My dad likes what he likes. If he isn’t familiar with it, he doesn’t want to become familiar with it. This rule stretches across several arenas of his life, from vacations to movie genres to music, but where it’s most apparent is his relationship with food. If you can’t order it at Applebee’s, he calls it “beautiful people food.” Most of what I cook, these days, falls into that category; he once asked me not to eat my bowl of chickpeas at the table with him, because it “looks, haha, kind of gross.”
Putting stuff into a grilled cheese, if it’s not tomato or bacon, moves it from the Normal People Food side of the chart into Beautiful People Food. As I hate tomatoes with a fiery passion and love spinach, this grilled cheese is only for beautiful weirdos. You’re a beautiful weirdo, right? (Yeah, you are!)
The Beautiful People Basic
- multigrain bread
- havarti
- bab(a)y spinach
- crushed red pepper (I will probably put crushed red pepper in every GGCEx sandwich, get excited)
- some chopped shallot
Thoughts:
Pretty good! It’s quicker and easier to make than the Avocado Goat Supreme, largely because it’s got less ingredients and is therefore more amiable to squashing down with the spatula. That also makes it easier to burn, too, which I discovered when I stepped away from the stove to split havarti cubes with my roommate instead of –– you know –– watching the pan. Oops. So one side was blackened. (Like fancy fish plates! I should start a fancy burned food restaurant!)
Even with the burned side, though, I enjoyed it. Instead of the explosive illegal-warehouse-party-in-your-mouth that was the Avocado Goat Supreme, this was like a backyard wedding with mason jar candleholders and lots of outdoorsy hipsters in floaty clothing being photographed in soft yellow light. If you’re looking for something to eat with soup that’s a tiny bit more colorful and sharp than American cheese on white, this is it.
