So many of my fondest food memories are simple tastes and smells from my childhood. I remember helping my mom add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough, or the smell of Campbell’s tomato soup simmering on the stove. And this time of year, as the tomatoes in the garden start to plump and ripen, I remember my mom’s BLTs.

Mom would fry up the bacon in a cast-iron skillet, and then set the bacon on some paper towels to soak up the grease. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York where artisanal bread was unheard of, so Mom’s BLTs were on lightly toasted supermarket white or whole wheat bread. Add some Hellmann’s, freshly washed and torn lettuce and a couple of slices of juicy, in-season tomatoes and you’ve got perfection in the form of a sandwich.

I did a little bit of digging around the Web for the origin of the BLT. Bacon sandwiches are a food staple in Great Britain, often topped with ketchup or a brown sauce, but the addition of lettuce and tomato appears to be a uniquely North American conceit. In fact, the BLT is one of the most popular sandwiches in America.

According to the website The Big Apple, the first iteration of the acronymed sandwich shows up in the mid-1930s. It was called the BMT, or Bacon Mit Tomato, and was named for the Brooklyn Manhattan Transit Corporation. 1941 marks the first printed reference to the BLT. Wikipedia attributes the rise in popularity of the sandwich to “the rapid expansion of supermarkets that allowed for ingredients to be available year-round.”

You can eat BLTs year-round, but they are their best when the tomatoes are freshly harvested from a nearby garden. I’m keeping a close eye on my backyard garden, but for now I’ve been enjoying my BLTs at local restaurants.

Afternoon Delight employs a strictly by-the-books approach to the BLT. The sandwich is exactly as advertised, with crispy bacon and thick, lightly toasted multigrain bread. My only complaint about the sandwich is that the restaurant is right across the street from the AnnArbor.com offices, and I find myself craving them all the time.

Jolly Pumpkin has what they call their “Not Just a BLT” on the menu, and it’s aptly named. The tomatoes are oven-roasted, the bacon is applewood smoked, the lettuce is arugula, and it’s all joined by house-made mozzarella and a salsa verde. While it’s an excellent sandwich, it felt a bit more dressed up than I like my BLTs to be.

I’ve eaten delicious BLTs all across town, from Mr. Greek's to Dimos to Zingerman's Deli. As long as the bacon is crisp, the lettuce and tomatoes are fresh, and the mayonnaise isn't spread too thick, I’m a happy, happy girl.

Jessica Webster leads the Food & Drink section for the AnnArbor.com community team. You can reach her at JessicaWebster@AnnArbor.com.