Part 1 (Recipes)
Instead of a Sandwich Alignment Chart, the DIY Diner uses a Sandwich Alignment Cube. The axes of the cube are defined as:
- Outer ingredient:
- Purist: Bread
- Neutral: An unleavened wheat flour product (no yeast)
- Rebel: No wheat flour
- Inner ingredients:
- Purist: Traditional sandwich ingredients (meat, cheese, and vegetables)
- Neutral: Other savory ingredients
- Rebel: Sweet ingredients
- Structure of outer ingredient, according to the Cube Rule:
- Purist: 2 sides (sandwich; other diner keywords: layer by layer, separate/matching pieces)
- Neutral: 3 or 4 sides (taco or sushi; other diner keywords: folded, conjoined)
- Rebel: 5 or 6 sides (quiche or calzone)
Each of the menu items belongs to one unit of the cube, which is constructed as follows:
Outer Purist
| BLT | Grilled cheese | Apple pie panini |
| Sub | Hot dog | Foldover sandwich |
| Pita sandwich | Hot pocket | Uncrustables |
Outer Neutral
| Waffle sandwich | Ritz bits | S'more |
| Soft shell taco | Quesadilla | Cannoli |
| Chicken wrap | Ravioli | Pop-tart |
Outer Rebel
| Portobello burger | KFC double down | Grilled pineapple with nutella |
| Bulgogi kimbap | Bacon wrapped asparagus | Unicorn taco |
| In&Out protein-style | Tamale | Caramel apple |
Each diner desires two fixed dimensions, while the third dimension is flexible and provides the diner's tasting flight:
| Diner | Sandwich Requirements | Sandwiches from Purist to Rebel |
|---|
| 1 | Outer Purist, Inner Purist | BLT, Sub, Pita sandwich |
| 2 | Structure Purist, Outer Neutral | Waffle sandwich, Ritz bits, S'more |
| 3 | Structure Purist, Outer Rebel | Portobello burger, KFC double down, Grilled pineapple with nutella |
| 4 | Structure Neutral, Outer Neutral | Soft shell taco, Quesadilla, Cannoli |
| 5 | Structure Rebel, Outer Neutral | Chicken wrap, Ravioli, Pop-tart |
| 6 | Outer Purist, Inner Rebel | Apple pie panini, Foldover sandwich, Uncrustables |
| 7 | Structure Purist, Inner Neutral | Grilled cheese, Ritz bits, KFC double down |
| 8 | Structure Neutral, Outer Purist | Sub, Hot dog, Foldover sandwich |
| 9 | Outer Purist, Inner Neutral | Grilled cheese, Hot dog, Hot pocket |
| 10 | Structure Neutral, Inner Purist | Sub, Soft shell taco, Bulgogi kimbap |
| 11 | Outer Rebel, Inner Neutral | KFC double down, Bacon wrapped asparagus, Tamale |
| 12 | Outer Rebel, Inner Rebel | Grilled pineapple with nutella, Unicorn cotton candy taco, Caramel apple |
Reading the tasting flights from Purist to Rebel yield 3-letter words, which can optionally be confirmed by clues in each diner's preferences. The three sandwich flights at each table create a 3x3 grid with words that can be read top-to-bottom and left-to-right:
Table 1
| Diner #1 ("just right") | A | P | T |
| Diner #10 ("for each") | P | E | R |
| Diner #9 ("spending money") | P | A | Y |
Table 2
| Diner #3 ("moment for spring and summer") | D | S | T |
| Diner #5 ("take stock") | I | P | O |
| Diner #8 ("having it down") | P | A | T |
Table 3
| Diner #7 ("dance around") | P | A | S |
| Diner #4 ("sustainable") | E | C | O |
| Diner #6 ("to belong") | I | T | S |
Table 4
| Diner #12 ("a lot") | T | O | N |
| Diner #2 ("bleat") | B | A | A |
| Diner #11 ("really messy") | S | T | Y |
Part 2 (Sculptures)
Each of the provided phrases clues a 3-letter word, which are presented in alphabetical order. Some of the ??? slots can be filled by words from the Recipes tables; the other ??? slots represent words which are found in the final sculptures, though not needed to solve the puzzle. In total, there are 108 words that represent four sets of 27 3-letter words that are found within four 3x3x3 word cubes (the 'sculptures' mentioned in the flavor text).
A key insight is that each clue phrase has a length of 1, 2, 3, or 4 words. By first grouping the answers by clue length and then including the corresponding tables from Recipes, we can construct the four 3x3x3 word cubes. The Recipes tables form either the top or bottom layer of each cube, and the given clued words in Sculptures form the following components of a cube:
- The full layer opposite from Recipes
- The four edge words in the middle layer
- Two vertical words at opposite corners of the cube
Here are all the clued and unclued 3-letter words:
| ??? | ACT | ??? | ELI | Constellation | LEO | ??? | POE |
| ??? | ADO | Type of deer | ELK | Cover | LID | ??? | POI |
| In days gone by | AGO | ??? | ELL | ??? | LIE | ??? | REP |
| Come to the rescue | AID | ??? | ELM | ??? | LOW | ??? | RNA |
| Styled after | ALA | Moody | EMO | Drain cleaner substance | LYE | ??? | ROE |
| ??? | ANA | ??? | ERA | ??? | MAD | ??? | RUT |
| ??? | APP | Be mistaken or incorrect | ERR | Chinese leader | MAO | Japanese currency unit | SEN |
| ??? | APT | And more | ETC | Actress Ryan | MEG | ??? | SET |
| ??? | ARA | Source of fleece | EWE | ??? | NAY | ??? | SIR |
| Art, today | ARE | You can burn it | FAT | ??? | OAT | ??? | SOS |
| Venomous snake | ASP | United States government agency | FBI | Halloween month | OCT | ??? | SPA |
| ??? | ASS | Creator of "30 Rock" | FEY | Poem | ODE | ??? | STY |
| Gorged on | ATE | Narrow opening | GAP | ??? | OLD | ??? | TBS |
| Punch | AWL | Figure out | GET | ??? | OLE | ??? | TEE |
| Vote of support | AYE | ??? | GNU | Word on a penny | ONE | Half a score | TEN |
| ??? | BAA | ??? | IDS | Procedures | OPS | ??? | TET |
| ??? | BIB | ??? | ILK | Decide to | OPT | ??? | TIP |
| Undergarment for a woman | BRA | Under the weather | ILL | ??? | OWE | ??? | TON |
| ??? | CEO | Gremlin | IMP | ??? | PAS | ??? | TOT |
| ??? | COY | ??? | INN | ??? | PAT | ??? | TRY |
| ??? | DIP | ??? | IPO | ??? | PAY | ??? | TWO |
| Hairstyles | DOS | Feeling of fury | IRE | ??? | PEA | Tiny | WEE |
| ??? | DST | Get on one's nerves | IRK | Pass urine | PEE | Court | WOO |
| Scheduled to be born | DUE | ??? | ITS | ??? | PEI | Astonish | WOW |
| Have a bite | EAT | Barbie doll's mate | KEN | ??? | PER | Asian beast of burden | YAK |
| ??? | ECO | Thing on a ring | KEY | Baked pastry dish | PIE | Affirmative | YES |
| ??? | EGO | The sheltered side | LEE | ??? | POD | ??? | YON |
The completed layers of each word cube are as follows with the layers received from Recipes in bold:
Finally, taking the letters at the centers of each cube in order yields the answer, LION.
Authors' Notes
- The seed for this puzzle was planted one random day, when Lindsey mentioned that Saturn was a tea. We started brainstorming various other types of alignment charts that could be combined into a puzzle, and ultimately decided to take the familiar Sandwich Alignment Chart and expand it to a 3rd dimension.
- Duck Gizzards had the first near guess of the hunt at 9:59am, when they seemed to construct partial Sculpture cubes using the given words and guessed LION (for Museum -> Able Sisters).
- Generating 3x3x3 word cubes while trying to avoid very obscure words was surprisingly difficult! There were attempts made to create word cubes of larger size, but those efforts were quickly abandoned when thinking about how many total words would needed to be clued.
- Rajeev was able to solve a very early version of Sculptures with just a list of 108 3-letter words (missing the clue length categorization) and using letter frequency analysis to construct 4 cubes. This was both extremely impressive and also way too difficult of a solve path we wanted for this puzzle. We have improved the puzzle greatly since then.
- We wonder how many collective hours of sandwich discussion we have inspired over the course of this hunt.
- Best Wrong Answers:
| Wrong Answer | Submitted by: |
|---|
| IDISAGREEWITHYOURCONVENTIONSOFSANDWICHBUILDING | The Admirals |
| DION → CELINE | 🦦 |
| EWOK | 5Blue2Red |
| <many animals> | That Sea Bass! Incredible! Egginality Teddy Set Go Guoba Club Cheatahs 🐆 potluckanddragons 🧉🧉🧉we've got drinks, bring food🧉🧉🧉 |
Stats
- 274 solves
- 542 incorrect guesses
- Most common incorrect guess: PRIDE (guessed 10 times)
- First solve: Duck Gizzards in 2 hours, 57 minutes, and 39 seconds