I could not survive without bacon and tomatoes. Actually, it is the bacon that I am hooked on. In the summer, I dream of BLT sandwiches. I never make them. It always seems like too much trouble. How is the world’s simplest sandwich too much trouble? When you are running around, stopping to assemble a sandwich for yourself just does not fit into my day. Yet, the idea of a BLT pulses and resonates in my thoughts and surfaces in the development of our dishes.
Yesterday, we were working on a cheese course. We had a beautiful cheese, Hyku, from Goats Leap Dairy. It has a bloomed rind with a molten interior. In order to highlight the decadent cheese, we opted to crust tomatoes with our smoked toast (here I combine the flavor of bacon with the toast and still allow the cheese to shine). To accompany the cheese, I looked for some spice and acidity. We used our calamansi lime mustard fruit to balance the richness. I know, we did not incorporate lettuce; lettuce is optional. Instead, we added a dusting of mahleb, which has a nutty bitterness similar to romaine lettuce hearts, but without the green.
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