Wacky Sarmies!

3 May 2004
Leigh - Centurion, South Africa

Hi Peter. Here are some of my favourite sarmies.

Fish paste and atchar on brown bread
Liver pate, cream cheese and gherkins on rye
Cream cheese sprinkled with aromat on rye
French toast with Bovril, fried banana, fried tomato and bacon
Bovril with cheese spread on a bun
Bovril with mayo on toast
Toasted Bovril, cheese and tomato toasted in the oven

Actually, Bovril with everything!

May 6, 2004
Annie from Potchefstroom, South Africa

Slice a long breadroll on the top lengthwise, but not all the way through. Spread with garlic and herb butter (make your own by mixing a generous amount of Ina Paarman's dried herb and garlic seasoning with butter). Warm in microwave oven or under grill till heated through and butter melted into the roll. Add mashed avocado pear, lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Top with a thin grilled smoked cheese pork sausage or crisp bacon. Enjoyyyyyyyy.

Take a slice of toast, cover with mashed avocado pear (seasoned with salt, pepper and vinegar) Drain oil from a tin of sardines and mix sardines with chopped onion, spread the mix over the avocado. Cover with cheese and grill till cheese has melted.

May 10, 2004
Ellen A
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY and my mother used to toast two slices of white bread, slather one with cream cheese (Philadelphia brand if possible) and then top with walnuts and other slice of bread. It was delicious then, and is still delicious today!!! A great memory.

My daughter is now living in Franschhoek, South Africa, so I love to look at South African web-sites from far away Long Beach, NY!

May 26, 2004
Leigh - UK (Ex Zimbo)

Boiled eggs (soft) and fishpaste on hot toasted white bread. Or:
Bacon and marmalade on any bread

May 31, 2004
Debra Reid

I'd like to add my favorite of all favorites, its simple, but quite a unique taste sensation that is definitely not for the faint hearted.
I recommend that it be prepared on warm toast -
Marmalade, Blue cheese and Peri-Peri sauce!!!!
Aaah - DIVINE!!!

June 1, 2004
Pamela ,Port Elizabeth, RSA
My all time favourite is fresh government white bread, toasted then spread with butter, peanut butter and then tomato sauce. YUM!

This is real. My son actually eats this.
The usual 2 slices of buttered bread with peanut butter and syrup, but then comes the topping. Pepper and Aromat. He loves this.

1. marmite, cottage cheese and honey (esp. good with rice cakes)
2. butter bread, spread with apricot jam, put scrambled egg on (with salt & pepper to taste) and top off with some tomato sauce/ketchup (you could add some grated cheese).
3. apricot jam, mayonnaise and sardines

Jun 30. 2004
Jenny Wozniak,Sacramento, California, USA

My mother's favourite is mashed sardines on white bread, with condensed milk poured over! I can't even watch her eat it!
My brother is even worse (it starts out sounding relatively normal, but it isn't!): peanut butter, apricot jam, sliced banana, lettuce, cheese, chutney, tomato slices, marmite and fish paste. If he's in the mood for something sweet, he simply adds golden syrup to the mix.
Between the two of them, how could I possibly compete? My personal favourite is fresh, crusty white bread, thickly buttered, with thinly sliced fresh garlic and lots of sliced/chopped/grated biltong. A bit of crumbled blue cheese added is great too! Add a glass of red wine and a sunset, and as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't get much better than that.

Jul 19, 2004
Ianthe, Brighton, UK
My fave sarmies are:

Peanut butter, cheese & jam
Peanut butter & lettuce
Peanut butter & dates (one my mum used to make me for school lunches!)
Ham, pickled onions & crisps

You can't beat a sarmie with crisps in and I'm not at all fussy about what kind of bread I use.

As you can see, I'm a bit of a peanut butter freak.

Aug 3, 2004
Leticia, Boksburg

I went to Veld School in Groot Marico in the mid ‘80’s and it they would give us boiled eggs, brown bread (no marge) and mixed fruit jam for breakfast. NO SALT. We used the mixed fruit jam on the bread with the boiled egg and it was great!!

While I was pregnant I ate brown bread with ginger snaps which were slightly moist (leave out of packaging overnight) and lots of marge. I’d put the cookies on the bread with marge and squish it all together – DIVINE.

Also, snackwiches with lots of cheddar cheese and jam – when it’s all heated it gets gooey and delicious!! Let them cool though, as the jam will burn you!

My dad used to bake fresh bread on a Sunday and in summer my mom and dad would make bottled peaches. While the bread and peaches were still warm we would eat them together – absolutely heaven!

What a memory!

My wacky sarmie is peanut butter and crispy, finely chopped bacon on fresh wholewheat bread - simply delicious! You can also do bacon and prunes. These sarmies are made all the more delicioius and tasty if you use real butter. I also enjoy things like marmite and syrup. Having grown on up on a farm, my Mom used to make kastaiings (pork or lamb fat cubes fried to make lard) and those crispy bits of fat with freshly baked farm bread were to die for!

Aug 21, 2004
Mags in New Zealand

At boarding school (Queenstown GHS, '66) we relished hot chips and vinegar dipped in dishes of parlour ice-cream - not a sandwich, I know - but fills your other crit. (chips dipped in ice-cream??? eiishhhh - Peter)
My uncle loved sardines and condensed milk - something about that generation of boarding school, I think. When desperate (all the tuck boxes empty) we found that ouma rusks dipped in tomato sauce were fine.
And at Roseneath hostel, the general favourite was toast spread with marmite and marmalade - don't dis it till you try it!
And here in NZ - where, even in the very deep south, we are able to buy Mrs Ball's, Provita, Nederburg, fanta grape, cream soda et al, my teenage sons, who were always hungry, found that a solid minced meat pie and tomato sauce between two thick slices of bread and butter "hit the spot".
And what about the better sandwiches? A slice of fruitcake and tasty cheddar cheese (or two slices of cheese, or two slices of cake - your call)
Dates and cheese, cream cheese, mashed with mint, spread on thinly sliced brown bread, and filled with cucumber slices, lettuce and salt and pepper.
AND lettuce and marmite! OR Bovril for that fussy one.

Aug 22, 2004
Marilyn & Brian in Colchester, UK (originally from Pietermaritzburg)
When we were first married we invented our own favourite open sandwich - thickly cut end crusts of newly baked (still warm) white bread with butter and loganberry jam with dry Horlicks liberally sprinkled on top. (The idea evolved from our favourite ice cream sundaes - vanilla ice cream with jam & Horlicks or alternatively with Bingo chocolate sauce and Horlicks, which
used to be served in the OK Bazaars milk bar in Pietermaritzburg.
Does anyone out there know whatever happened to that wonderful Bingo sauce?

Aug 31, 2004
Cheryl Byars, Denver, Co.
Peanut butter and Syrup
Peanut butter, Banana, Mayo,& Lettuce on any type of bread or crackers

Sep 1, 2004
Kathryn
My brother loves to make Vienna and syrup sarmies, my favourite is popcorn with Marcel’s English Toffee frozen yoghurt on any bread of your choice, delicious, don’t knock it before you try it, it’s lekker!

Sep 2, 2004
Joanna
Toast your bread on both sides. Take tinned asparagus spears and cover toast, cover that with sandwich spread and then cover that with grated cheese, put under the grill to melt and eat with knife and fork. It gets pretty messy !

Sep 7, 2004
Elzeth
1.Pumpkin that's left from lunch or supper. This must have some sugar and cinnamon in too.

2.Baked beans on fresh bread or rolls or even on toast goes down very well. Try and make a 'cowboy stew' with this too. Just fry a little mince and a can or two baked beans to it. This can even make a light meal.
3.Now here is another great one. Grated beetroot and curried fish. One of the colored girls that used to work with me in the office used to have this for lunch and the rest of us just had to 'swop' for these!
You fry some onions with your curry powder in a pot and add some pilchards to it.(Use those in tomato sauce but remove the bones from it) This curry fish needs to cool down before it is added to the sarmie with a layer of beetroot on top.
4. At some school camps we used gto have some sarmies at 'coffee breaks' before bedtime. They had apricot jam and grated cheese on. This is a good combination too.
5.Another great filling is also some vegetable or mango pickle with cold meat.

Sep 8, 2004
Corlia Spittal - East London

Mix Marmite and margarine till it spread easily, spread onto slice of bread and spread syrup over that. Close the sarmie and spread creamcheese on top!

Spread stywepap with a mixture of garlic and cheese spread!

Sep 10, 2004
Natasha from Layton, Utah. U.S.A.
This is my favourite sarmie..... You take half of an avocado and mash it up with some vinegar. mayo, salt and pepper. A couple slices of tomato. Then you take a slice of whole wheat bread and smear it with a nice helping of marmite, add the avocado and tomato....sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper and for extra flavour add about 1/2 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese and top with slice of bread!!!
I call it my, my, my marmalisious sarmie!! You have to try it.

Sep 20, 2004
Dean Lemon, Centurion, SA
As a kid, I used to eat Fish paste & Marmite sarmies, Marmite & jam or syrup or honey.
In the military, my favourite was beetroot & peanut butter sarmies.
Lately I eat cheese melted over toasted bread, (1 side only with the ingredients on the 'untoasted' side) This firstly requires either marmite, peanut butter or Coleman's Hot English Mustard. Thereafter comes the normal sliced onion, tomatoes & garlic, with the (Thick) cheese on top. Once grilled, this is dabbed in tomato sauce & "Dave's Insanity Sauce" (Ringsting)

Oct 7, 2004
Bjørn Krauer, UK
I used to try and revolt my little sister when I was baby sitting her, thinking up all kinds of concotions to either eat out of a bowl or else put on a sandwich, a few of them stuck... Have you tried mexican Chilli Chips with Caramel, Simba/Nestle is the best combination, this can also be eaten on fresh wholeweat bread with a thin layer of butter, else try left over bolognaise mince with grated cooking chocolate and a shot of tabasco, hmmmmm. Another favourite was pineapple and cheese , piccalilly and cheese, and the old standard apricot jam and cheese toasties, just let them cool off first. I am an ex Namibian living in the uK and missing all the lekker food

7 October, 2004
Louise Norbury - Canada
White bread with ham and cheese and then dipped in an egg mixture like French Toast and fried until golden brown and cheese is melted. You can actually do almost any filling in this and it is tasty. Sometimes I do sliced leftover breakfast sausages inside and then I dip it in corn syrup. mmmmmmm

10 October, 2004
Marius from Newcastle South Africa.
A nice treat is a bread roll or bun with crisp chips (roasted beef is excellent!)
My brother and I also used to eat ice-cream on our sarmies as young 'uns. Another good one is fried egg on a slice of bread or toast, topped with apricot jam (jello) or syrup and real hot chilli sauce.

Typical student food:
Toasted cheese, onion & apricot jam
Toasted cheese, bacon & banana.
Toasted banana & peanut butter.

"Student toasting - Café style" - butter bread on outside and fold into single sheet of tinfoil, use heated clothing iron and leave on top of tinfoil folded sandwich, turn sandwich and toast other side.

12 November 2004
Pam Bergmann
My favorite would have to be:
Sliced ripe tomato, mayo, salt & pepper on toasted white bread.
It gets messy, but not so much when you toast the bread.
Another one would be sliced banana and mayo.

15 November 2004
Trish Lenz
This is my favourite toasted sarmie. Spread some pate' on the toast then fry mushroom and bacon add this to the toast very yum I use to have this at a restaurant in Bedford Centre called Gobbies Kitchen she did all sorts of off the wall things on her menu.

25 November 2004
Trevor (Durban)
I just made the nicest sarmie today:
Ingredients:
1 slice of bread, Butter, Marmite, Cream cheese, Petrochilli, A peach
For those who don’t know, Petrochilli is like a chilli relish, its made from chillies, onions, garlic, olive oil and spices. Its VERY hot!!!

Toast the bread, and butter generously. Apply some Petrochilli. Then smear on marmite and then cream cheese. Cut the peach into slices and layer on top. Enjoy! Its heavenly!

Nov 30, 2004
Jacquie Bate

I just did a quick scroll through, and I might have missed it, but no-one's mentioned the "Telkom Special" - we used to get these from the corner cafe in Windsor West (Jhb)

use a 1/4 loaf white bread sliced into two
Filling:
fried egg,
slap chips with a sprinkling of salt & pepper,
sliced vienna (or bacon if you pay a bit more)
slice of cheese,
dollop of tomato sauce
gherkin, sliced (optional)

It was big enough to share with a mate :-)

My fave sarmie at the moment (I call it the "barely legal" sarmie) is this:
FRESH white bread spread with creamed cottage cheese and topped with sliced banana and chopped dates.
Yummers!!!
Enjoy :-)

Nov 30, 2004
Jo, UK ex South Africa

I grew up in South Africa but have lived in the UK for about 16 years and have to admit that no one does ‘wacky sarmies’ quite like the South Africans!

I loved marmite and lettuce, cheese and jam and my all time favourite was peanut butter and golden syrup on very fresh white bread. Comfort food I call it!

Try this take on a jam sandwich: make a jam sandwich (minus butter) and trim off all crusts and cut into quarters. Dip into a batter mix and then fry. Dip in sugar and eat hot. sooooooooo yummy! (My mother in-law, who invented them, calls them Sweet Dreams)

15 December 2004
Stokey Sue, Stoke Newington, London, UK
Here are my favourites - all of which I have eaten repeatedly
1) Marmite, lettuce, and cheddar cheese in white bread (must be Marmite not Vegemite, and must be real strong cheddar not a substitute. Soft butterhead lettuce is best)

2) Cheddar, sliced bullet chillies, and salad cream (don't know if salad cream has escaped from the UK, it's a bit like mayo which would do at a pinch)

3) Peanut butter (preferably crunchy and unsweetened) and dill pickle (I always think that peanuts only work in savoury, not in sweet mixtures)

15 December 2004
Janet, South African now living in Texas
A family favourite of ours on a Sunday night after Church was as follows:
Take bread and brown the one side in the oven
Turn over and put a thick piece of ham, then a fried egg and finally top it off with cheese white sauce (which you cooked in advance). Then put a bit of cheese on top of that and brown in the oven.
The cheese white sauce is supposed to cover the bread and make a royal mess but when eaten with a knife and fork - absolutely marvellous.

14 March 2005
Bud, In Weatherford, TX
My first trip to SA in 2000, My Lady Vriendin made a Sarmie that is today still my favorite. Start with any style loaf bread sliced down the middle. Can be toasted. Liberally soak both sides with good olive oil.
Then heavy with Fish paste, horseradish mustard, cheese, cucumber slices, lettuce, onion, maybe green olives, and seasoned to taste [usually black with pepper?] Have added/substituted thin slices of ham, for a change up.
Beetroot as a side colouring. Every time I return and enjoy South African Food, this is one of the first things I ask for? Couple of big bites, eat the rest with a knife/fork! Lekker. Doesn't taste as good here in Texas?

Peanut's & Banana's? Save that for the desert over good SA Neapolitan
Ice Cream.

23 March 2005
Barbara - Athens - Texas ex Cape Town

My cupboard in Texas always have three major "must haves", potatoe crisps. cheese curls and Bacon Bits (salad topping)
Combinations:
lettuce,bacon bits and cheese curls.
bacon bits and fig preserve,
fig preserve, bacon bits and creamcheese
cheese curls,lettuce and polony or ham
lettuce, cheese curls tomatoe,polony, butter mixed with bovril or marmite top with Mrs Balls or atjar pickles (green mango)
In fact all of the above make wonderful" mix and match" sandwiches on any kind of bread.
Ever tried cabbage salad any kind of cold meat and raisans/currents chopped walnuts or any kind of nuts available - try it dont' knock it!!!
Finely grated biltong on a spread of thick butter and marmite - lettuce and option - great.

21 April 2005
Tracy R. South Africa
The best sarmie for me is popcorn, that is still hot on a slice of fresh white bread with thick Rama margarine on it. Delicious.

MY all time favourite is the Fling sarmy. And since Flings is Proudly South African we don´t get it over here but Dorito´s is a good alternative, So the idea is to stack the one slice with Flings and then spread the other slice with mayo.Yuummmmyyyyy....

5 May 2005
Koos, Potchefstroom
Hi Peter

I tried the following sarmie one day and it has become one of my favourites.
1)Sardines and condensed milk on a slice of fresh white or brown bread. 3

Other combinations are:

2) Peanut butter and tomato sauce 3
3) Beetroot and mayo 5
4) Syrup and Milo 7
5) Butter and sugar 4
6) Bovril and peanut butter 3
7) Bovril and syrup 5
8) Pineapple and mayo / Banana and mayo 8
9) Banana and syrup 10
10) Cream and syrup 8

I am looking out for your comments. (my scores in red, with 10 as max - Peter)

5 May 2005
Mandy - Gateshead, England formerly of Joburg

My favourite "sarmie" has to be a salt and vinigar crisp, sprinkled with flake chocolate, topped with another crisp.....hmmmmmm!!!!

5 May 2005
Meagan Pascoe, SA

Fish Paste and Hot English Mustard on Wholewheat Toast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 May 2005
Colleen

Thanks to all for sharing ideas and brightening my children's lunch box. My son's favourite, brown bread roll with mayo and tomato Fritos chips. Samoosa drizzled with white vinegar and sliced banana on any bread is great.

16 May 2005
Emil from Cape Town ex Margate
Hi two classic South African sarmies are:
1 Tin Chilli Pilchards in tomatoes sauce mixed with diced onion and spread on two slices of fresh white bread lots of butter
What about the good old 1/4 bunny chow, centre removed and filled with a nice hot mutton curry. No knife, fork or spoon just fingers

6 June 2005
Michelle Delport
Cheese and apple sandwiches
Strawberries on white bread with butter. Sprinkle with a little sugar.
Mince with pinapple, banana, coconut and chutney.

6 June 2005
~ Petal (Ex Pretoria, SA now in Colorado, USA)

Peter, I enjoyed your Sarmies and Dunking page! What fun! I must say though.. the celery and peanut butter thing... it's a wonderful snack here in the USA. You take a washed celery stick and fill the hollowed out part with peanut butter and enjoy! Sounds gross but it's really wonderful and done all over the place here! You already have my kids' wackiest sarmie - peanut butter and cheese. When I was growing up (in Pretoria) my older sister's would make a "rainbow sarmie." They would take out everything we had that was possible to put on bread and then start off with a regular sarmie with one of the items, and then spread the next thing on top of the top slice of the original sarmie and just keep on piling it on, 'til they had about 7 slices of bread and six different spreads or whatever. Then they would cut about 1/4 inch sections and the result was definitely rainbow like and the taste very interesting! LOL. Sure was fun though. We had all kinds of combinations, Cheese, Fray Bentos, Jam, Peanut Butter, Mayo, Syrup, Fish Paste, you name it, it was on there!

Anyway, on to the dunking - our family dunks a lot of goodies! I make rusks and of course you HAVE to dunk those! Then we get Marie biscuits from a local store here, yep, dunk! Oreos are wonderful to dunk, but in milk! (Oreos are chocolate cookies, two of them with a creamy sweet filling sandwiched inbetween.) And any kind of cookie, sorry, I mean BISCUIT! is dunkable. Now you want to hear something really weird? The Americans here have these hot beef "sandwiches" which is really layers of hot sliced roast beef on a bun and then they dunk those in coffee! Eewwww!!!!! LOL! Never tried it because seeing it on a TV commercial was enough to put me off for life!!!

20 June 2005
Lew Horsten - Edgemead Cape Town
Maybe not so wacky but Great from childhood.
Two slices of fresh bread not the sliced variety.
Thick butter and Tomato sauce must be All Gold and I don't work for them!
Wash down with a good mug of Coffee.

21 June 2005
Anji Pretorius
Fish Finger sarmies are delicious !!!!!!!
Here in the UK, they eat sarmies without butter, so you always have to ask for butter to be put on. Strange, but true!!

3 August 2005
Sunet - Port Elizabeth
My favourite sarmie is lightly toasted rye bread topped with cottage cheese and sliced pineapple.

21 August 2005
Iris Turner

No joking! I know it sounds weird, but just try it, I did and its really good. Take two slices of bread, toast them now spread peanut butter on them, slice a large fresh tomato, take a slice and salt to your taste on both sides, Now lay it on the toasted bread with peanut butter and place the
other slice of toasted bread with peanut butter on top and complete the sandwich.

ENJOY!!!!

Its also good with coffee, I thought it was crazy to but I give it a try, its really delicious!!!!!

24 August 2005
Mike Renard, Norrtälje, Sweden. (Ex Port Elizabeth)

1. Wholewheat Toast with whipped cream and strawberry jam.
2. Bacon, onion, cheese and tomato (Toasted) - in my opinion the best in the world. Goes very well with red wine!
3. Crab, mayo, lettuce, chopped leek and tomato. (White wine!)

Joanne Rischbieter , Surrey

This is delicious but sounds a bit weird...you've just got to brave and try it! Firstly toast your bread, any bread. Give it a good coating of marg, cover that with a good layer of marmite. Then you need a mixture of chopped up hard boiled egg and mayo. Cover your marmite toast with the egg and mayo and enjoy! (Hint: egg must be hard boiled but not rubber and don't use to much mayo).

Another tangy one is peanut butter and mayo on brown bread!

5 September 2005
Mike Renard, Norrtälje, Sweden. (Ex Port Elizabeth)

1. Wholewheat Toast with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

2. Bacon, onion, cheese and tomato (Toasted) - in my opinion the best in the world. Goes very well with red wine!

3. Crab, mayo, lettuce, chopped leek and tomato. (White wine!)

7 September 2005
Candice, UK

The one sarmie I would sometimes make after a hectic day at school back in the good ol' days in South Africa was white bread with peanut butter, a layer of vanilla ice-cream with sprinkled Kelloggs Frosties on top. Finish it off with the last piece of bread. It really was a treat. You must try it. No one else will.

Nov 11, 2005
Malyssa Hattingh; Johannesburg SA

This is probably not a "wacky" sarmie, but is certainly an alternative to a normal hot dog with a South African twist. If you can braai some boerewors (or grill or fry conventionally). Heat some oil on the stove, but not too hot. Take some vetkoek dough and cut pieces of boerewors. Take some
vetkoek dough and put a piece of boerewors on top. Top with chilli sauce and grated cheese and roll the dough over to cover. Deep fry in the heated oil. An alternative sputnik / hot dog! Delicious.

Nov 24, 2005
Chantelle

One of my favorites comes from school. The boarders had a tradition called the Middy Feast. We all used to meet for a midnight snack every so often, and The Middy Roll was born!

1 Portuguese Roll OR 1 Hamburger (sesame seed roll)
A Smallish handful of crisps (cream cheese works, fruit chutney flavour
is the best though!)
Some Chunky Cottage Cheese
And last but most definitely the most essential, CONDENSED MILK!

Simply, slice the roll in half, spread on the cottage cheese, sprinkle on the crisps, drizzle with Condensed milk and EAT!

Please also consider that the amount of filling you put in is entirely up to you, BUT, it tastes better when it is bursting at the seams!

Thanks, and ENJOY IT!

Nov 28, 05
Morgan Overton, New Mexico

Take a large piece of white bread, then put a LARGE amount of garlic mashed potatoes in a bowl mixed with shredded cheese and BBQ sauce, warm that up, then place all of that mixture on the white bread. Then put in the microwave with cheese COVERING the top of everything. Take out, and eat with a fork.

Kitt Hazelton, Saddle Fitter, Trumbull Mtn. Tack Shop, Inc.

Here are a few unusual sarmies we enjoy in Sandgate, VT:

Peanut butter and cucumber
Tuna fish and potato chips
Sharp cheddar cheese on raisin bread (my husband's concoction - yuk).

I prefer:
- Boiled beef tongue, onion, dill pickle, sharp cheddar cheese and spicy mustard on buttered bread of any kind. (Pretty good even without the tongue.)

- Feta cheese, sliced black olives, alfalfa sprouts and sweet red pepper rings seasoned with oil and vinegar and served on toasted sourdough.

- Bacon, lettuce, sprouts, onion and avacado with Caesar dressing on toast.

Enjoy
Kitt

French toast with cinnamon sugar

Dries Pretorius, Port Elizabeth RSA

We like to add the following onto our sarmies: Simba chips BBQ Ribs flavour or any other.
Left over green beans& chutney
potato salad with finely chopped red onion
peanut butter and maroela jellie(Type of wild fruit)
Beetroot and mayonaise/chutney & grated cheese
grated cheese & braai spice
smoked snoek & mayo
Marmite & syrup(Salt sweet contrast)
Biltong & cheese
Avacado, smoked snoek(type of fish)
Bokkoms(Type of salt dried fish) with grape jam (salt sweet contrast)
Grated cheese and thick tomatoe sauce dash of Worcester sauce.
Two pieces of pot bread no butter just soaked with red prickly pear syrup(Heaven)

Sue (former S.African living in Texas, USA)

Plain sliced RIPE banana on a soft wholewheat roll - great breakfast!
Cucumber & LOTS of Marmite!
Crisps, mayo & lettuce in a white roll (lettuce makes it crunchier!)
Slice of bread smothered in Moskonfyt – YUM!
Hot scrambled egg & tomato sauce between slices of fresh wholewheat bread.
Do you still make snackwiches? My favourite was banana, cheddar cheese & chutney!

Michealsean

Syrup and marmite on white bread
Ham, simba chips(chilli) mango pickles, mayonnaise, sliced tomato and tomato sauce

Brendyn (UK)

Butter bread, sliced fresh tomato, peanut butter and ground pepper and salt.

Charlene, SA

My most wacky sarmies are:
1. White bread with butter, grilled fish fingers & golden syrup! (Sometimes I just have the fish fingers with syrup on top.)
2. My husband also thinks my Apricot jam, Vienna & Cheese, melted under the grill is weird...?

Wendy, U.K. Born a Zaffer

Maybe might not be considered wacky, but my favourite sarmie is Peanut butter and Banana. This must be on the best bread you can get as it adds to the flavour and must be crunchy peanut butter.

Lynn, S Ex SA now Australian

Believe it or not...........sardines and condensed milk make a delicious sandwich. Another favorite of mine is 2 Marie or ginger biscuits with cheese spread between them, also good for dunking!!

Pat Hasieber

My grandson (nearly 5 years) loves a tomato sauce sarmie. Two slices of brown bread with tomato sauce, no butter. Another great with him is mustard and tomato sauce between two slices of brown bread or just plain mustard between two slices of bread. He does not have butter on his bread, and the mustard is a mild kiddies mustard.

Francia Neuhoff (Bloemfontein)

I love to eat sweet & savoury together, so my husband makes sure that I don't get a hold of his sarmies when I'm making my favourite Bovril with Syrup. You simply spread the bovril like you would a normal bovril sami and then you just add syrup on top of it - almost like peanut butter & syrup. You can put jam on instead of syrup too.

The other samie I like very much is cream & biltong. My grandparents used to live on a farm that was one of the choices for breakfast every morning.

And last but not least, have you ever tried biltong and custard on bread - that is very njammie!

Sharyn (x-hilton, pmb - born cape town) now in the UK
- taking comfort eating to new heights (or is it weights) !!!
- bestest sarmie - boerewors and marmalade (the bitterest marmalade that u can find)
- good too - Escort pork sausages (must be them ones) with fried banana & fried onions
-the peanut butter and marmite thing seems to be popular and I thought I was the only one who liked it - see, loads of good taste in SA.

Cindy (South Africa)
I had a best friend who used to love (and probably still does!!) banana and mayo on a sandwich!!!

John Texas, Australia
G,day butter the bread then spread with honey, then sliced pickled onion , delisheeeosa

Chris
Not so wacky, but tasty and nutritious.

2 slices of your favorite bread
spread with fav. spread (margarine, butter, etc.)
top with peanut butter (we like chunky)
sprinkle with toasted wheat germ from a jar in fridge (the kids called them "crunchies"
slice bananas on top

Enjoy. The kids thought this was real treat.

Pepper Ann ( not kidding on my birth certificate maiden name Robertson ) ( ex zim ) Johannesburg

I have a couple of really delicious sarmies:

Two slices of white bread
Butter
Crushed garlic or sliced cloves of garlic
Salt and plenty of ground black pepper

My latest sarmie is a double layer:

Cheddar cheese
Biltong and banana
Three slices white bread , buttered on first slice put the cheese and half of the banana and then a slice of bread and then biltong and banana on the top and close it with the last slice of bread.

This last one needs a really large bread roll
Layer:
Cream cheese
Lettuce
Cucumber / pickles
Ham
Tomatoes
Beetroot ( pickled )

Goes down really well with a nice brown cow ( coke and icecream float )

And my mom's fav is pork sausage and marmalade ( I think it stems from boarding school )

Ham cheese and strawberry jam

Toasted tomatoe and fruit chutney

And the last one or I will take up too much space

My sister and I used to make smorgasborga’s ( open Samies ) we used to put what ever was on the plate on a slice of bread when we had “bits and pieces ( any thing from a salad to cold meats and boiled eggs avo and pickles with crisps on top

Maricka Meades - Randburg
For the poor days when you don't have much in your fridge or cupboard...
Raw cabbage and Steers Garlic sauce
Spices

Brian Henry
I am a South African,living in the Caribbean......
These are the samies we used to like making.

Peanut butter and sugar
Cheese(preferably sweetmilk) with golden syrup.
Butter & sugar
Bully beef & onions
Cheese & chutney
Peanut / bacon / bananas
Cheese & salt and vinegar chips.

Mrs S Walker, Cape Town

My husband eats this awful sandwich called Yuck. Its an open sandwich, one slice has apricot jam and a fried egg on it and on the other slice is a load of mayonnaise. Then you put the two together and let the yolk mix. I think its awful but he loves it! Been eating it since he was a kid.

Willie Karusseit

Peter, my Wacky sarmie is Peanut butter with Chilli sauce The hotter the better

Loraine Marshall

Hi Peter

Wow, after reading some of the sarmie combinations on your site I realized how tastes differ ... to say the least ... but interesting though. Here are some of my combinations:

Fillings for 2 Slices health, nutty, whole wheat or just plain brown bread - buttered:

1. Thick layers of nutty peanut butter on both slices and in the middle: lettuce, grated carrot with a dash of lemon and grated apple.

2. Cold potato, boiled in skin and sliced, thick mayo on both slices and generously sprinkled with pepper - salt to taste.

3. Peanut butter & banana

4. Oxo, Marmite or Bovril with Apricot Jam, sliced tomato and pepper.

5. Mashed pilchards, finely chopped onion, hot Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper to taste.

6. Tomato, garlic, & calamata olive paste on both slices, with layers of sliced onion, mushroom and avo, generous layer of grated mozzarella cheese, topped with hot paprika and sprinkles of sunflower, sesame and poppy seed. Grill until cheese has a light brown tint, place plain buttered slice bread on top, leave to cool - or keep sarmie open and copy toppings on both slices.

... and here's the weird one ... only my husband's favourite ...

1. Fresh, buttered toast spread with Oxo, Marmite or Bovril. Prepare ProNutro the usual way, with milk and sugar, add generous amounts of the cereal on the prepared toast and .... enjoy, I guess!

2. My favourite is Milo [powder form] on fresh white bread with thickly spread butter.

Ok, that's my contribution.

Regards & good luck trying the ProNutro Toast!!

Liz, Jeffreys Bay

Hi Peter, wow there are some combinations of sarmie fillings!
My kids regularly went off to school with left-over chicken curry fillings - but even better, cold bolognaise sauce. I only found out years later, that their fellow pupils used to offer money to buy them!

Mary-Anne

My dad came across Peanut Butter & Crisps sandwiches at his bowls club, the lady who made these sandwiches was quite taken aback that no one else was eating them as they were her favourite.
My 4 year old son’s favourites are cheese & tomato sauce (all gold of course) or just plain old tomato sauce – well he has tomato sauce over everything!.
I like leftovers on bread, be it last nights Spaghetti Bolognaise, Sundays Roast Chicken & Roast Potato, etc. At school I used to buy a packet of crisps at the schools tuck shop put them on whatever lunch my parents had put in for me (e.g Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Gherkins, Cucumber, Sandwich Spread & Crisps! Yummy)

Morne
This one comes from by brother-in-law. He once worked for a local security company's mobile patrol section and hence the name "Mobile Special".

Take one loaf of bread and cut it length wise add chips, vinegar, salt etc. like on a sandwich THEN place in a plastic bag and drive over it with an Ingwe ( a Amoured personnel carrier) and enjoy.

Maia , Australia

This is my favourite sandwich filling.
Really good rye bread with a good crust. Spread with :
- mashed avocado, and then
- layers of runny sliced camembert.
Top with generous slices of smoked salmon, capers, black pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice.
Spread a second slice of rye with mashed avocado, place on top of first slice.
Press lightly, cut in half.
Serve with extra slices of lemon, capers, and cornichons.
Enjoy with a very dry white wine, or good champagne or sekt. With a small black coffee to finish.
Bliss!! Not the cheapest sarmie to make, but out of this world, and healthy, to boot!

Melanie, Perthshire, Scotland.

Favourite sarmie is a salad cream sandwich - 2 slices of bread well buttered with a thick covering of salad cream on 1 slice squash the 2 slices together!

Lynda, Witbank South Africa

My fav sarmie is a peanut butter and sliced apple!! (only if apples are crunchy)

Rusty - Port Shepstone

During the 1940's SA and the world experienced a severe economic depression. Flour and all the goodies for making bread were in short supply and cost an arm and a leg.

My mother, as did many others, made mealie pap and poured it into bread pans. Once the pap had cooled and set she then turned the 'pap loaves' out and sliced them as she would normal bread.

We all got pap sandwiches filled with cooked green beans, beetroot fresh fruit or anything else from the previous night's dinner table that could be salvaged to fill sarmies.

To this day I make 'leftover ' and fruit sarmies. The only difference is that I use bread instead of mealie pap.

My kids think I'm weird. Who knows maybe I am.

Sean from Melbourne.
Didn’t read through all the entries but a Chip Boetie must be mentioned.
Soft fried egg with yolk busted and mixed with Tomatoe Sauce and a bit of pepper spread over some slap chips and placed between 2 pieces buttered white bread is the perfect way to end a dinner. Once you’ve busted the egg over the chips (French fries) the skill is in determining how much to leave for the sarmie after eating the rest of the meal!!

As for DUNKING there is the age old “Soldiers” – strips of toast dunked into egg yolk.
Enjoy!!!

Marguerite Thornes, Underberg, South Africa

I ate this sandwich for most of my pregnancy, and still love it lots of years later.
White Roll with avocado, sliced boiled eggs, grated cheddar cheese & lots of pepper – Should be wacky enough!

Felien from Pretoria

Try white bread with marmite and syrup. Mmmm!!!

Claudine van Wyk

My all-time favourite is a roasted chicken, sousboontjies and pineapple sarmie, on any type of bread. Butter your bread, reheat the chicken in the microwave (the skin must still be crispy though!) and spread sousboontjies, chicken, pineapple and some more sousboontjies before stuffing your stomach.

Jody Harnish, Everett, Washington, USA

Hello Peter!
I was just reading about the sandwiches people eat, and I had to laugh at a comment from a former South African who is living in the US. She said that she had seen an ad on TV that showed someone dipping a beef sandwich into coffee! It's beef broth, not coffee. And it's delicious, but messy.
Here are a couple of my favorite sandwiches --
1. Crispy bacon with two fried eggs and a little mayonnaise or butter
2. Cook a roast using beer instead of water. (That's an old trick from pioneer days. Beer is a natural meat tenderizer, and it adds flavor to the meat.) Season it with Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and lemon pepper. If you use a crock pot, let it go all day on 'low'. You'll be able to pull it apart with a couple of forks when it's done. Shred the meat and serve on hamburger buns with grilled onions and barbecue sauce.

Clayton Bezuidenhout, Nashville, TN formerly Pretoria

Are you guys kidding me? Does no one remember a good old boerie roll with tomato sauce and mustard or fried onion and Ms Balls not at all wacky but prob he best damn thing under the sun. We have introduced our local butcher shop to Boerie and it has fast become his best seller.

P.S. Sour dough bread with sun dried tomato cream cheese(make your own and add extra sun dried tomatoes), ham and swiss cheese grilled is second only to a good boerie.

Jodi Le Roux ( PMB-SA)

Wow, there are a lot of weird and wonderful combinations on your list, and I saw so many of my favorite childhood staples... cheese and jam, cheese and syrup, cheese and chutney, peanut butter and syrup or jam, I didn't see cheese and marmite though?

Anyway, here are some of my more risque favorites:

fishpaste and cheese (preferably melted in the microwave and eaten as an open sandwich- my best friend and I love this)
savoury mince, cheese and chutney toasted sarmies
egg, bacon, cheese and banana toasted sarmies (this is my mom is the breakfast staple for my mom and I if we go out)
chicken mayo and cheese (toasted or plain - on anything)
Baked beans and cheese(toasted or plain - on anything. I picked this one up in the UK)
smoked chicken, sliced avo, crumbled blue cheese and red onion marmalade(blueberry jam or sweet chilli is good too)
Bacon, brie and strawberry jam(sweet chilli or tomato jam is good too)
cold Lasagne( a girl I used to go to primary school with always had this, she hated it so we swopped... it's delicious)
Mash and bovril or fish fingers.
Potato salad and steak(really great at a braai... you can add potato chips-crisps for the non saffas- for the extra crunch and flavour, and biltong can substitute for steak)
Slap chips, cheese and tobasco sauce
Grilled tomato, mayo, cheddar and spare rib meat(these are nice done open and under the grill, also the spare rib marinade needs to be sweet - my boyfriend loves this)...

I think that is everything... oh, and unless otherwise stated, cheese means cheddar or gouda.

My name is Lia and I'm from Strubens Valley in Roodepoort.

I know most of your sarmies are from all over the world but here are two lekker South African Sarmies, especially for those on diet.
Take two rice cakes ( the diet part ) spread them liberally with butter and top with Bovril and then, here's the twist, slice up a lekker ripe banana and pile it on top of the butter and Bovril and sprinkle with a little brown sugar. Voila!

OR

Take two rice cakes ( again, the healthy bit ) spread with butter and set aside. In a bowl, mix up sliced ripe banana, condensed milk, mayonnaise and lemon juice. This mixture should be nice and gooey. Pile this mixture onto the rice cakes and enjoy!

Alternatively, chuck the rice cakes and just use all the above ingredients to make a banana salad, very morish with braai meat!

Michelle Rees
I seriously love the following sarmie fillings:
*Thinly sliced roast beef, sliced boiled egg, mayo and finally chopped gherkins
*Chopped green granny smith apple, mayo and atchar
*Marmite, cheese and onion
*Philly cheese, sweet chilli sauce, gherkins and onion
*Toasted peanut butter and banana (so yum it’s like dessert!!)

Antony
The very best sarmie you will ever eat is Marmite, peanut butter and bacon.
Do not knock it till you’ve tried it……it will knock your socks off

Louis from Port Elizabeth
When we were in boarding school it was cold tasteless porridge or “Zol pie” for breakfast: -
1 slice of “old” brown bread in a porridge bowl
Spread thickly with “government” peanut butter
Topped with sugar, if a

vailable
Flood it with 1 cup of hot coffee (coffee, 1 milk, 3 sugar)
Eat with a spoon.

Carey Thomas - Johannesburg

Hi Peter
Not so sure that my taste is wacky, but I just discovered it and quite enjoy making a sarmie from 1 slice of rye (preferably the Berliner Landbrot from Woolies), smear on it some Hummus (chickpea pate) and sliced gerkins. Quite more-ish.
Thanks for an awesome site!

14 July 2009
I would just like to share a couple of my favorites,

Peanut Paste (butter) and sliced tomato on white bread, YUMMO....
Cucumber, lettuce and vegemite....
Cheese and gherkin...
Salt and vinegar potato crisps with hot roast chicken...
My Uncle used to have butter and celery salt...
Left over fried rice...

Hope you all try these and enjoy, as I am looking forward to trying a few of the suggestions here,

Cheers from Earlsworld,
Debra Daymon