99. An Ode to the Grilled Cheese Sandwich
The menu read Four cheeses
on brioche bread served with imported sea salt brine pickles. ‘That’s like putting a fancy spoiler on a
Ford Focus, I thought. They don’t get
grilled cheese. Fancy contradicts the raison
d'etre of the sandwich and the car: basic food, basic transportation And the thought of a
goat-camembert-gouda-brie sandwich leads to using pretentious phrases like ‘raison
d'etre’ instead of ‘main purpose.’
Chefs don’t make grilled cheese sandwiches, except at home, when
everyone’s asleep. Cooks make grilled cheese. Older sisters make grilled cheese, and because
they do, you forgive them for hogging the bathroom, getting the biggest
bedroom, and picking a chick flick for family movie night. You may even be
grateful for them.
Fathers make grilled cheese, flipping it onto your plate from
three feet above your head and smiling as you dodge the molten cheese droplets
flying off the edges. You and your siblings laugh as your mother pretends to be
annoyed. Cheese can bind a family together.
Mothers make grilled cheese better than anyone. They just do.
If you’ve grown up on grilled cheese, you smile when make it,
savoring the memories.
Good cooks serve grilled cheese right from the pan. They never makea stack of sandwiches, sitting
on a plate while the cheese congeals.
The cook makes them two or three at a time, asking ‘can you eat another?’ A real grilled cheese cook eats last. That’s
how you know they love you.
Tomatoes? Yes but only late in the summer when they come from
somebody’s garden, in a shopping bag left on your porch next to another one
containing 40 lbs. of zucchini. (The
vegetables remind you there’s still good neighbors.) In the winter, grilled cheese is eaten with
tomato soup, preferably Campbell’s.
Ham? Sliced ham and cheese
is an entirely different meal. If you’re
going to use chipped ham, better to make a frizzle burger - another sandwich to
be grateful for.
Why
the long post? Because today I will take time to dwell on simple pleasures.
Life on Life's Terms III (c) 2016 by
Ken Montrose
Life on Life's Terms III is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the
characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.
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