The nostalgia of Filipino flying saucer sandwiches

I can't make the flying saucer sandwiches of my childhood easily these days, but they still hold a special place in my heart.

Maida Pineda loved eating flying saucer sandwiches during her childhood. Source: Maida Pineda

In Australia, a sandwich with your choice of filling that's grilled inside a metal press is called a toastie or jaffle. But I know it as a flying saucer. A flying saucer is also made in a press, but one which is circular and resembles a flying saucer. This press often has a long handle and is placed over flames to cook. As a youngster, I loved eating flying saucer sandwiches for merienda, the Filipino term for a light meal.

I used to have Filipino-inspired fillings. Mum made us flying saucers with leftover chicken adobo. She also made corned beef with canned corned beef sauteed in garlic, onion, tomato and a splash of patis (fish sauce). Of course, we also had the classic cheese-and-ham flying saucers, too.

Croque Monsieur Source: Kitti Gould

We had a lot of flying saucers growing up. There was something magical about eating a disc of my favourite fillings. The adobo-flavoured ones were my favourite. Filipinos know that adobo tastes better the next day. The soy, vinegar and garlic come together nicely as it ages. I prefer toasting the chicken adobo in the pan until the sauce dries out and the meat soaks up all the flavour. Drying out the adobo prevents a soggy sandwich.

Filipino adobo. Source: Andrew Dorn

I also loved flying saucers with slices of quick-melt cheese – just cheap cheese, nothing fancy. How can a child be unhappy eating bread discs oozing with melted cheese? My mum's trick to making a good flying saucer was to use lots of butter outside the bread to brown it. Butter also makes the sandwich taste better.

There was something magical about eating a disc of my favourite fillings.

Recently, a friend shared a photo of her flying saucer press gifted to her from the Philippines. All the memories of eating flying saucers after school came flooding back. I couldn't get my hands on a flying-saucer press myself, so I headed to Kmart and bought myself a cheap sandwich maker. As soon as I got home, I made adobo toasties from leftover chicken in my fridge. This inspired me to research different fillings. I found everything from baked beans and satay chicken, to cheese and kimchi and lasagna.

I also found dan dan-noodle, spanakopita jaffles and even mie-goreng toasties. 

Recently, I made myself a toastie filled with my favourite Mayver's Super Original Spread, which is made of nuts and seeds. I topped it with a few pieces of sea-salt dark chocolate in between two slices of white bread and put this into my sandwich maker. Using just three kitchen staples, the result was a salty sweet sandwich with warm chocolate and nut butter oozing out.

 

Toasties really are a blank canvas for different flavour profiles, ingredients and cuisines. There's no limit. The imaginative child in me loves the toasties that look like a flying saucer. But my forty-something-self loves how many variations of this dish I can make.

 

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