Today is National Grilled Cheese Day, and I’d like to thank Big Grilled Cheese for rejecting pressure to move the date around to make a three day weekend.
As an Edward R. Murrow Award winning journalist, it was my RESPONSIBILITY to head to Norma’s Cafe in Dallas to try their new grilled cheese options. Norma’s had run a contest for the most original grilled cheese.
Norma’s published a list of finalists a couple of weeks ago. Two of them, and this is true, included macaroni and cheese. Two of them! Is this where we are as a society? Are we out of ideas for what to shove on a grilled cheese sandwich?!
We’ve come a long way from the Greatest Generation.
But Grilled Cheese Innovation isn’t completely dead. For instance, the two non-macaroni and cheese finalists both included sauce for dippin’, but they were different sauces!
– C.B.: Texas Toast with American & Cheddar Cheese, Bacon, Ham, Fried Egg, Hash Browns and Cream Gravy for dipping.
– M.P.: Village Baking Company’s Thick White Bread with Cheddar & Swiss Cheese, Texas Fried Pork Chop, Hash Browns, Mac & Cheese and Tomato Soup for dipping
I’m a little disappointed Norma’s used the more proper, “dipping,” instead of “dippin’.” What is this, Great Britain?! I’ll have a word with their public relations staff.
Even though the other two finalists put macaroni and cheese on their sandwiches, they loaded other stuff on there, too.
One of the finalists, “R.C.,” focused more on breakfast-related macaroni and cheese:
– R.C.: Village Baking Company’s Thick White Bread with BBQ Sauce, Cheddar Cheese, Bacon, Brisket, Fried Egg, Jalapenos, Grilled Onions and Mac & Cheese
The other mac and cheese entry, the eventual winner of the contest, Gabe’s Big Tasty, was devised by, I assume, a gentleman named Gabe:
– B.W.: Texas Toast with Cheddar Cheese, Buffalo Sauce, Mayonnaise, Chicken, Mac & Cheese, Jalapenos and Bacon
I was talking with Ed Murph, the owner of Norma’s. He described the grilled cheese sandwich as “a blank canvas.”
“You can put anything on it,” he explained. “If it doesn’t have enough cheese, you can always add that macaroni and cheese and get your cheese allocation for the month in one sandwich. There’s just no end to what you can take off the menu and add to it. People put fried eggs on everything, these days. There’s another opportunity to put a on fried egg up there with some macaroni and cheese and bacon. Whatever you can dream up, we can do.”
At the risk of editorializing, it was the most eloquent grilled cheese sandwich soliloquy I’d ever heard. I no longer doubt America’s future as a Grilled Cheese Power.
Next year, I think we should get some fried alligator in there. When I moved to Texas, an associate in Houston explained to me what a “po-boy” was. That was the first time I’d ever had fried alligator. Let’s get some fried alligator in there with a fried egg an insouciant hint of buffalo sauce. The Scaia Grilled Cheese. There’s got to be a way to get some buffalo sauce in there.
Before I left, Murph offered a sandwich. I felt bad but explained I’d be back later with an associate, so I shouldn’t fill up now. The sandwiches are free, after all, so the price was right.
