Field Report: The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

I'm back from my first San Francisco trip for the year and have a particularly tasty field report in store.  To start off, I can safely say that this is the best grilled cheese restaurant I've been to this far and you can take that to the bank.  Now let's discuss why.

I was in San Francisco for work and took the opportunity to do two of my favorite things: see a friend and eat a grilled cheese (or two).  I met up with my friend Maria and she escorted me to the restaurant of my choosing: The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen.  I lucked out that I had an early flight into the city because the restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch (closing around 3:00 or 4:00 PM).  We made our way over to the area immediately surrounding AT&T Park, where the restaurant is located, and were greeted by a patio surrounded with spatulas!  It was promising already.

Much like most grilled cheese restaurants, the menu featured a select few sandwiches-- in this case 7.  Maria said the line is usually out the door, so we lucked out in that we didn't have to wait.  The only minor downside to no wait was that I didn't have enough time to fully contemplate which sandwich to order.  When pressured to order at the counter I caved and got the two that especially caught my eye: The Mousetrap (Tilamook sharp cheddar, creamy havarti, monterey jack on artisan sourdough) and The Mac Sandwich (Mac 'n' cheese stuffed into a grilled cheese).  But in all honesty, they all looked delicious!  I would happily go back to try the remaining varieties any day of the week. 

Maria also got The Mousetrap along with a bowl of tomato soup.  Another signature item of theirs are varieties of flavored lemonade.  The featured flavor that day was cranberry lemonade-- something that sounds great in theory, but that is extremely sour in actuality.  I had to tell Maria that I wasn't cringing at her, my face just involuntarily contorted in reaction to the sourness of the beverage.

My hostess with the mostess and her cranberry lemonade.

Anyway, after a short wait our sandwiches arrived and ecstasy ensued.  I started with The Mousetrap.  There was just SO MUCH CHEESE!!  And as all of the cheeses on the sandwich are among my favorites, that was definitely a good thing.  No one cheese stood out over the others, which meant that the flavors blended together to produce a general cheesy goodness.  The bread was thick and crusty which can often be a detractor in my book, but in this case it was a great way to balance out the intensity of the cheese.  The bread tasted like toast-- meaning it was perfectly charred without being too greasy or buttery.  All in all this was like a basic grilled cheese in that it was just bread and cheese, but I would definitely call this a Grilled Cheese Super Deluxe! 

SO MUCH CHEESEEEEE!!!!

Maria's Mousetrap with tomato soup.

Next up was The Mac Sandwich.  You may recall that I've tried a mac and cheese grilled cheese back at Cheesie's Pub and Grub in Chicago.  It was so delicious then that I didn't think it was possible to improve upon it.  I was wrong!  This was even more AMAZINGGG!!!  The sandwich at Cheesie's had that bright orange style mac and cheese that we all know and love, but this variety had what was clearly homemade mac and cheese, which I found superior.  There was also a little kiss of garlic flavor that just made the sandwich.  You could tell that there was a little sharpness and bite to the mac and cheese, but it was just indescribably perfect.  The inside was nice and soft/mushy, thanks to the macaroni, which made the sandwich smooth and delicious.  I give this a RESOUNDING A+! 

As you can see, I really did mean that this was the best grilled cheese restaurant that I've been to so far.  I would go back here in a heartbeat and am jealous of all San Francisco residents who can visit whenever they want.  I guess now I've just got incentive to go out to San Francisco on the early flights so I can snag lunch as soon as I arrive!  I'm headed back to San Francisco again next week, but then am in town for the foreseeable future, so standard grilled cheesing will recommence upon my return.

Belated Christmas Treat: Brie and Fig

We all know that I'm a fan of holiday tributes in grilled cheese form (most notably, and singularly thus far, The Pilgrim).  But it's not fair to let one holiday sandwich steal the spotlight, especially from the best holiday of all-- Christmas!  Now, I realize I am writing this post a solid 3 weeks after Christmas took place, but let's ignore that fact and let our minds wander back as we pull up a seat next to the proverbial yule log...

The tricky thing about conceptualizing a Christmas grilled cheese is that I couldn't easily think of savory ingredients that are Christmas specific and would prove to be tasty on a grilled cheese.  Candy canes?  No.  Gingerbread?  Hmm... actually a gingerbread and cream cheese grilled cheese would have been interesting, but maybe next year.  Pine needles?  Absolutely not. 

Luckily a classic Christmas carol came to my aid-- who can forget the time honored classic We Wish You a Merry Christmas?  It starts out happily enough, but almost immediately Mr. Crosby and company are demanding figgy pudding and threatening to not leave until their demand is met.  I don't know about you, but the thought of a hungry pack of singers refusing to leave my doorstep until I provided them with congealed fig (or whatever figgy pudding is) is both disturbing and intriguing.  What makes figgy pudding so tasty that these people go from house to house begging after it?

Well, since I have no idea what's in figgy pudding my only guess is that the figs are what make it so tasty, and just like that my Christmas ingredient dilemma was solved-- fig it is!  I'm a big appetizer fan (yes, I'm that girl who will sometimes order the appetizer sampler as my meal), so naturally when I think fig I think of baked brie en croute.  It's a simple enough recipe-- put some brie and some jam in some puff pastry and voila!  So it's easy enough to de-construct the recipe and turn it into a sandwich (trust me, any time it's a BGC original recipe it will be simple if only due to my complete lack of general cooking knowledge and skill).

So, for the sake of keeping it simple my ingredients were as follows:

Milky brie, Italian pane bread and roasted figs.  Ignore the fact that the brie wrapper has clearly been tampered with-- I was hungry!

Really the only variable I had to deal with was how to handle the figs.  Upon first sight and touch, I realized that figs are not something I'll ever want to eat on their own.

They're slightly larger than a walnut and are very squishy and slimy.  Henceforth when singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" I will now demand chocolate pudding instead of figgy pudding, but I digress.  I wasn't entirely sure what the best way to prepare the figs for the sandwich would be, so I decided to just start slicing them and see where that got me.

This is where it got me.  Strips of fig were good enough for me.  The only kind of gross element were all those seeds!  They sort of congealed together to be part of the fig, but would come off and be all grainy if you scraped them away.  No. Thank. You.  Oh well!  I'm sure the whole will be better than the sum of its parts.

Next came a hearty slathering of brie onto a piece of the bread.  I didn't do any sort of precise measuring in terms of quantity, but you can rest assured that the cheese spread was at least a half inch thick.  I followed this up with a few strips of fig.  The sweet smell of the figs was strong, so I didn't want to add to much and have the mild brie completely overtaken.

This is what I ended up with.  I think it's pretty adequate in terms of coverage (but I think the figs look sort of like anchovies, am I right?)

I want to pause and take a moment for a quick tribute to how beautifully delicious brie really is.  Let's all take a second to enjoy this photo:

Oh yummy!  It's a wonder I had any cheese left to actually put on the sandwiches!

Alrighty, so you know the rest of the story-- butter on each side, cook while covered in a non-stick pan until both sides are evenly browned and the sandwiches look a little something like this:

Feasting my eyes on this culinary delight I knew Christmas had come early :-P (Cheesy, I know.  Apologies).

Taste Review:

As you can see from the fact that it is literally dripping out of the sandwich in the above photo, the brie is VERY runny!  Even though this particular brie was described as milky, I would say it's actually creamy like butter-- rich and creamy enough to be just right.  The fig has more of a cinnamon-y taste, but isn't overly powerful, more of a nice compliment to the decadent cheese.

This photo looks sort of gross, but it captures the essence of the gooiness pretty well.

The most noticeable difference between a traditional brie en croute appetizer and this sandwich is the addition of the grilled bread.  The light char on actual pieces of bread are what really cement this as a sandwich and not just an appetizer.  It really tastes like a grilled cheese, not just cheese and cracker; but the essence of the original dish is still there-- this is just a much heartier version of the beloved brie en croute.  All in all this was a winner!  Perhaps I could even serve mini versions as an appetizer one day when I magically become coordinated enough to start hosting dinner parties!

For some reason my usual "Final Results" table isn't working, so I'll just give you the skinny in a more straightforward style:

Brie and Fig on Italian Pane

Aroma: 2
Gooey-ness: 6
Appearance: Nearly bite-sized sandwiches with cheese oozing out of every side.
Overall Grade: B+

I've got a lot of business travel coming up, so posts will continue to be sporadic for a bit.  I know, I know, it makes me sad too, but I gots to earn the dough to make the bread that I then put cheese on and grill and write about :-)  OK-- yes, lame.  I'll stop typing now.

I'm Back!

Phew!  Apologies for the extended absence, but (as I'm sure everyone knows) things get crazy around the end of the year!  I've still got one sandwich report waiting, but won't be able to write it up until I find my notes (perhaps buried under a pile of Christmas gifts).  In the mean time I'm dropping a quick post about New Year's Eve!  Some friends and I all rented a lake house together and we took turns making meals for everyone.  When it was my turn, guess what I made?  You're right!  Chicken pot pie!  Juuuuust kidding :-)  We all know I can only cook one thing (albeit in multiple iterations), so we decided to re-visit two of our greatest hits: The Pilgrim and The California Grill.  Here are some pics from our massive grilled cheese adventure (I believe we made about 35-40 sandwiches).



Removing the rind from the gouda wasn't easy.

Sous Chef continues to work on the gouda.

It was a tall order, so we had to call in further reinforcements.

Prepping the first round of sandwiches.

Hard at work, but not too hard to pose for a picture :-)

Pilgrims ready for the pan.

In the throes of sandwich making.



Reminding Sous Chef of how to make a California Grill.

Just about ready!

Satisfied customers... I hope.

 

We took a poll at the end and the overwhelming winner was The Pilgrim, but I think both sandwiches fared pretty well.  One person told me that they were good compliments for each other because the coolness of the California Grill balanced out the spicy dijon taste of the Pilgrim.  But, my favorite praise of the night was "I don't like half of the ingredients in this sandwich, and yet I still think it's delicious!"  Can't ask for a better review than that :-)

Field Report: Piu Bello

Greetings, Loyal Readers!  I am officially welcoming myself back to the main land after a trip to beautiful Puerto Rico! 

While there I enjoyed some sun, fun, and sand(wiches). 

I didn't have much luck in finding a full fledged grilled cheese restaurant in San Juan (I doubt they made a tasty grilled cheese in the cockfighting ring across the street from my hotel), but I did still get the chance to taste a Caribbean themed classic: The Cuban Sandwich. 

As it turns out, Cuba is really just the communist doppelganger to our beloved little Puerto Rico.  Parallels include the fact that Bacardi was founded in Cuba, but is now headquartered in Puerto Rico; both islands have US military bases; classic movies set in Cuba tend to be filmed in Puerto Rico (i.e. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) and have you looked at their flags side by side?

So what better sandwich to try in Puerto Rico than The Cuban?  According to ye olde sandwich lore, The Cuban rose to fame as the choice lunch entree of cigar factory and sugar mill workers.  However, the sandwich originated back when travel between Cuba and the US was a bit more free flowing; meaning workers, wares and ideas tended to constantly pass back and forth from Cuba to southern Florida without restriction.  So it's impossible to say whether it truly originated in Cuba, or whether it has equally strong roots around Key West and Tampa.  With such vague origins, it's also safe to assume that the contents of the sandwich are hotly contested-- but purists know that a traditional Cuban must include pork, ham, mustard, dill pickles and Swiss cheese.

But enough blabbering, let's get to the good stuff!  I sampled the sandwich at "Piu Bello" a diner-style restaurant whose main feature was actually gelato.  I chose here because I didn't have a car and it was within walking distance to my hotel.  Done.

The sandwich was a no-frills Cuban: ham, marinated pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and yellow mustard on ciabatta bread.  There was A LOT of cheese, so even upon first glance I knew that this would definitely qualify as a grilled cheese (the abundance of pig product had left me dubious when I ordered).  The first bite was hijacked by the sweetness of the ham.  Luckily, the pickle and mustard were there to counterbalance. 

Again I'll say that the cheese is super gooey!  I loved that there was plenty of it so that I could get a good chunk with every bite (this made it easy to maintain a pretty solid cheese:pig product ratio).  Speaking of pig, I wasn't sure I could really distinguish between the pork and the ham.  My best guess is that the pork was a little more savory and marinated in herbs whereas the ham was sweet, but this might have just been because the pork was positioned adjacent to the very not sweet pickles.  I'm not really a big pickle person, so by the end I was removing some pickle slices here and there to keep the salt quotient to a minimum.

All in all this was a delectible treat perfect for my first lunch in a tropical paradise!  I immediately followed my meal up with a stroll on the beach and a tropical drink. 

Jealous?  I am too now that I'm back to reality.  It was so beautiful down there I might just have to fill the grilled cheese restaurant void and set up shop as a one-woman grilled cheese stand out in the Piñones food cart strip.

Two Cheese Mediterranean

First and foremost, sorry for the delayed post!  I came down with a nasty virus last week which means I had to put off uploading my photos and completing this post, so this sandwich was actually enjoyed a week ago (pre-illness).

As is sometimes the case, this week's sandwich was chosen based on the ingredients I happened to have on hand.  I had about a half of a loaf of sourdough bread and in reading through recipes I saw that one of the sourdough sandwiches also called for capers and spinach, both of which I also happened to have.  Sold.  Two cheese Mediterranean it was.

In addition to the sourdough, 1/2 cup baby spinach and 1 Tbsp capers that I had on hand, I purchased 2 ounces feta, 1 tsp finely grated lemon peel, 4 ounces Gruyere and 4 whole roasted red peppers.  The recipe also called for 1/2 cup kalamata olives, but those would have doomed this sandwich from the start since I don't like black olives.  Instead I got some "lemon artichoke pesto."  I figured artichokes have a bit of an acidic/salty taste to them and the sandwich already had lemon peel, so it must be a complimentary flavor!  Now let's get down to business.

Step one was mixing together the feta, artichokes, lemon peel and capers.  This in and of itself looked tasty enough to eat-- maybe as a dip of some sort?  But I suppose that's best left for another time.

Next I drained the red peppers and halved them so I had two nice flat pieces for each pepper instead of one big one.

That was basically the only prep work needed!  From there I buttered four slices of bread (well, really sous chef did the bulk of the work this week-- I wasn't having the best day) and spread the feta mixture evenly over the bread. 

Next came the Gruyere (applied more liberally than the 4 ounces the recipe called for) followed by the roasted red peppers. 

I wasn't sold on the inclusion of the baby spinach (nor was sous chef), so we opted to only add it to two of the sandwiches.

From there it was on to grilling!  This went smoothly for the most part save for the fact that the red peppers make the entire inside of the sandwich a little slipperier, so I had to be extra cautious when flipping (this one definitely called for the dual spatula method).

Taste Review:

There wasn't a distinctive aroma unless I got up very close to the sandwich in which case I could smell the red pepper pretty clearly.  The first flavor I notice is lemon, probably due to my decision to include the lemon-artichoke pesto (thus multiplying the sandwich's lemon content).  I wouldn't say it was overpowering at first, it just made its acidity known.  However, the more I ate the stronger the lemon taste became.  It made me wonder if I'm prone to notice the lemon more because I'm not used to lemon flavors in my savory foods, so it stands out as abnormal in addition to being a strong flavor on its own.  Colin actually lobbied for no lemon whereas I was an advocate for removing the capers.

Surprisingly the feta doesn't stand out like you think it would.  Feta is such a strong cheese that it's hard to imagine it being a muted flavor, but I guess an excess of lemon will do just that.  The same was true for the Gruyere-- in fact, the Gruyere was even less prevalent because it's a somewhat mild cheese to begin with.  You could tell there was cheese on the sandwich because of the texture, but if I hadn't made the sandwich myself there's no way I would've known that it was Gruyere.  The same was true for the spinach-- it was virtually non-existent.

The one ingredient in addition to the lemon that really stood out was the roasted pepper.  The peppers gave a subtle sweetness to the sandwich that was a good counterbalance to the acidity of the lemon.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Two Cheese Mediterranean
Gooey-ness:	2
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Vivid red and white center.
Taste:	B

Overall it was tasty, but ultimately forgettable. 

Today is my birthday!  So I'll be headed out of town tomorrow for a birthday getaway, which means no sandwich this week.  But, I do promise to try for a field report from my exotic mystery location... oooh ahhhh.