You probably have read my post on Chapman (click HERE). A trip down memory lane it was, and so is this one. If one of the highlights of my time at Apapa Club was Chapman, Club Sandwich was it for me at Ikoyi Club. As we got older, we moved on to Ikoyi Club. Oooooh, it was much bigger, more facilities, the pool was deeper, that’s for sure, it was more affluent, and I remember the children at Ikoyi club were snooty and annoying (apologies to anyone, but that was my first impression). I missed my friends terribly at Apapa Club and begged Daddy to let us go back there, but he said no, we will learn to adjust and I will make new friends. Imagine coming from a smaller more close-knit environment, where you knew a lot of people, to this huge place where we sat by ourselves and I didn’t know anybody for a while and no one wanted to talk to me. I started making friends when it was noticed that I could swim far better than most of them, even the older and bigger teenagers. Then the snooty kids warmed up to me because suddenly I had something that they wanted. Some of the behaviours we exhibit as adults, we started while we were children. It was one of those times I was grateful my father was a drill sergeant swimming instructor.
The food at Ikoyi Club was good, and there were lots of options. It was also expensive relative to Apapa but I remember my Dad allowing us to splurge a little here (he was flexing his muscles, I guess). My Ijebu mother didn’t agree. Loooool. One of the things I ordered a lot of was Club Sandwich and Suya. The Ikoyi Club Sandwich till date is the best I have ever eaten, hands down. I could wolf down an entire loaf worth of bread in slices and still keep going. It was warm, it was rich, it was creamy, it had chicken in it, tomatoes, onions lettuce, hot dog, mayo and the one thing I still can’t put my finger on was whether it had bacon or ham. As I had ham at home, I went with ham. If you have memories of The Ikoyi Club Sandwich and I missed out any ingredient, please let me know. Let’s swap notes until we re-create this sandwich perfectly. Another place that did great sandwiches and “oyinbo” food in general was The Lagos Yacht Club. I liked this one better for the express reason that no cash was involved. You just walked up, gave out your father’s name and your name which they crossed checked against their list and you ordered away, but with boundaries though, you just knew in your head when to stop because your home training kicked in. Le Sigh, to be young again with no responsibilities. Will narrate my experience with sailing and the amazing “oyinbo” food at The Yacht Club at another post. Gosh, my life is boring now when I think about to how busy and fun my weekends were growing up.
I haven’t had any reasons to remember that club sandwich lately until one night when I had dinner at Funmi’s house and Chinelo Bally (www.chinelobally.com) was cooking as part of a Come Dine With Me styled competition. She served this as the Starter and I quite enjoyed it. As I am not a sandwich person at all (because I don’t take too keenly to food that is not hot), I had to ask her what kind of sandwich it was and she said, The 9ja Club Sandwich. I said huh? What is that and she replied, don’t you know, it is very popular in Lagos, ours is different from The British one though. I walked home that day thinking about it and I kept getting this niggling feeling that I had eaten that thing before. It was familiar, very familiar. My taste memories were alert, but something was off. A few days after, I called her for a recipe and as she was listing out the full ingredients (many of which she didn’t use), it suddenly hit me. Of course it was familiar. Of course, how could I forget Ikoyi Club Sandwich? How? Now I knew what was off. It was the avocado that she added that totally threw me. Ikoyi’s Club Sandwich never had Avocado in it.
Chinelo’s mini club sandwich
As for the club sandwiches, in fact all the sandwiches I have eaten here, I still maintain, I don’t know how those companies remain in business, because I still don’t get how those nasty sandwiches are popular. Pricey too for 2 slices of bread, with some crappy cold filling and smacked with a price tag of £2.50 even as high as £3.50. Maybe I should write to them with this recipe because this club sandwich is soooooooo good, you will want to eat it everyday. Thanks to Chinelo Bally for the extra tips of adding Avocado. It is an amazing upgrade.
You will need
3 slices of bread - per sandwich
Ham slices
Hot dogs
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Boiled Eggs
Red Onions
Chicken breasts
Avocado slices
Salad cream - optional
Margarine
1. It will be best to prep all your ingredients before you start. To season and cook your Chicken Breasts, click HERE
2. All ingredients prepped, lightly toast 2 slices of bread, till it browns. Not burnt brown or hard toast, just mildly brown and slightly crisp.
3. Rub margarine on each toast (ignore the picture below), your bread slices should be browner than that. Took the wrong shot. In the next step, you will see how brown your toast slices should be
4. Lay over Lettuce (se how brown the slice is)
5. Place a slice (or 2) of ham and top with big slices of chicken breast
6. Followed by a generous amount of Mayo
7. Top with slices of Avocado (believe me, this truly upgrades the club sandwich)
8. Get the next buttered toast, and place the non buttered side face down on the avocado
9. Spread over some Salad cream (or mayo), salad cream and mayo in this sandwich is pretty awesome
10. Place on the sliced eggs, followed by sliced tomatoes and raw onion rings
11. Cover with Lettuce leaves
you may wish to fill in any gaps in the bread either with more ingredients or extra salad and mayonnaise. Your choice
12. Top with chopped hot dogs. Toast your final slice of bread, remember to butter one side, and lay that buttered side on the hotdogs.You can decide to get out your sandwich maker and leave the sandwich in for about 45seconds to 1 minute to warm up, not longer otherwise the mayo and salad cream will melt and you will be left with a mess. If you work fast enough though, your sandwich should still be slightly warm
……………..and that’s my Ikoyi Club Sandwich
The freshness and crunch from the Onions and Lettuce, the toasty crunch of the bread, the creaminess from the Mayo, Salad Cream and Avocado, with the eggs. The juicy tomatoes, oh it gave me good memories.
Even better, get out a bread knife and slice into two triangles. This is how Ikoyi Club served it
Serve with chilled Chapman and just have yourself a lazy Saturday
When the best of Apapa meets the best of Ikoyi
Enjoy
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