the horror

<shakes his head>

I'm still trying to get over the fact that there are people on this thread who actually eat the substance known as Wonder Bread.

<wanders off, muttering, looking for Dys to have a beer with>

Buttercup thanks for the explanation

we've never had that in England and I don't know wasabi so don't know what that is either! (we may have it and I don't know or we may call it something else?)

I don't like hot spices at all, definitely NOT chilli, or pepper or mustard or turmeric. Love cinnamon and stuff and herbs - but not the peppery ones.

We don't have Miracle Whip - doesn't sound as if we're missing much!


I don't eat at McD unless I have to - like once in a blue moon. Even their coffee is foul.

Ahem.

The guest did use mustard on her pastrami sandwich.
Of course she was forced to place the pastrami on white bread, though not a white bread of the Weber's type - more of a hearth bread.

I have heard from a friend that the host ate his pastrami with cottage cheese.

<thud>

What ever floats your boat.

Thanks, I knew it was something like that! Probably explains why the white costs so much more.

Buttercup

I'm a big wasabi coated nuts (or roasted chick peas) person, too! It does for my nose what it did for cav's.

The Mysteries of Food
Viv - Miracle Whip = Salad Cream, but with about 1000 lbs. more sugar and glucose and other scary stuff. And wasabi is the green Japanese horseradish that you are served on the side with sushi. I know you have it in England, but just at sushi restaurants, I would imagine, and maybe at different Japanese grocery stores in London.

By the way, to clarify, I would never MAKE the artificial grilled cheese sandwich at home. The best ones are made at diners, where they use margarine. You know, the kind you can rub on your menu and then see through the menu afterwards?

Cav never allowed me to have artificial cheese and bread and margarine in the house, not that I would. The closest I was allowed to come was with Cheetos Cheese Puffs/Cheesies. Yes, they glow orange. Yes, they're disgusting. But gosh, I love those things...in fact, I think I'll go have some for breakfast. :wink:

What I do NOT understand, even more than the pastrami and cottage cheese, are people who mix M&Ms and/or Smarties into their buttered (sorry toppinged) popcorn at the cinema. That is a gross out like no other. I know of six people who do this on a regular basis. One of them might weigh a buck ten, if that (110 lbs.). I just don't understand. Does anyone else know anyone who does this, or is this strictly a Toronto cinematic event?

I've never heard of it. Toppinged popcorn is disgusting enough by itself and one of the worst foods (should it even be considered a food?) you can eat with the trans fats of the toppings. Adding Smarties or M&Ms would just put it one more rung up the ladder, although I do like peanut M&Ms.

I also like cheese puffs. I buy them once each year as part of our traditional Super Bowl snacks. I eat the entire bag, except the few grabbed by various kids, and then wait patiently for the next year's Super Bowl.

I can never eat sweet pop corn !! <shock> and then have m&ms in it ? <SHOCK> <HORROR>

I love cheese puffs! Had a cat once who also loved them. Don't eat them often, though, as they look a bit.... hmmm.... radioactive, perhaps? I don't like the little balls as much as the little, um, bent logs.

Never saw this popcorn-mixing thing, but I don't often go out to movies. Sounds very yucky, even for someone like me who loves cheese puffs!

Have any of you ever tried Flamin' Hot Cheetos? Those things are addictive.

cheeeeeeeeeeesies

the dogs and i love 'em as a special treat. the first time I met babyBailey he was begging for cheesies.

Vis-a-vis the mayo/Miracle Whip debate - I once compared the labels of MW (my fave) and Best Foods/Hellman's (same thing, different coasts) and found less sugar and fewer weird chemical-type ingredients in the MW.

As for taste, my mom used to make mayo. She usually used lemon juice as the acid, sometimes vinegar. I loved the vinegar kind, didn't care for it when she used lemon juice. As far as I'm concerned, that's the difference - Miracle Whip has more "bite".

I also don't believe that Pepsi is sweeter than Coke (as my sister contends)... maybe I've just burnt off my tastebuds with Chinese hot mustard...

Wy, you made me curious about the ingredient comparison, so I checked it out:

Miracle Whip: water, soybean oil, vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, modified food starch, egg yolks, salt, mustard flour, artificial color, potassium sorbate as a preservative, spice, paprika, natural flavor, dried garlic

Hellmann's: soybean oil, whole eggs, egg yolks, vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, natural flavors, calcium disodium EDTA use to protect quality

(both lists were found at the company websites)

Yep, the "miracle" of high fructose corn syrup.

Um...okay here's the Cav in me coming out.

High fructose corn syrup = Nasssssty sweet chemical substance known for its ability to cause instant Type 2 Diabetes (practically), brain damage, and lardassiousness in Couch Potatoes everywhere.

Modified food starch = um...how do you modify food starch, exactly?

Also, note that sugar is the 5th listed ingredient in MW, and the 6th in Hellman's. Also note that there are actually more natural ingredients in the Hellman's.

Thanks mac11 for listing the ingredients for the original recipes for MW and Hellman's. If we get into the "light" varieties, we might end up having to call on my friends over at Pickering to help translate the list of nuclear waste ingredients included in them. :wink:

Also, just a side note...glad to see that there's nobody else who has seen this evil popcorn and candy phenomenon in their local cinemas. Hope that doesn't scare you from visiting Toronto...

Totally agree about high fructose corn syrup causing lardassiousness (great word). I have the hardest time finding sliced wheat bread without it. Just when I find it, the stores quit carrying it. What's wrong with good old fashioned sugar, molasses and honey?

In other words, I'd go with the Hellman's.

Also very much agree with the high fructose corn syrup statement... I've heard an astonishing amount of corn grown in the US is used only to make this stuff. Practically everything processed contains it, too, at least in our local Wal-Mart.

And what IS wrong with sugar or honey? Maybe it doesn't keep as well? Or doesn't "mix" as well? Or it's just not as addictive?

Also I'm trying very hard NOT to buy Flamin' Hot Cheetos, as I suspect I'd LOVE them. Walked right by that whole aisle in Wal-Mart today. I was so good!

Thanks, Buttercup, for the Wasabi explanation... I didn't know what it was either!

For Buttercup, From today's Chicago Tribune.

UNCORKED

A wine and (grilled) cheese party
A glass of the right wine pairs perfectly with a classic sandwich

Bill Daley, Tribune food and wine reporter
Published March 2, 2005

The sip of choice with a grilled cheese sandwich remains Campbell's tomato soup for many, and it's easy to see why. The acidic tang of the tomato works so well against the plush richness of the buttery sandwich. It's a primal comfort food pairing.

Consider that wine can fill the soup's role, giving the sandwich a vibrant kick to counteract the melted cheese. In so doing, wine raises the status of humble grilled cheese from a kid's luncheon in the kitchen to a more sophisticated fare served, perhaps, in the dining room.

Don't believe me when I say grilled cheese is fit company for the dining room? Consider this story. While dining undercover at Blackbird restaurant last spring, a sympathetic waiter suggested my 11-year-old daughter go with a grilled cheese sandwich rather than the items on the dinner menu. What a beauty that sandwich was! Thick slices of rustic bread perfectly browned sandwiching a layer of top-quality cheese ripe with flavor. The sandwich was so glorious that the guy at the next table complained: Why couldn't he have one?

Certainly the cheese you choose will affect what type of wine works best with the sandwich. American cheese is the all-American favorite. It works very well in an expected way. Choose other cheeses and the sandwich takes on an array of sometimes unfamiliar flavor profiles, all of which can be enhanced by the right wine.

"There is so much in a grilled cheese sandwich to consider," said Marlena Spieler, the American-born but British-based author of "Grilled Cheese: 50 Recipes to Make You Melt."

You also need to factor in the bread's taste and texture and any condiments you might use, she said.

"For instance, I love a Sancerre with goat's cheese and walnut panini, because Sancerre and goat's cheese and walnuts are so blissful together," Spieler said. "I like a pinot noir, Chinon [or] other Beaujolais-type bistro wine with many of the other sandwiches, especially something like a croque monsieur [grilled ham and cheese], or a sandwich with melted cave-aged Gruyere and sauteed wild mushrooms."

Chef Kristine Subido of Wave Restaurant likes to make her sandwiches with Gruyere cheese on lentil bread with a shot of ketchup made with harissa, a spicy hot sauce made in the Middle East. For this, a Valkenburg gewurztraminer from Germany is one of her top choices. The wine is an excellent food wine and has a crisp acidity that can stand up to the spice of the ketchup, she said.

Jan Hendrickson at Pastoral cheese shop in Chicago likes A Thousand Flowers from California's Hop Kiln Winery. This white blend of gewurztraminer, riesling and chardonnay is full-bodied enough for the high fat content American cheese. Or, for a red, try a non-vintage Marietta Cellars Lot 36, a mix of zinfandel, petite sirah and carignane.

It is "just really fruity and soft-bodied," she said.

Matt Parker of The Cheese Stands Alone in Chicago offers a broad pairing guide for wine and cheese: Cow's milk cheeses tend to work best with reds because of their richness while the minerality of goat's and sheep's cheeses pair better with white wines. Blue cheeses go with sweeter wines, he said.

Wondering what will work for you? Don't be afraid to experiment. After all, it's grilled cheese. And any wine, I don't care what, is going to taste better than canned tomato soup.

- - -

Can the soup

Grilled cheese sandwiches can be made with all types of cheeses, breads and condiments, but the basic version made with American or Cheddar cheese, white bread and plenty of butter is still the standard. So that's what we used in our informal blind tasting.

For wines, we chose three whites, three reds and a sparkling rose to try with the sandwiches, which were made to order as the tasting progressed. Good Eating staffers tasted and scored each wine on its own merits, then rated how the wine paired with the sandwich; the score below reflects the latter. Though a number of panelists thought the white wines worked best with the sandwich, the top-ranked wine, both with grilled cheese and on its own, was a red.

2003 Brooks Pinot Noir

Our top-scoring Oregon wine was the red with the mostest when it came to grilled cheese, thanks to its soft, peppery cherry sweetness. While one naysayer thought the wine too good for the sandwich, most said the wine simply got better paired with the grilled cheese.

(3 corkscrews) $18

2003 Thomas Fogarty Gewurztraminer

If you doubt the transformational power of food on wine, consider this white from California's Monterey County. Buried in the middle of the pack on its own, the wine rose to second place on the magic of grilled cheese. The wine's apple aroma, slight acidity and lemony flavor were complemented by the cheese.

(3 corkscrews) $16

2004 Babich Chardonnay, Hawke's Bay

Panelists thought this "unwooded" New Zealand white a perfectly presentable partner to the grilled cheese. Its dry, lemony flavor with peach notes offered contrast to the melted cheese. But few tasters were wild about the match. "Stands up well enough but does not add a lot," one panelist wrote.

(3 corkscrews) $10

2003 Annie's Lane Riesling

From Australia's Clare Valley, this white earned praise for its citrusy, herbal flavors. Yet the wine lost some of its luster paired with the cheese. Some thought the wine needed more acidity to offset the fatty cheese. Others thought the aroma worked with the sandwich more than the flavor.

(2 corkscrews) $12

2003 Cusumano Nero D'Avola

A hearty Sicilian red with mild grilled cheese? The panel found it hard to imagine too. "Doesn't do anything for the sandwich," one taster commented. Another said, "Fruit fails against cheese. Sours out."

(2 corkscrews) $9

Bernard-Massard Cuvee de L'Ecusson Brut

This sparkling rose from Luxembourg was bubble-gum pink and spewed lots of foam. But the pairing wasn't as bad as some feared; a few thought the bubbles helped cut the cheese's heft. But most thought the sparkling wine competed too much with the sandwich and that both lost out.

(2 corkscrews) $13

2002 Magnificent Wine Co. "House Wine"

It's hard to fault an ordinary red packed proudly as a "House Wine." This Washington wine, a mix of merlot, syrah and cabernet sauvignon, had a sharp sass that worked well on its own but its score dropped precipitously when the red was poured with grilled cheese. "This marriage cannot be saved," one panelist declared.

(2 corkscrews) $10

_________________
It all sounds good to me!!!