Karachi loves its food loaded. So one might expect a seemingly bare-minimum sandwich such as the grilled cheese essentially bread and cheese, with no tarka in sight to struggle to make the cut. And yet, cafes in Karachi are not only making room for this sandwich on their menus, they are also making it tougher to ignore.
One of them, The Croissant Guy, has decided that every item on its menu will have a croissant. For dessert, there’s a chocolate ice-cream bar sandwiched inside a croissant; for breakfast, get fluffy eggs and checsc in a croissant. Its grilled checsc replaces the usual toasted bread with a flaky croissant.
The sight of cheese stretching out on a croissant before it’s dipped into marinara sauce is enough to challenge conventional ideas of grilled cheese. The croissant version doesn’t stray too far from what grilled cheese is meant to deliver, however. Its flaky texture and buttery notes elevate the familiar combination and offer a different take on the sandwich.
Another Karachi cafe, Shake N Bake, has built an entire menu, including dessert, around another category of sandwich: bagels. Its grilled cheese, too, uses bagels instead of the usual sandwich bread.
You can dress up a grilled cheese however you want but melted cheese must remain the star and there needs to be enough of it. Both cafes deliver the saltiness and creaminess expected of a good grilled cheese.
Other restaurants have also experimented with their own version of grilled cheese, but not all have been equally successful in terms of flavour.
Test Kitchen is one such example. Although the cafe is popular for its baked goods and breakfast offerings, its grilled cheese falls short perhaps because the bread is not properly toasted. With a sandwich as seemingly simple as grilled cheese, even a small omission can make a great difference.
Does that mean a grilled cheese sandwich must always have a trick up its sleeve to be good? Not at all.
Two coffee shops in Karachi, Luna and True Brew, offer particularly good versions of the traditional grilled cheese. No bagels or croissants here just perfectly toasted sourdough, crisp with every bite, and a filling of two types of cheese, whose creamy texture contrasts with the crunchy bread. Luna goes a step further by adding caramelised onions to its grilled cheese, bringing another layer of flavour to the otherwise simple combination of bread and cheese.
Recently, YumByAmna added a fried grilled cheese called ‘Mozzarella Carrozza’ to its menu. The sandwich retains the traditional elements of grilled cheese but is coated in flour, egg and breadcrumbs before being fried until crisp. The extra coating might seem likely to make the sandwich heavy but themarinara sauce and hint of basil even it out, making every bite tempt you to take another.
Looking at Karachi’s current offerings of grilled cheese, it is interesting that none has yet attempted to completely localise the sandwich. Most versions retain the simplicity of the sandwich, with add-ons like caramelised onions and herbs, or alternative breads,used to introduce a little variety.
Perhaps that leaves room for one more interpretation one that borrows from Karachi’s own favourite sandwich: the bun kebab.
The reviewer is a food writer and a digital content creator. Instagram: @GirlGottaEat