Grilled Cheese

In case you missed it, April was Grilled Cheese Month. (Who decides these things, anyway? I wouldn't be surprised if the Kraft Corporation weren't behind this one.)

Foodies have gotten rather serious about grilled cheese lately. Some cities have even hosted Grilled Cheese Invitational Competitions (details here and here).

The Food Network recently hosted a Grilled Cheese Throwdown between celebrity chef Bobby Flay and the owners of the Pop Shop, which offers 31 varieties of grilled cheese sandwiches. In the "Throwdown" series Flay shows up to a dining establishment without warning and challenges makers of certain specialties to a cook-off.

The Pop Shop's jack cheese, roasted turkey, bacon, avocado, and house dressing (balsamic mayo) on foccacia sandwich lost by just a hair to Flay's grilled brie and goat cheese with bacon and green tomato sandwich.

According to the Pop Shop, the best accompaniment to a grilled cheese sandwich is tomato soup. I'll have to try that with my daughters.

Grilled cheese recipes from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board can be found here. Recipes from Clementine's, a purveyor of fine grilled cheeses in LA, can be found here.

In a post such as this I can't resist reminiscing a bit about Diana Duyser, the woman who in 2004 sold a grilled cheese sandwich that allegedly bore the image of the Virgin Mary for $28,000. Have you ever wondered what happened to her? (Probably not.) But just in case here is an update: the Miami Herald reports that in 2007 she paid $1000 to have an image of the sandwich tattooed on her chest. People are strange.