The Charlottesville 29

1)  Summer Grilled Cheese at Feast!  When it comes to comfort food classics, we usually like to keep it simple.  Leave the lobster out of our mac-and-cheese, our burgers unadorned, and our grilled cheese free of fancy fix-ins.  Of course, there are exceptions.  Like the Summer Grilled Cheese at Feast!  Although it bears little resemblance to what we think of when we crave a grilled cheese, it is mighty good.  Yellow cheddar, manouri cheese, local summer tomatoes, and roasted poblano and red onion spread, are all grilled on yeasted corn bread from Albemarle Baking Company, a bread that is tailor-made for grilled cheeses.

2)  Beef Tongue Nam Prik Pao at Pad Thai.  The menus of many Thai restaurants list sauces to choose from and pair with any of several meat and seafood options, allowing customers to come up with their own favorite combinations.  But, there are some meat-sauce pairings that seem particularly on point.  Take nam prik pao, the chili paste used to season many Thai sauces and soups.   At Pad Thai, a sauce of nam prik pao has long been available with a choice of vegetables, tofu, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, or fish.  Thanks to a recent shipment of beef tongue, diners now have another option.  Meaty and rich, beef tongue seems the perfect foil for a sauce that, with chilis, fish sauce, tamarind, and palm sugar is spicy, salty, tangy, and sweet.  The more you eat, the more you want more.