Chicago: Grilled Cheese, Argentine Style
Grilled cheese, American style.
It’s always a fun trick to throw a hunk of halloumi on a fiery grill. Inevitably people who’ve never heard of the stuff start to freak out, wondering why you’re about to ruin a ball of perfectly good cheese by melting it into the hot coals below. Hell, I’ve had people actually pull a chunk off the grill with their bare hands with the same effort they’d reserve for rescuing a drowning person.
The cool thing about halloumi is it softens and the milk fats caramelize resulting in some awesome smoky sweet curd. The density and construction of the cheese is such that it never actually turns in to a bubbly disintegrating mass. There are plenty of cool cheeses that do this, including Wisconsin cheesemaker Brunkow’s Finnish-style Juustalepia (which I love to grill and set on toast with a touch of fresh jam). Argentina’s version is Provoleta.
I discovered the magic of Provoleta a few weeks ago when I stopped back in at Cafecito, a pan-latino café in Chicago’s West Loop. Cafecito already makes one of the best Cubanos and chimichurri topped steak sandwiches in the city, and so I don’t know if I’d ever have strayed. But owner Philip Ghantous, Cafecito’s enterprising owner spotted me, and slipped me a bit of his new sandwich offering like a pot dealer proudly pro-offering a new killer strain of bud. The cheese is topped with the same garlicky herby chimichurri from the steak sammie, roast red peppers and sandwiched in a crispy crackling grilled bread. If I ever lost my wits and became a vegetarian, this would be the sandwich that had done me in.
Cafecito
26 East Congress Parkway, Chicago IL 60605 (map)
312-922-2233; cafecitochicago.com
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6 Comments:
This is not what I needed to see as my stomach was growling for lunch. And I'm counting calories in preparation for a 4th of July on the lake, so the combo of cheese/butter/bread won't be a meal for me anytime soon. *off to find my apple*
Droooooooooooooool.
UptownGirl at 12:00PM on 05/28/09
Finnish-style Juustalepia
That's probably juustoleipa. It's a compound word, juusto meaning cheese and leipa meaning bread. Sometimes it's also called leipajuusto.
It would be quite interesting to taste the Brunkow's version. The real Finnish stuff is very mild and milky in taste.
nissu at 12:10PM on 05/28/09
I bought some halloumi for the first time recently; the price wasn't posted and I was surprised at how much it cost. What are some average prices? This was in an upscale grocery store.
But I did get a kick out of how it didn't melt. Squeeze of lemon and some red peppers.
Anneesha at 12:39PM on 05/28/09
Both my supermarkets stopped carrying halloumi and I am down to one, wee cryovac'd square in my fridge. I haz a sad :(
Amandarama at 1:07PM on 05/28/09
this looks like the best damn sandwich i've ever seen. seriously.
laurbelle2 at 3:38PM on 05/28/09
Cafecito is NOT in the West Loop, it is in the South Loop!
delko at 6:46PM on 05/28/09