If Lovin' Goo is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right

Simple all-American dishes are sometimes the hardest for me to, I was going to say master but I'm just trying to get it right. Like a really well done hamburger or fried chicken or say, the grilled cheese for example. It has to match the taste you have in your head, the memory 'right' taste. Although I will say there are so many great variations now that kind of surpass the simple diner grilled cheese. But which do most prefer?

Maybe its like covering a song. You either do it just as the original so that all the memory sensations register correct and its satisfying or you do your own stunning version and blow everyone away.

I used to love going to the Evergreen Diner in Times Square for lunch. They made a very respectable grilled cheese with tomato and bacon. White bread, crispy bacon and a thin sliced tomato with Velveeta-like cheese and I would imagine tons of butter on the grill. This deluxe plate came with a side of fries, a pickle and that little paper cup of coleslaw - damn near perfect f'you ask me. You can get away with that in a diner because no one has to 'see' what really goes on in with that dish in that kitchen. But the kitchen mysteries are no longer important once you bite down on that crisp buttery gooey toasted cheese and then have the pop of the sweet tomato burst in your mouth before the salty crisp bacon comes in to give you that meat satisfaction that only bacon can!

When you make one yourself, you have to be reasonable though. I mean I wanna make a good sandwich but I'm not trying to kill anyone. I made this one with wheat bread, real mild cheddar cheese, vine ripe tomatoes and turkey bacon.

I actually didn't taste it, I made it for P so he'd have something more than beer in his belly to record. But I could tell just by looking at it that it wasn't there yet. The cheese was not melty-cream-dreamy enough. I needed to use lower heat. I guess you have to get enough butter on that bread so that it feels kinda soaked too. Also, you should butter the bread inside as well. I did a light olive oil butter mix only in the pan.

In my opinion I accomplished neither the correct memory version nor an astounding adaptation. But its hard to really say without tasting it. That would be like looking an at album cover and deciding you hate the band without even listening to a track, which I do all the time by the way. P said he rated it superb. Go figure.