Or Maybe It Never Left...

If you've eaten out recently, you may have noticed the new chef's darling:  grilled cheese sandwiches, accompanied by tomato soup.  True comfort food, but now elevated to a new foodie level.

There are even grilled cheese food trucks trundling their way through trendy Los Angeles and probably even New York, offering up melted cheese oozing from thick ciabatta bread, accompanied by a small cup of steaming hot tomato soup.  Satisfying, filling, full of flavor and a complete meal.

Are you a purist when it comes to grilled cheese?  Does it need to be yellow (read American, cheddar) cheese, or do you try white (jack, Swiss, comte, gruyere), or one of the fabulous blues (gorgonzola, maytag, Humboldt fog)?  Try experimenting with the fillings, too..maybe adding a fig jam or a wide slather of horseradish and dijon, maybe some sliced cornichons or even a thin layer of carmelized onions...but I digress.

The beauty of grilled cheese is in its simplicity.  You only need cheese, bread, a bit of butter for grilling, and you're all set.  Go even simpler with the tomato soup:  some people just heat up tomato sauce and dip their sandwich, though I like more flavor than that.  In any event, the newest trend is all about grilled cheese, and the satisfaction of that quintessential meal.  Make it at home, eat it for breakfast, wrap it in foil to stay warm for a work lunch...it's versatile and inexpensive and can adapt to whatever level of effort you want to put into it.  I'm making myself hungry right now, so it's on to Beecher's No Woman cheese, some seeded wheat bread and a cup of tomato soup topped with parmesan croutons.  Very nice indeed.