The Curiously “Comfortable” Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Here’s a juicy tidbit that even cuisine connoisseurs can relate to — the unspeakable pleasures of the, often, underrated grilled cheese sandwich. So popular is this cheesy delicacy, that an Italian restaurant, Campanile, in Los Angeles, declares every Thursday night as “grilled cheese night,” reports Jennifer Steinhauer in The New York Times (10/3/07).
Not to be outdone, The Melt Down in Culver City devoted to the “gooey sandwich,” boasts a line out the door each and every day at lunchtime. And at the Clementine near Century City, the entire month of April is celebrated as “grilled cheese month.” Buck Down, a grilled-cheese devotee, explains the appeal:
“It may very well be the ultimate comfort food, and the one thing Los Angeles is about is insecurity … because you’re either going to be replaced, fired or exposed as a fraud. What better way to get comfort than grilled cheese?” (Spoken like a true Angelino!)
Eric Greenspan, a chef at the Foundry on Melrose, has a slightly different take: “Grilled cheese is basically fat on fat on fat,” he says. His signature sandwich is no exception, wedding “taleggio cheese with short ribs, arugala and apricot caper puree on raisin bread.” Others obviously prefer a slightly less ostentatious presentation. At the 101 Coffee Shop in Hollywood, a $5.95 “classic” grilled cheese sandwich “begins with perfectly buttered sourdough bread, topped with cheddar and perhaps a nice tomato, grilled to tawny perfection, its contents stretching appropriately with each bite.” The secret of a perfect grilled cheese sandwich, chefs say, actually is not the bread or even the cheese.
It’s the butter – which must be a room temperature, and slathered edge to edge “to prevent the bread from taking on a soggy center with dried edges. This is not toast!” Such skills are tested each year at the Grilled Cheese Invitational, in which “grilled cheese artisans compete in three categories: missionary (bread, butter and cheese); kama sutra (sandwiches with meats or other ingredients and fancier bread); and honey pot (dessert sandwiches). About 600 people are given 20 minutes to work their magic, and are judged based on taste, style and presentation, as well as “Wessonality” — that is, “what makes the sandwich special … One recent winner featured polenta fried two times with Brie, prosciutto and pesto.” (source)
..I agree, the grilled cheese is under rated – and remember this: the secret to any grilled cheese sandwich: SourDough Bread.
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