... otherwise known as worshipping at the Temple of Things That Taste Good. And unless I’m kissing a handsome man, that’s usually food.
Eat, pray ... wait.
That’s just not me. I don’t pray. I’m not big on the higher authority thing, having decided a while back that the authority who better have right and wrong figured out and who ought to know how to choose wisely is, well, me. So I talk to myself and give myself advice, which often is, “You should have something to eat.”
I spent decades learning how to braise and roast, saute and fold, dice and mince and julienne so I could whip up impressive (and scrumptious, don’t get me wrong) dishes. But the older I get , the more I appreciate simpler combinations and uncomplicated, fresh ingredients. One of my favorites is this minor variation on a classic BLT. Try it. I had one the other day and I was immediately transported to a better spiritual place.
The first two pieces from a round sourdough loaf, extra crust on the curves, one slice a markedly smaller oval than the other. Toast, light brown.
Bacon, applewood smoked, thick-sliced, meaty streaks. Fry in skillet, crisp but not charred, curly fat nubbins shiny with grease on an edge, an end, here and there.
Farmstand tomato, its flesh the color of arterial blood. Slice quarter-inch rounds with sharpest knife.
Haas avocado, pit dispatched with a thunk. Slice mounded crescents with flat tablespoon.
A sharp cheese (Quebec cheddar is an excellent choice), salty tang, dry, slightly bitey. Grated, large holes.
Spread the bigger slice of bread, hot from the toaster, with a bare glaze of Best Foods/Hellmann mayo, scatter a palmful of cheese, then lay bacon, pieces broken to fit, like a lattice, cover with overlapping rounds of tomato, then moons of avocado. Spoon a thick slick of mayo on the smaller crisp toast hat, press down gently.
Eat this wet sandwich over the kitchen sink in big bites, showing your teeth. Tomato will seep into the broken bacon, dripping juice and seeds on the stainless steel below, a thready pink pond. Yeasty snapping crust, chewy sour bread, warm cheese, hot crunchy smoky pork, cool green goddess-y avocado – this is exactly what the chefs mean by ‘mouth feel.’
Last bite, the rest having been eaten judiciously to leave this perfect mouthful. Just enough bread, some crust, some not, held against your thumb, edges ragged, a goodly chunk of tomato, crushed bricks of bacon, avo slipping out the side. All in, all at once.
mmmmmmmmmm
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Rob Neukirch
Lizz Schumer
quattospeaks
jmac1949
Kerry Lauerman
jlsathre
Salon.com
Comments
The Tomato. Oh...
and the way you wrote this...
Too bad you are already a favorite._r
I don't even eat bacon and you're making me hungry. I'm in for the avocado and warm cheese though. Speaking of "mouth-feel' better have a glass of wine at the ready. Let me see with bacon and cheddar -a meritage of bordeaux blends, perhaps ...
Yay for Quebec cheddar!
My.
That was intense. You should write cookbooks. Really. Everyone would want to be in the kitchen reading your "recipes." Foodie Kama Sutra.
wow.
Your writing is as scrumptious as the meal you describe.
Doesn't avocado has all those good omega 3's and HDL's, etc?
Sourdough bread is the staff of life.
Lettuce and tomato -- Healthy.
A little bacon? Rounds to zero.
Mayo? We aren't food fascists.
We are all going to die. Why not regularly eat food to die for? No?
They are gonna find out that arterial problems are more a function of some yet to be discovered bacteria/virus and inflammatory processes.
Sorta like ulcers.
Just my uninformed opinion.
And if people wanna get all serious about this, it has to be a fraction as bad as one of those mega salads that people eat to be able to say that they just had a 'salad' for lunch.
Perhaps I argue too much. Time to microwave some bacon for a half assed version of the same in 5 minutes. Later.
that'll teach me to post something when i don't have time to acknowledge comments, won't it? but i really did make and eat this sandwich yesterday, and it was soooo good, i just couldn't resist. writing it just, you know, happened. like some of those best spontaneous things where you're not really even thinking about something and then you are, all of a sudden, and it's such a good idea that you can't imagine not doing it, um, right then. you know?
and for those of you who got the wrong impression, this was just about a sandwich, for heaven's sake. and bacon. mostly.
and for the health conscious, i must publicly agree with nick. the avocado cancels out the bacon, the tomato cancels out the bread, so you're left with a tablespoon of mayo. pfffft. my theory has always been to eat the good stuff, just less of it. that's not an original thought; julia child (and probably many others) said it first.
thanks, everybody, for reading and leaving your funny or lascivious or foodie comments. you're the best bunch. have a great wednesday. eat more bacon, 'k?
peace
candace
Yummy. About that visit...
Have you heard about the restaurant in L.A. whose chef has replaced the bacon with roasted, crispy chicken skin? Oh, God,
tell me chicken skin is now good for my heart.
oh, and sixty: *no* tidy sandwiches! yuck! and i *loved* 'dripping abandon.' perfect.
alice simpson: oh...my...god. crispy chicken skin? really? i will hunt this place down if it's the last thing i do. pfffft on 'good for your heart.' it's good for your mouth! thanks for stopping by. good to meetcha.
Rated.