July 28, 2008, - 12:57 pm
The $50 Grilled Cheese Sandwich; Plus, The Schlussel Grilled Cheese Recipe
By Debbie Schlussel
My fave comfort food meal is grilled cheese, but I rarely have it because the cheese and bread add up to a lot of calories.
But just reading about these grilled cheese sandwiches makes me full. All are overpriced (and that’s in addition to the one at $50), and they all sound better than the pictures of the final product. Here’s a “taste”:
At Ohio’s Melt Bar & Grilled, the entire menu is dedicated to nothing but decadent grilled cheeses. . . .
A favorite is the big popper (inspired by the appetizer jalapeno popper): herb cream cheese and sharp cheddar, “blended” with grilled jalapenos, poured onto bread, then smothered in beer batter and deep fried. It’s then topped with powdered sugar and served with a side of blueberry syrup for dipping. . . .
Back at the Four Seasons, . . . grown-ups get a mix of mature cheddar, Swiss and parmesan emulsified in a few black truffles and truffle oil, served on brioche, grilled, and dabbed with Dijon mustard. The sandwich also carries a grown-up price tag of $19. . . .
[Then there’s] the white-truffle version offered at Gilt restaurant, inside the New York Palace Hotel. The price is a whopping $50.
“I can see how some people might balk at that,” says executive chef Christopher Lee, who dubbed the sandwich Gossip Grill after it was featured on the television show Gossip Girl. “But we sell about 15 a night.”
This one sounds delish:
For night-owl diners, Proof in Washington, D.C., has the Drunken Grilled Cheese on its late-night menu. Chef Haidar Karoum created the $11 sandwich as a way to use up the leftover gourmet cheese his wine bistro serves during the day. He takes chunks from up to 18 cheeses, blends them together with a splash of chardonnay, garlic cloves and black pepper, and serves them between Pullman brioche that has been sauteed in butter.
My own grilled cheese recipe is:
* 2-3 slices of cheese of different varieties–I like American, cheddar, provolone, or Muenster
* a tomato slice
* dried oregano (sometimes, I add a few scraps of scored, chopped fresh basil, instead of dried oregano)
* fresh ground pepper
* spicy mustard (I like Plochman’s Koscuisko Spicy Brown Mustard)
* toasted rye with caraway seeds or toasted pumpernickel
What’s your favorite grilled cheese sandwich?
My fave is the “15 second grilled cheese”.
Two slices of bread w/ one Kraft American cheese slice on each, microwave on high for 15 seconds. Put slices of bread together.
Pete on July 28, 2008 at 2:56 pm