and ordered “the same as Sandwich!”, according to a contemporaneous travel book called “Tour to London”, written by Pierre-Jean Grosley. And thus, the “sandwich” was born – and became, quite possibly, the best thing since sliced bread.
A proliferation of sandwich fillings and breads
What began with some slices of roast beef, has now morphed into an almost-endless smorgasbord of tastes and styles. There is, quite literally, something for everyone in the modern world of sandwiches.
Some fillings get world-famous – such as “ham and cheese”, which can be found literally everywhere in the pork-eating world, and egg mayonnaise, beloved by almost every non-vegan on the planet.
Other sandwich fillings achieve national acclaim, such as “Coronation Chicken”; chunks of chicken smothered in a creamy Indian-inspired curry sauce, created in 1953. Coronation Chicken won the competition to be the “official dish” of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, marking her ascension to the British throne.
Adding in the wide selection of breads from all corners of the globe, as well as the penchant of Americans to describe even baps, hobs, subs, rolls, buns, and even hot-dogs as “sandwiches” (smh), and you’re left with quite literally billions of possible sandwich combinations.
Anything, between two slices of bread, is a sandwich
The Earth Sandwich, aka The World Sandwich
And so we progress to the main focus of this article: The Earth Sandwich. As you may have guessed, it is, quite literally, a sandwich made of the Earth; that is, our planet, in between two slices of bread.
As with all great sandwiches, whilst simplistic in concept, it takes a combination of art and science to perfect. And an Earth Sandwich is no exception – it’s not just about throwing bread on the ground in a couple of random places. To make a perfect Earth Sandwich, the two slices of bread need to be in the perfect position.
All about Antipodes, in the context of an Earth Sandwich
In geography, the antipode of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth’s surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points antipodal to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass precisely through Earth’s exact centre.
For example, the North Pole and the South Pole are antipodes of each other. An Earth Sandwich made at the north & south poles would ultimately be a frozen sandwich.
To make the perfect Earth Sandwich, we’re going to need to find a couple of places on dry land, which happen to be precisely opposite each other on the surface of our planet. Nobody wants a lop-sided sandwich.
You might think that there must be a lot of land antipodes on this planet – and you would be right. But, they are a lot less common than you may think. This is because of two main reasons:
(1) Ocean covers around 71% of Earth’s surface
The world’s oceans cover most of the surface area of our planet, meaning that the vast majority of antipodal points have at least one of those two points in the water, not on land. The pacific ocean is truly massive, and takes up around 30% of the Earth’s surface all on it’s own. This significantly reduces the number of land antipodes. It also means that any Earth Sandwich made in these locations would end up being very soggy.
(2) Most of the Earth’s land surface is in the Northern Hemisphere
A whopping 68% of the Earth’s land surface area is in the Northern Hemisphere, leaving just 32% of land in the Southern Hemisphere. And whilst an Earth Sandwich doesn’t necessarily need to be north-south – it’s entirely possible to make it work on the equator – the imbalance between land masses north and south of the equator significantly reduce the number of land antipodes which are suitable for sandwich-making.
How much land is antipodal?
Estimates range from 3% to 15% of all of Earth’s land, although here at The Asunción Times, we’d put it closer to 3% than 15%, based on the pseudo-scientific method of squinting at a map. 8% maybe. Either way, depending on who you ask, still not that much, relatively.
Presumably at some point, a smart PhD student – or perhaps AI – will answer it conclusively. For now, we’ve put the map for you here, so you can have a squint for yourself.
The map super-imposes all hemispheres of the planet on to one side (as opposites), so you can see where a land antipode exists – all the land shown in blue and yellow has somewhere in the ocean as its antipode, only the land masses shown in orange are true land antipodes (the orange applies to both continents that are otherwise shown in either blue or yellow).
There’s also the type of map that turns our spherical planet (it’s true flat-Earthers, give it up), into a rectangle by making Greenland appear far more massive than it actually is, among others:
The history of the Earth Sandwich
In 2006, an American performance artist, musician, comedian, public speaker, science communicator, and daily video blogger called Hosea Jan “Ze” Frank issued a challenge to viewers of his web video show – “The Show with ZeFrank” – to create the world’s first Earth Sandwich.
He even created an online tool – an interactive map – so that people could discover the antipode to wherever they were on the planet.
His challenge quickly attracted excitement; then all the viewers based in the USA realised that they had little chance of completing the challenge, due to their antipodes all being in either the Indian Ocean or the Southern Ocean.
Eventually the challenge was completed by brothers Jon and Duncan Rawlinson, who traveled from London to the necessary location in Spain, and Morgan in New Zealand at the exact opposite side of the planet.
In January 2020, the feat was recreated – again linking Spain and New Zealand – by Etienne Naude from Auckland, who recruited Spanish chef Angel Sierra by posting on Reddit. Angel told the BBC that he initially replied to the message because “it can help to show how people can work together across the globe… I felt that I was making something bigger than me”.
“But no, I didn’t know that an Earth Sandwich was a thing,” he added. So, if you also didn’t know about an Earth Sandwich – well now you know.
The future of the Earth Sandwich, aka World Sandwich
This November 3rd, on World Sandwich Day, The Asunción Times is making a sandwich that hasn’t been made before: An actual World Sandwich, between Paraguay and Taiwan!
Why Paraguay and Taiwan?
Of course, with The Asunción Times being Paraguay’s original and best English-language newspaper, we of course want one side of the sandwich to be in Paraguay.
As it turns out, Paraguay has land-antipodes with three
Paraguay and Taiwan already have a special relationship, with strong links between the two countries. Bilateral relations at government level were made official 67 years ago on 8th July 1957, when Taiwan became only the second Asian state to have diplomatic relations with Paraguay, after Japan.
The relationship between the two countries is not just one of friendship at government level – each year hundreds of young Paraguayans move to Taiwan as university students, under programs such as the ones run by the University Polytechnic Taiwan Paraguay. Taiwan hosts more Paraguayan nationals than nationals from any other Latin-American country!
There are also growing economic ties, with trade between the two countries continually expanding, having a positive impact on diverse economic sectors. Tariffs and other barriers to trade are regularly reduced, benefiting exporters and consumers like, such as the recent reduction in pork tariffs, and the opening of large sportswear stores in Asunción which stock products made in Taiwan.
In particular, Paraguay is receiving a lot of help from Taiwan in the technology space, with Paraguayan President Peña reiterating this week that “we look at the example of Taiwan, a small country compared to its neighbors but efficient in production,” as a source of inspiration for Paraguay’s continued economic growth.
Paraguay also hosts a large Taiwanese community, who actively contribute to the Paraguayan economy and wider community through business, trade, education, and cultural events.
How you can help us this World Sandwich Day
Save the date! Sandwich is coming…
We’re looking for help in the following areas:
- Join us! If you would like to participate in the physical locations of the Earth Sandwich, and be part of history, join the “Earth Sandwich Extravaganza” group in The Asunción Times Members Area (you’ll need to become a member to join, which is free – you’ll just need tor name, a profile picture, and an email address)
- Sponsor us! Would you like your company advertised, in The Asunción Times, across Paraguay and Taiwan, and everywhere in between around the world, this World Sandwich Day? If so, contact us!
- Tell your friends! Help us let everyone know about World Sandwich Day, and make it an event to remember
- Follow us on all our social media! Click the links in the footer below for all our socials
- Make some suggestions! What are some things that we should be telling the world about, this World Sandwich Day?
