Le panini au fromage

Il y a quelques jours, nous sommes allés à Bourne for Desserts, un petit diner américain qui se spécialise dans... enfin, oui, les desserts. C'était la première fois depuis des mois. Ils offrent des lunchs, mais ils sont simples: grosso modo, ue variété de grilled cheese, ou toasted cheese comme disent les Anglais. Mais ils se sont gentrifiés depuis notre dernière viste, car maintenant on peut l'avoir en panini au lieu du pain en tranches. Avec des chips (des crisps), et une salade pour faire un peu de verdure. C'est pas compliqué, c'est un peu cher pour ce que c'est, mais ça nous sustente et on se sent moins coupable quand on prend un dessert après.

La simplicité du grilled cheese

Cela fera bientôt un an que j'aurai découvert Bourne for Dessert, un café qui a tout du American diner. Il est spécialisé dans les desserts, d'où son nom, mais offre quand même des repas chauds pas très élaborés. Mais la simplicité a du bon: le grilled cheese que j'y ai mangé est pas mal l'un de ceux que j'ai le plus appréciés de mémoire récente. Le pain est tout ce qu'il y a de plus banal, le fromage est un cheddar fort bien banal aussi, c'est accompagné de chips, mais il y a des onions et des tomates dans le sandwich pour donner un peu de légumes et de saveur au tout. J'ai donc envie d'y retourner un de ces quatre pour le lunch, pas pour un dessert.

Grilled cheese for Sunday lunch

This is what I had for lunch today to fight the Sunday blues: a grilled cheese sandwich with Pringles. Unhealthy comfort food at its best/worst. I cannot remember the last time I had made a home made grilled cheese. The English call it toasted cheese or cheese toastie, I call it grilled cheese since I'm a kid. My recipe: mature cheese (or "extra mature cheese" in this case), American mustard and white bread. That's it. I guess I'm not much of a chef. When the Ticklers visit us in our new home, I might prepare them this meal.

The cheese toastie from Brew & Brownie

It is Saturday and I want to carry on the weekend tradition on this blog of plugging a meal from a café, a pub or a restaurant. This one is from Brew & Brownie in York. More precisely, their three cheese, red onion and leek toastie on their menu. Need I say more? You can find it on the picture at your right. I have no idea whatsoever what the three cheeses are of they are the same ones every time. But that was a delicious hearty meal. I love grilled cheese sandwiches, this one was both sophisticated and yet it was so perfectly decadent it did not betray its true nature. On a cool day like it was that day, it was a heart warming meal. Just what it was needed. So if you visit the city, I encourage you to stop there.

Welsh rarebit

The Brits will easily identify the dish on this picture, Welsh rarebit, which is one of the great, great gastronomical discoveries I've made in my years in this country. I know it is only a glorified grilled cheese sandwich, but it is delicious all the same, especially on a cold day, like it was then and like it is now. This particular Welsh rarebit was ordered by my wife in the No Car Cafe in the middle of nowhere in Derbyshire, where we went the first weekend of October to visit her childhood friend and her husband. I made the mistake to order something else, a bagel with smoked salmon. Which was not bad, for a not-Montreal bagel, but I should have stuck with what the Brits do best. Anyway, as it is the weekend and it is a tradition on this blog to plug a dish from somewhere, here is the Welsh rarebit she had. If you visit this country, I recommend that you try it at least once.

The grilled cheese of Fat Lemons in Totnes

Well, as I am back from the holidays, I thought I would start plugging the food of one of the many restaurants, pubs and cafés I have been to during my stay in Devon. It is Saturday, after all, and plugging something from the menu of a place I loved is a weekend tradition on Vraie Fiction. It was not an easy choice to start with, because there were so many great places. But in the end, I decided to go for something from the menu of Fat Lemons, a vegetarian/vegan café that was maybe my gastronomical discovery. We went there twice, and twice it was nothing short of amazing. The first time, I ordered the simplest option one can order in a restaurant: a grilled cheese sandwich and a carrot soup. It was maybe the best grilled cheese sandwich I ever had: old, mature Devon cheddar and chutney for the filling, perfect grilled, not too melted but warm cheese and the soup just made it perfect. Perfectly simple, perfectly filling, perfectly delicious, perfect comfort food.

Gastronomie estivale

Cette photo a été prise en juillet, quand il s'était soudainement mis à faire beau et chaud. Nous sommes en août, il fait à nouveau beau et chaud, c'est (re) l'été pour un moment, alors je vais sans doute me faire ce genre de lunch aujourd'hui. Grilled cheese au feta sur pain ciabatta, avec des olives Crespo pour accompagner et une arranciata de San Pellegrino. Quelques observations sur le lunch en question:

1)Ils vendent de la San Pellegrino en Angleterre, alors les invasions romaines ont eu du bon.
2)Les olives c'est essentiel l'été.
3)La gastronomie estivale chez moi est fortement méditerranéenne, avec des influences grecques et italiennes très prononcées.
4)La comfort food change avec les saisons.
5)Je ne bois pas nécessairement d'alcool durant la journée.

More grilled cheese sandwiches

It is becoming my weekend lunch treat: the grilled cheese sandwich, which I try to modify and make more and more decadent. Two weeks ago, I had added mustard to it (more explanations on the post). Now today, because of the comments of my readers, I had decided to add some meat to it. A lot of people add ham to it, but I hate, hate, hate ham. So instead, I added chorizo slices to the mix. So that was today's take on it: two slices mature cheddar cheese, chorizo (all this and the bread from Marks & Spencer), authentic American mustard (ironically branded French's, but it is still an authentic American brand), Marks & Spencer's Cola on the side. I don't know it tastes so good, but it does.

Grilled cheese and mustard sandwich

This is an utterly trivial post. I am posting it because since Thursday I posted a string of serious or gloomy posts. Not bad one, but I thought I would lighten up a bit. I just had lunch. I made myself a grilled cheese and mustard sandwich. Cheddar bough at M&S, mustard is French's American mustard. I poured loads of mustard on the bread, then two slices of cheese, then grill it. The perfect comfort food. The funny thing is, however simple the recipe is, it is a new sort of sandwich for me. I have been making this particular sort of grileld cheese sandwich since two weeks ago. I discovered it in... Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go. Yes, I discovered reading Pelecanos a new sandwich. Sometimes one is influenced by the books he reads in the most unexpected ways. The grilled cheese and mustard sandwich is now my new comfort food for lunch. I recommend it. And I recommend the novel of Pelecanos too.

Question existentielle (82)

Encore une question de nature gastronomique (et devinez ce que j'ai mangé hier):

-Quelle est la recette parfaite d'un grilled cheese?