Country Living: Our Man in Arundel

I've started blogging on the "Country Living" web site as "Del Arun"... and thought I'd include my notes here as well. So here goes with my first entry, which was entitled: "Edible Sandwiches".


As far as I've been able to tell since moving here, Arundel has three types of shop. There are antique shops and galleries – much beloved by tourists (and, in some cases, priced accordingly). There are places to eat; a few aimed firmly at tourists, while others – usually those that don't sell boxes of shortbread biscuits – are frequented by local people. And there are 'normal' shops where you’ll find a tin of beans, a loaf of bread and half-a-pound of local tomatoes.

None of this bothers me. Well, not really. But I need to tell someone about The Edible Sandwich Company. As the name suggests, this is a sandwich shop. It's been around for a few years, catering to visitors and locals alike. But what’s with the name? I'll accept that 'sandwich' can be used in a non-food sense – to describe plywood, for example – and that some bread-based sandwiches may become inedible due to poor construction or sub-standard ingredients. But that’s not likely to happen here, is it? I can't imagine the shop was so named because the proprietor was forever turning away puzzled carpenters or disappointed masochists. I fear someone's mistaken 'edible' as a synonym for 'tasty'. A shame, because those sandwiches really are… er… succulent? scrumptious? Hmmm. Definitely edible.