Grilled cheese or croquette on a napkin: why this is the most annoying lunch mistake of all
In the category of first world problems: you get a grilled cheese sandwich on your plate… but it’s sitting on a napkin. With all the odds and ends around it. BLOOD-annoying, if you ask me.
Dear grilled cheese makers (and people who serve croquettes): could you please stop doing this?
A simple grilled cheese doesn’t have to be haute cuisine
A grilled cheese sandwich with a little ketchup is the perfect lunch for me. It doesn’t have to be a four-cheese masterpiece with black truffle; an ordinary ham and cheese is perfectly fine.
What really isn’t acceptable, though, is serving it on a napkin. First I have to carry out an entire operation before I can take a bite. Lift the plate, loosen the napkin, arrange everything neatly… Why is that napkin there?
Swishy service or decorative napkins?
Maybe it’s there because otherwise the grilled cheese would fly off my plate as the server swishes it through the restaurant. Or the little dab of ketchup might swing onto someone else’s table if they take the corner a little too enthusiastically. And maybe just two croquettes on a plate looks a bit lonely, so the napkin is there as a decorative tablecloth. But I find it highly impractical.
As far as I’m concerned, a napkin like that is meant for wiping my mouth between bites of grilled cheese, when I want to take a sip of tea without leaving my greasy mouthprint on the glass. But that doesn’t work with a napkin that has already been underneath the grilled cheese: it’s already a little greasy or damp, and there are crumbs on it.
Besides: it’s underneath my sandwich, so it’s no use to me until I’ve eaten everything. Am I supposed to stuff my grilled cheese down one bite after another like a construction worker, and only then wipe my mouth and drink my beverage? Not very sociable, and you know that yourselves.
Linen, too
When I saw Sergio Herman’s famous shrimp croquettes being placed on a carefully folded linen napkin, that was the final straw. Pick up a croquette, lift the napkin off the plate, put it on your lap, catch the deep-fried parsley and put everything back again… Who comes up with this?
Even culinary greats don’t make things any easier, but for ordinary mortals it’s a genuine lunch challenge.
Get rid of them!
So, dear restaurant people and snack bar owners: could the napkins please stay off the plates?
Just let us enjoy a grilled cheese or croquette without a care. Then we can get worked up about more important matters again. I mean: does ketchup belong on a croquette?
Also read:
- Make a top tuna melt with these tips
- Recipe for the best grilled cheese sandwich of all time from Job and Perry
- 10x the tastiest grilled cheese sandwiches
