You Say Sandwich, We Say Yeah!

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am a lover of the Croque Monsieur. And yet, I rarely ever eat them. This is the first CM I have had in Toronto, and thank goodness I saved myself until now. Having only ever had beverages at Bivy, it never occurred to me that they had food options until I had a late afternoon meeting there and had not eaten lunch. While normally I would just get a soup, their option that day was tomato, and not trusting it to be a sweet and not sour tomato soup, I went full hog and ordered the Croque Monsieur. If it was bad, I was hungry enough that it did not matter. But no and behold, it was not bad looking, and not bad tasting either. While the bechamel was almost indiscernable in taste, but present in texture, everything else worked very well together to make this a warm, delectable treat. The bread was fresh and did not harden half way through the meal into a soggy lump; the cheese was excellent and not overly oily under the intensity of the broile...

It was in our country's clean capital where I first had a taste of a Croque Monsieur, the delightful little ham and cheese sandwich that has warmed the cockles of my sandwich loving heart ever since first bite. It was in fact at the Moulin de Provence in the market, now far more famous for its " Obama Cookies " than anything else, where I first had this treat. I've either imagined it or read up on it, both seem as likely, but I recall this sandwich to have originated as a cupboard leftover fed to the little ones after a day at school or play. I would certainly love it as an after school or work snack, that's for sure. Consisting largely of thinly shaved salty ham with swiss cheese and béchamel sauce, the flavour combination mixed with my memories of first tasting this combination make this still the best Croque Monsieur I've ever had. Sure, it's not much to look at, and they just reheated it up in a microwave, and you have to eat it with plastic cutl...