No surprise here, but the fanciest ingredients don’t necessarily make a dish the best. Sometimes, it’s the elementary foods that make the most memorable impression, and I’m talking straight elementary. Literally. The Grilled Cheese Grill in Portland, OR is one of those places that does it right and SIMPLE. As their name implies, they serve grilled cheese just like mom* used to make.

Located on a street corner in the King neighborhood, you’d think that you just happened upon a junk yard. There’s an old school bus on the lot, a trailer, and some dirt & gravel. NOPE! That colorful school bus is their dining room. Inside you’ll find a diner setup, tables on one side and a bar on the other. The tables are littered with old school pics from way back when (creepy). Think milk carton children shrine.

GCG’s cute menu starts with the ‘Kindergartner,’ a classic grill – american or cheddar on white or wheat, and for the sophisticated, grown-up kid, the ‘Gabby’ offers a cheddar, colby, jack, and mozz on white.

Just like in school, the guys in the kitchen get on the horn when your order is ready and summon you down to their ‘office.’ The only difference is when you get there, instead of detention, you’re greeted with a tasty treat. I opted for the ‘Morton,’ meatball marinara, ricotta and mozzarella on grilled Italian sourdough. So delicious. It was the perfect amount of saucy, meaty and cheesy. The idea of seconds was immediately on my mind. I couldn’t have been more satisfied, especially with the massive hangover that I was fighting off that morning. And in the words of the Cars, “you’re just what I needed.” If I recall correctly, those were the exact words I whispered to my sandwich.

Big high-fives to the Kenyons for sharing the delicious adventure with Matt and me! And for you Portlanders or anyone visiting, the GCG is open until 2:30 am on Fridays & Saturdays, making it a perfect drunken eats spot. EAT IT!

*’Mom’ in this instance implies that your mother was All-American and served you grilled cheese. In some cases of ethnicity, mothers may have served grilled cheese with rice or an alternative side dish or no grilled cheese at all. NOOOOOOO!

Well, I decided to push the competition ahead because I didn’t want to run the risk of being sick on chicken during my trip to NYC. And the result…

Awww yeahhhhh! Josh was a good sport about it. We got most of it on video. I’ll try to get it uploaded soon. New York next week!

Be there when I pummel Josh into submission. CHICKENNNNNNNNNNN!

Sorry lovers. I’ve been doing a poor job updating this thing, but there is reason behind it. I’m preparing a holiday photo album of sorts encompassing my food happenings from Thanksgiving until New Years, so stay tuned for that.

In other news, my good buddy, Josh, who I’ve mentioned in previous posts will be contributing to Eat Feats! For us, it’s always good times, but the New Year is just an excuse to live it up even more.

Until then, eat it and happy holidays!

Don’t plan your entire day around eating Asian food.

Or do. We did.

Lunch started out in Chinatown at the Seven Treasures with sliced pork & green beans in a great garlic sauce served over rice, lup cheong (Chinese sausage) & noodles, and a pair of egg-drop soups. So we did some work on that while Josh shared stories from his Bali trip just the week prior.

Seven Treasures is your quintessential hole-in-the-wall place to get some cheap Cantonese food. Too legit to quit.

The highlight of the day came at dinner. Josh and I agreed that Korean would hit the spot, and he knew of just the place in Lincoln Park. Cho Sun OK is a gem of a Korean restaurant, small and located on a corner. I was convinced that it was about as traditional as it could be, none of the staff spoke and you put in your order and that’s that. To add to that, I’m fairly certain that we were the only two non-Korean folk eating so that’s a pretty good sign that it’s authentic, amirite?

There’s an unexplainable joy that I feel when I watch my food being cooked in front of me. Hibatchi, sushi, dishes that require the waiters to light on fire before serving, AND.. our Korean beef dish. Each table has its own portable, gas-powered range. Moments later, our waitress came out wielding this huge stone pot, called a dolsot, set it on our burner and poured some oil in… “Awesome.” After it had enough time to heat up, she threw in the marinated beef that was sitting next to our side dishes, banchan. You may be familiar with the most popular banchan, Kimchi or kimchee. These delectable dishes were awesome to snack while we watched our main course cook away. My favorite was a tie between the boiled sweet potatoes and the Musaengchae, “Noodles” of white radish in a sweet vinegar sauce.

One observation we had about Korean food is that a large portion of time is spent on preparation and not the actual cooking process. The fresh vegatables cut, the sauces and marinade for the beef, slicing the beef, etc. No fancy frying, baking, or grilling. It’s in the flavor, son.

Our waitress came by to stir up our beef and another 10 mintues and we were scarfing down this delish beef and white rice. My only complaint? Not enough rice… I literally could’ve eaten a whole pot of white rice. So bellies filled, we started to head out and there was a line out the door and around the corner.

It’s that good.