When they say “Beech Smoked Bacon”, it also brings to mind the differences between American and British Bacon, is it Beech Smoked Belly Bacon in the American style or English Back bacon? I couldn’t be sure of what I am getting there because of the English influence. And hell, if their model is healthy n’ fresh, I’d rather have local American Turkey than British Turkey that might have come in on a boat or plane.
I see. Their US menu does in fact specify such all-American ingredients as Niman Ranch Smoked Ham and New York Cheddar.
I just saw a picture of the inside of one of their stores on the Wikipedia page and I was surprised to see that it essentially seems to be an expensive Automat. I thought this was a made to order sandwich shop more in the style of a a deli or Nordsee… surprised me.
In Bengali culture, the standard table condiments are –
- Salt
- Lime wedges
- Achar (spicy oil-preserved pickles, such as chili pickles or mango pickles or lime pickles)
In my family, it is also standard to have on the table
- guava jelly
- spicy ketchup (such as Maggi Hot and Sweet Tomato Ketchup)
You sure? In my thirty seven years of being British, the only times I’ve ever come across (guffaw) people referring to someone as “a wank” has been foreigners, mostly American, getting their British slang all mixed up.
No, it’s like a wonk-only British, my coinage… you call us “Yanks”, I call you “Wanks”. He is a self-righteous, buggered, little Healthwank. And besides I really wanted to call him a “Ct" or a "Tt”, but I already got in trouble for that, so I was self censoring and being, mild and creative, all at the same time.
I’ve noticed fancy artisan ketchups have become trendy lately, but it’s mostly something made by small producers and restaurants.
I see, I went to their mainpage which had the dot /us/ apellation and saw a much different, and apparently British menu. My Bad. But still, I imagine those are some of the differences that they had to deal with in formulating their American Menu, to come back to your point.
We visited Pret many times while in London on vacation a few years ago and loved them. The turnover in the sandwiches is rapid and the staff come out often to take away sandwiches that have been out too long. We found their sandwiches to be tasty, convenient and quite affordable.
I wonder if their problem with their “salad” sandwiches in the US stems from Americans’ germophobia when it comes to mayo. Many many people in the US are horrified by the notion that mayo might be “sitting out” and becoming poisonous enough to kill you if you even think about eating it. It’s an overblown fear that annoys me often. 
I think it more likely that, by local law in NYC, calorie counts for each individual item must be posted adjacent to the price label; tons of mayo sends calories through the roof and Pret sandwiches are ridiculously caloric already (seriously, how does a sandwhich made of a few slices of roast beef, some shreds of parmesan, and greens have 580 calories? WTH is in that bread?).
Also, I pretty much rage out at their slogan “Pret a Manger means Just Made.” No, it doesn’t. It means “ready to eat.” Yes, yes, it’s just a slogan but it annoys me with its counterfactuality, ok?
All that said, its ok for fast food. Needlessly posh, expensive, and Britishy, but ok. The do donate a lot to Second Harvest, so at least they aren’t total bastards.
Does Fosters’ “Australian for Beer” slogan make you “rage out” as much. I mean, seriously.
“Australian” is not a foreign language word capable of translation into English.
Well, maybe to some 
It makes me rage out. “Fosters” is Australian for “dingo piss.”
I once drank Fosters tankard, ironically, in the 90’s on 1$ special. Much like the 12 oz. cans of PBR in the “naught O’s”. Think you can get a Big Boy of Fosters for around 2 or 3 dollars at a bar, these days. In- flay-shun and Spek-u- lay-shun.
Oooh, all hoity-toity are we! Too elegant to eat PB off the knife like an 'onest man!
You had knives?
Luxury! we had to use a stick we found by the side of the road.
That scares me.
I’m married to a man who likes lutefisk, and that scares me.
Ooohhhh, a stick. We used to long for a stick. It’a been like the Queen’s silver to us. We had to lick peanut butter off side of road.
Englishman living in California here…
I played one of those guessing games not long after I arrived here where you have to get the other folks to guess your secret word. My word was “butter”.
I went with a thousand frantic variations of “you put it on bread when you make a sandwich” and everyone stared me like I was an idiot. When I finally revealed the answer they were like “Yuck! You put butter on your sandwiches?”
I thought I had entered the twilight zone.
You’ve never had a chicken or tuna salad sandwich? Done correctly, you aren’t going to taste the mayo. It just acts like a glue that keeps the various ingredients together.
Oh, and I never use mayo with wet ingredients. I know why I should (thanks to Alton Brown), but I usually deal with this by either eating the sandwich right away, or by toasting the bread, so that it only at most softens to regular bread consistency.
Maybe if I had a homemade, super-thin mayo, I’d do it. But store bought mayo just adds to much flavor. And, unless I melt it and brush it on, butter’s even worse about giving you way too much.