These wonderful women (none are professional models) have come out to support cheese, but it’s a shame that none of them melted it.
This Reuters report on the French calendar using scantily-clad pin-ups to promote farm-fresh fromage came to our attention via Skipper (thanks!).
Meatless Mike at Ike's Place (photo by DocPop)
Ike’s Place is amazing! A true gem, I had no idea I could like a sandwich (or sandwich place) this much.
They have a creative menu with great names and signs that are fitting to the effort that goes into the recipes. I was thrilled to find tons of veggie options.
They also seem to always have a line from which you have time to study the menu. This is a feature, not a bug.
My first choice was the Meatless Mike. (If I weren’t a vegetarian, I’d have jumped on the limited edition Doctor Popular collectible sandwich, and not just because I was dining with him.)
Fresh bread is baked to order. I had Dutch Crunch since they recommended it as the perfect combination for this sandwich — a crisp crust but soft bread inside to soak up the sauce.
A bit of pepper Jack really pulled together the vegan meatballs over-the-top messy marinara and the works: lettuce, pepporcini, pickles. Insanely goo. I’m still salivating just writing about it.
I will definately return to review more selections, and hopefully will have a guest blogger to cover the DocPop.
Grilled Cheese Invitational
The Second Annual Northern California Grilled Cheese Invitational is Febuary 21, 2009. Can I get a hells yeah!
I plan to be in attendance, hopefully judging as many entries as possible (whether or not in any official capacity).
I may have just volunteered myself as an assistant to Tim (of Tim’s Grilled Cheese: Slow Melted Perfection). I’m not sure if the rules for the standard entry would allow his Cheddar/Swiss as an entry in the Missionary Position category or if he’ll have to enter under Kama Sutra.
Are you coming?
Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup (Hotel Utah, SF)
Hotel Utah may have the best variety of melted cheese available anywhere in San Francisco. From their unique fried-provolone sandwich to well-executed standards like Mac & Cheese.
Today their blackboard had a special written small in the corner:
Grilled Cheese w/ Tomato Soup, $7.50.
I couldn’t pass it up.
As you can see, great presentation of a hearty tomato soup and well-toasted whole wheat with to slices of cheddar. The sandwich is dry, and while I prefer buttery, this is great for dipping.
Blogging this from the iPhone, almost finished with my meal and back to work… with a warm belly.
[UPDATE... about 5 minutes later...]
Completely unlike the wreched disaster I expected, these are actually pretty darn good! Moist and yummy, with a light but tasty crust, great Mac and Cheese inside and a nice sauce outside.
Nachos: A Declicious Cycle (xkcd)
prepped ingredients for Perivision
Get on over to Perivision’s iphone blog for Chris’s How-To on the midnight grilled cheese. His secrets involve heirloom tomato and turkey-based pepperoni.
As an engineer at Commodore-Amiga, I had unlimited access to an endless supply of Coke in a commercial beverage refrigerator stocked daily. I’m sure that fridge was the main reason that access to engineering required a specially coded card key.
A bit of melted cheese and a side of imported Coke. Made with real sugar, not corn syrup.
This quickly resulted in the discovery that too many Cokes made my mouth sticky.
I switched to diet not because of my waistline but for mouth-feel. The taste didn’t matter to me much, I sipped it while programming anyway.
As I learned later, the problem of a sticky mouth comes from corn syrup.
The Coke made with real sugar tastes as much better than corn-syrup-coke as it is better than diet, and it isn’t nearly as sticky. But how do you get the Real Sugar Thing?
Only in the United States is corn syrup cheaper than sugar and therefore used in beverages despite it tasting worse and making us fatter than regular sugar. Our government appears set on creating this undesirable situation with subsidies for corn and taxes on imported sugar. Though the sugar taxes really go back to the first congress of 1789.
The obvious answer: smuggle your Coke across the border.
Or go to the Mission for Mexican Coke that they import for you.
In this case, Taqueria San Jose on Mission at 24th served my sugar-Coke with a plate of three cheese enchiladas. I love that here they come with three rather two (as more common elsewhere).
More cheese is better. Duh!
Alas, I found the plate a bit flavorless, wanting for lack of fast sauce and suffering too-watery. The Coke was the high-point of the meal.
Pesto, avocado, tomato. Sounded like a bit much when I really just wanted cheese, but the result is balanced and exceedingly pleasant. Or is that the dry vodka martini?
The dozen motocrcles hanging from the ceiling and the warm room make for a great escape on a rainy San Francisco Sunday afternoon on 2nd street.
Though we had a long hike down the cliff to the spot for Don’s surprise party, Amacker hauled down a stove and supplies to cook up cheese fondue… Yum! Here’s Liza’s om nom nom pic, and she says, “delectable.”
Addendum: Claudia cooked up amazing fried green tomatoes, Cabana served figs on pecan crackers and other gourmet delights were devoured. Plus I swam with dolphins. Not a bad day at the beach!!!
