THE FOODIST / CASE IS CLOSED: THE BLT IS THE BEST SANDWICH OF OUR TIME

BLT Rules [with or without avocado]!

By the Editors of PillartoPost.org 

Here's a tenet for our times and taste buds, daily online magazine PillartoPost.org hereby declares the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich—and its California cousin, the BLTA, with avocado—the finest sandwich in current culinary history. Amen.

Period. Done deal. Sez us. 

Of course, we realize “best” is a fighting word. Tough luck cheeseburgerites; Reuben loyalists will pound the table; grilled-cheese devotees will demand a recount. 

Somewhere in the bowe's of Philadelphia, a fellow holding an overstuffed Philly Cheesesteak will consider our judgment evidence of diminished capacity. 

Let them all howl. 

Here's why: Internet’s cooks, food writers and sandwich eaters have been building our case for years. The BLT succeeds because every ingredient has a specific assignment. 

--Bacon supplies salt, smoke and crunch. 

--Lettuce brings coolness. 

--Tomato contributes sweetness, acidity and juice. 

--Mayonnaise makes peace among them, while toasted bread holds the proceedings together. 

Media pals agree with us: The Kitchn calls the BLT the “sandwich of summer,” a title earned by its dependence upon ripe tomatoes rather than culinary ornament. The Kitchn 

J. Kenji López-Alt of Serious Eats goes beyond. His advice for creating the best BLT is wonderfully direct: “Use the best tomatoes. Put away the fancy bread. And most importantly: Don’t mess with it.” Serious Eats 

That last instruction deserves to be framed and hung in every delicatessen in America. López-Alt also argues that the BLT is not really a bacon sandwich. It is a tomato sandwich seasoned with bacon. That distinction explains why a January BLT  assembled with a pale supermarket tomato can taste like an office memo, while an August BLT made with a ripe backyard tomato becomes a legitimate reason to remain alive until lunch. 

The sandwich also has the numbers. 

In a national YouGov survey, the BLT earned a 69 percent approval rating and finished among America’s five most-liked sandwiches. The club sandwich, which is essentially a BLT forced to carry unnecessary luggage, finished behind it. YouGov 

Another consumer survey [yet to wise  up] placed the BLT second among the nation’s favorite sandwiches, trailing only the club—its taller, overdressed relative. pair. Lab 

Even celebrity testimony favors the defense. When Stephen Colbert asked Julia Louis-Dreyfus to name her favorite sandwich, she answered without hesitation: “A BLT.” Colbert agreed, calling it “the American classic.” Her preferred proportions were a medium amount of tomato, a medium amount of lettuce and “a hearty supply of bacon.” Allrecipes 

Then comes avocado. 

Purists may insist the addition produces a BLAT. [PillartoPost.org prefers BLTA] because it allows the historic three-letter name to remain intact while avocado receives a well-earned promotion. 

Note: Avocado does not improve a poor BLT. Nothing can rescue flavorless tomatoes, limp bacon or bread toasted to the tensile strength of roofing tile. But when added to a properly built sandwich, avocado contributes buttery richness without smothering the bacon or tomato. 

Food writer Carolyn Gratzer Cope describes the avocado version with admirable economy: “Simple, classic, perfect: when you want a BLT, there’s no substitute.” Her BLTA, she adds, is “juuuuust right.” 

Umami Girl Chef Gabriel Pascuzzi’s formula for what Food & Wine called “the best BLT of all time” relies upon thick-cut bacon, heirloom tomatoes, butter lettuce, sourdough and a restrained hand with the aïoli. Avocado is offered as the natural optional addition. Food & Wine 

The BLT and BLTA also possess something many celebrated sandwiches lack: balance. A cheesesteak can overwhelm. A meatball sandwich may collapse before halftime. A towering deli sandwich sometimes requires the jaw mechanism of a reticulated python. 

The BLT remains recognizable, manageable and democratic. It is equally at home on a diner plate, at a kitchen counter or wrapped in waxed paper for a picnic. It is simple without being dull, familiar without becoming obsolete and indulgent without requiring a nap and a cardiologist. 

The verdict of PillartoPost.org [and its 43k average daily readers] therefore stands: the BLT is the best sandwich of our time. The BLTA wins the same crown while wearing avocado. 

DESIGN / AMONG THE AVANT GARDE, 1933

An Overdue Revision 

By Thomas Shess, Founder of PillartoPost.org Daily Online Magazine 

Yes, they were all men in this photo. But that was the 1920s. Women, a century later would not be absent from such a photograph. Progress with more progress to come. 

And yes, a woman: Anna Riwkin-Brick, a Russian born Swedish photographer took the photo (above). 

WHO ARE THESE MEN?

Tristan Tzara made his name as a founder and chief provocateur of Dada, using absurdist poetry and manifestos to challenge conventional art and bourgeois culture. 

 Paul Éluard became famous as a leading Surrealist poet whose emotionally direct verse joined dream imagery, love and political resistance. 

 André Breton defined and led Surrealism, establishing its principles of dreams, automatism and the liberated unconscious in his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto. 

 Hans Arp helped shape both Dada and Surrealism through biomorphic sculpture, collage and compositions governed partly by chance. 

 Salvador Dalí became Surrealism’s most recognizable painter by rendering dreams, paranoia and impossible scenes with meticulous, almost photographic realism. 

 Yves Tanguy created haunting Surrealist landscapes populated by strange organic forms that seemed to belong to an undiscovered dream world. 

 Max Ernst expanded the possibilities of modern art through experimental techniques such as frottage, collage and grattage, creating uncanny images from chance textures. 

 René Crevel was a gifted Surrealist writer whose novels and essays brought psychological intensity, social rebellion and personal anguish to the movement. 

 Man Ray transformed photography into a major modern-art medium through experimental portraits, solarization and his camera-less “Rayographs.” Front row, left to right: Tristan Tzara, Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Man Ray. Back row, L-R: Paul Eluard, Hans Arp, Yves Tanguy, Rene Crevel. 

***

Front row, left to right: Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka, Käthe Kollwitz and Sylvia Beach; Top row, left to right: Anna Riwkin-Brick, Sonia Delaunay, Hannah Höch, Dora Maar and Méret Oppenheim. At the tripod camera: Lee Miller. Illustration circa 1933: Janus et al, Chatgpt.com

AH, WOMEN: 

If we imagine a comparably historic photograph of women from the international avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s—chosen for their achievement, originality and personal magnetism—the editors of PillartoPost.org would select the following eleven: 

Georgia O’Keeffe — The American modernist who transformed flowers, bones and Southwestern landscapes into monumental expressions of color, form and sensuality. 

Frida Kahlo — The Mexican painter who converted physical suffering, national identity and an uncompromising self-image into intensely personal symbolic art. 

Sonia Delaunay — The Ukrainian-born French artist who carried modernism’s dynamic color into painting, fashion, textiles, theater and everyday design. 

Tamara de Lempicka — The Polish-born painter whose sleek, erotic portraits became the glamorous visual signature of the Art Deco era. 

Hannah Höch — The German Dadaist who pioneered photomontage and used its fractured imagery to attack politics, gender conventions and mass culture. 

Käthe Kollwitz — The German artist became famous for emotionally powerful prints and sculptures portraying poverty, war, grief and the dignity of working people. 

Anna Riwkin-Brick — The Russian-born Swedish photographer became famous for expressive portraits, pioneering photojournalism and humane photographic books that documented the lives of women and children around the world. 

Dora Maar — The French-Croatian photographer and painter whose experimental pictures, political awareness and commanding personality made her a major Surrealist presence. 

Méret Oppenheim — The Swiss artist who became a Surrealist icon by turning familiar domestic objects into witty, sensual and unsettling works of art. 

Sylvia Beach — The American bookseller made literary history by establishing Shakespeare and Company in Paris and courageously publishing James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922. 

Note: No such photo exists of all of the above women posing for one photograph. But if we could give that assignment to one name it would have been Lee Miller's.