AN ELUSIVE ESSENTIAL TO SOCIAL SUCCESS
A well-made grilled cheese sandwich can open a vista
leading to popularity and the possibilities
for "a good time."
2. ON THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
Where the perfect grilled cheese sandwich is
the successful party is also.
3. THE MARK OF A SOCIAL CLIMBER
When you see a woman in silks and sables
speak to a grilled cheese sandwich as if it were dirt
you may be sure she hasn't come far
from the ground herself.
4. ON FRESHNESS
"Keep your hands on your own grilled cheese!"
might be the first chapter in any book
on etiquette.
5. ON COARSE LANGUAGE
Coarse slang is beside the mark but a good
grilled cheese sandwich cannot help but elicit
an enthusiastic "Right O!"
6. ON EXPRESSION
There should be a quality of protectiveness
in a man's expression when it falls on his grilled cheese
sandwich. As though so lovely a breath might break it.
7. ON DECENCY
The phrases devised to close a letter to a betrothed
are limited only by imagination
but do not belong in this or any other grilled cheese sandwich.
8. A NOTE TO THE GENTLEMAN
It would be presumptuous to tell any man how to prepare
his own grilled cheese sandwich when the answer is written
in his heart, his intellect, and his ardent civic pride.
[Christine Scanlon, 'The Grilled Cheese Sandwich', from The Best American Poetry 2005]
Great, now I'm hungry for grilled cheese.
ReplyDeleteThough I fear, this being poetry, that the poem itself has little to do with grilled cheese sandwiches.
This left me DYING for a good grilled ham & cheese. And you're right, I'm fairly certain that it's not about sandwiches at all.
ReplyDeleteI must be in former-spouse mode tonight.... He fancied himself quite a cook, and he really wasn't bad considering that his mother couldn't make a cracker taste good. He was absolutely convinced that he made the best grilled cheese sandwiches on the planet, but he made them with cheddar (sharp, I think - the really hard stuff that won't melt except under the perfect circumstances, and when it does, it sort of separates into whey and oil) and had many other problems. After enduring his pathetic attempts for too long, I'd finally had enough. I offered (strongly) to treat him to my special grilled cheese. He was skeptical, as he always was when I cooked, (I should have known then that he was a chauvinist in liberal clothing! Oh, young love....) but he was drunk enough to acquiesce. I banned him from the kitchen and constructed my usual thin-sliced Velveeta on white bread, thinly but consistently buttered on both sides of the sandwich (but not on the inside of the bread!). I grilled that puppy to perfection. I slid it out on to the plate and let it stand while I cooked the second one, then cut it. He was resistant, having discovered the ingredients, but finally took a bite - and loved it.
Yeah, dork. That's what it's supposed to be like. Buttered, not dry; gently grilled, not burnt bread, melted cheese. Perfect. For a long time he didn't even try making them at all, preferring that I do it, but eventually he came around to The Right Way.
Heh. ;)
He...
ReplyDeletedidn't.
BUTTER!
the bread??
WTF, wow--I need to work on this with my spawn. How embarrassing.
Good grilled cheese technique will never fail you, and lends itself to so many other applications, e.g. French Toast (not exactly, but makes it so much easier). He will thank you for it!
ReplyDeleteYep, the former spouse thought he was Julia Child, but he weren't quite that.