I would like to point out that a muffaletta without the olive salad would still be about four meals.

And that the martini was invented in my home town: Martinez, CA. There's a plaque on the site. We're all very proud.

I like gin okay, but the subtle pleasure of a good vodka, now that's a drink. Though I wouldn't want to mess it up with vermouth or, come to think of it, anything else. Must go back to Rasputin's and taste more yummy vodkas...

And, Heather, insent.

Going to look now. May not be until tomorrow that I respond. I'm about to get off work and home computer is sketchy (Why oh why did Mr. H have to get the newfangled wirless mouse, and then not have battaries in the house?)

Well, it does seem that that would make it essentially an Italian sub. Not a muffaletta.

So I don't think you can kick the olives out of a muffaletta -- but you can have a completely different sandwich, this one without olives.

Okay, if you're going to be that pedantic about it -- if you go to New Orleans and buy a muffaletta, only you scrape off the olives, you really are eating a muffaletta. It's not like you bought a hero, or a sub, or an Italian hoagie.

You're just not eating all of the muffaletta.

Okay, if you're going to be that pedantic about it -- if you go to New Orleans and buy a muffaletta, only you scrape off the olives, you really are eating a muffaletta. It's not like you bought a hero, or a sub, or an Italian hoagie.

You're just not eating all of the muffaletta.

Pfft. By this logic you're still eating a sandwich if you throw away the bread and simply eat the cold cuts.

I'm pretty confident that I'm still eating a muffaletta.

Oh man. Sandwich existentialism. I love you guys.

Pfft. By this logic you're still eating a sandwich if you throw away the bread and simply eat the cold cuts.

If you never bother to put the cold cuts between bread, then I suppose you have a point. It's really something else at that point.

But if you buy a sandwich and fail to eat the bread, how is that not still a sandwich, just one eaten in a peculiar manner?

An open face sandwich is still a sandwich. Even if all you do is eat the meat and gravy and leave the bread.

Damn. Now I want an open face sammich and mashed taters.

I say if you remove the olive salad and then eat the muffaletta, you are eating a muffaletta.

However, if you remove the olive salad and then give the sandwich to someone else, you are not giving them a muffaletta. You are giving them a nameless sandwich.

It makes sense to me.

I'd say that a muffaletta without the olives is still a muffaletta. The bread really defines it more than the olives do -- the olives are just customary. (Hmm. The bread is both neccesary and sufficient. The olives are not neccesary; are they sufficient? The meat is neither neccesary nor sufficient.)