For over 20 years, Neil Bardhan has been exploring what makes a breakfast sandwich. What kind of bread needs to be used? What type of toppings are on the sandwich? Does a breakfast sandwich always need to have an egg, and if so, what style of egg is it? (Neil is still trying to determine whether or not an egg salad falls into the breakfast sandwich category.)

Along the way, Neil’s research has not only shown us the wide spectrum of breakfast sandwich possibilities, but it has invited us to meditate on what a breakfast sandwich means. Like a fine wine, there are occasions for particular breakfast sandwiches. These portable sammies are the perfect precursor to some of life’s most monumental moments as well as some of life’s seemingly mundane. In this conversation, you’ll see how a picture of a breakfast sandwich can trigger fond memories from casual business meetings to sandwiches shared with friends (one of which was a breakfast sandwich so good, a friend delivered his leftovers, by bike, to Neil’s house).

What’s the best breakfast sandwich you’ve had? Do you remember where you had it? And what was the occasion?