The Ben Gibbard sandwich

So there is this cool site called ‘Cooking With Rockstars’. I think this is just the most perfect idea for a site because it combines my two likes of watching food programs and indie rock, even if said songwriters tend to be pretty terrible cooks. Something else I find pleasing about this site is that the interviewees genuinely seem very open and down to earth. I guess after doing the same music interviews over and over again this is an odd and unexpectedly pleasant alternative.

There is a video on there with Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service) who talks to the host, Jen, detailing his “proficiency” in the culinary arts and giving a short tour of the kitchen section of their bus. I’m going to focus on the recipe from this section (the Ben Gibbard sandwich) which is an open-faced sandwich, toast with peanut butter with a layer of veggie sausages.

First up, yes this sounds disgusting and if you believe Ben Gibbard on the segment he’ll have you believe that it’s some sort of weird fusion of flavour that’s unexpectedly brilliant and apparently good enough to eat everyday on their Australian tour. However he doesn’t make one and eat it in front of the camera, and passes ownership/responsibility of the recipe to bandmate and producer Chris Walla while maintaining that everyone go out and make it. So I’m wary, super wary. I could see him sitting in his bus rocking with glee at the thought of getting some sucker to make this piece of shit and eat it. Additionally he tells a story about eating half-cooked vegetables and offhandedly mentions his intentions to eat some microwave vegan lasagne he fished out of the freezer so I’m not exactly placing the most utmost faith in his palate. However the idea of the Ben Gibbard sandwich always intrigued me enough to remain in the back of my mind so to celebrate the soon to be released Death Cab for Cutie album ‘Narrow Stairs’ and Chris Walla’s ‘Field Manual’ (it is apparently his recipe after all) I made the sandwich today and ate it.

Here’s something to note: vegetarian hotdogs are gross or at least the kind that I found. They were vacuum-packed and almost prism shaped once unpacked, though at least it keeps them from rolling off the board. They have a flavour which tastes more like a hotdog than I was thinking it would, yet still different enough to feel weird. The texture is also decidedly strange being exactly what you’d imagine a sausage made of soy would feel like in your mouth, it’s a congealed reconstituted version of something that is already a congealed reconstituted version of something.

So I toasted the bread and put some peanut butter on it (I used smooth not crunchy, though it’s unspecified), sliced the veggie dogs up and layered them on as instructed. All up from start to finish prep time is like 5-7 minutes.

OK… now about the eating. It’s not undelicious, but not as delicious a taste sensation as I probably read into his words. In fact I would say that it is ‘pleasingly tastier than expected’; it tastes like peanut butter on toast but more substantial and meaty which is to say it tastes exactly like what it is once you get over the distaste and think about it for a sec. I can see why the vegan sausages because that weird texture I mentioned before goes well with the texture and flavour of the toast and peanut butter creating a brand of not undelicious, rather curious breakfast food. And yeah, it undoubtedly feels like a breakfast food being that it’s basically peanut butter on toast but with that meaty punch that’s so filling.

Maybe it’s the weird fusion of flavours and textures, or the fact that it was unexpectedly tasty, or the sheer novelty of it, but I made a proper hotdog with tomato sauce just in case the sandwich ended up being unconscionably disgusting, and now I don’t want to eat it. Truth be told if I had to use those freak sausages for anything I’d rather make another sandwich.

So would I make the Ben Gibbard sandwich again? Probably… yes.

By Jonathan Codfour.