Croque Monsieurs are a strange beast. Perhaps their subtle flavors aren't really suited to a cafeteria-style environment; especially when there's transport involved. At its best, I'm assuming a croque monsieur is a hot, crunchy, and slightly sweet variation on a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The twist is that the bread is treated like French Toast—namely it is battered and fried. By all accounts it should be tasty.
By some accounts, it's passable, however.
THE LUNCH BREAKDOWN
- Croque Monsieur Sandwich with cream sauce topping
- Bowl of Potato Cream Soup
- Diet Coke
This is another one of those Walter Burke meals where the only true vegetable option is the salad bar. This isn't exactly part of the review, but I'd like to point that fact out. Potatoes (which were available roasted and seasoned) were the option, but I consider that more a starch, don't you?
Anyway, on to the food.
There's something not quite right with the croque monsieurs. They're entirely too sweet to balance out their ingredients, but one finds that sweetness tends to benefit a ham sandwich, especially when one looks at the Monte Cristo. Perhaps that is what the Walter Burke Croque Monsieurs are missing: they try very hard to strike a fine balance between the sweet and slightly eggy texture and flavor of the bread, and the savory fillings contained within. Perhaps if they favored one side more heavily—for instance, providing a berry puree with the sandwich, or removing some of the sugary elements from the batter—the sandwich would be more successful.
As it is, the croque monsieur serves the same purpose that french toast originally served, I assume—to revive stale bread. The original term for French Toast is pain perdu (lost bread), and that's what these sandwiches taste like. There's a certain stiffness to the bread that the batter can't quite overcome. Perhaps this is from the staleness of the bread, or maybe the long trip from the off-site kitchen to the cafeteria. Regardless, this aspect of the sandwich cannot be overlooked.
On the other hand, the potato cream soup is a delight. It's rich, fragrant, and is amazingly soothing to the stomach and palate. Notes of onion and cheese are present and they play together with the texture of the potato puree in a lovely manner.
The Diet Coke was, as always, Diet Coke.
SCORE (OUT OF 5): 3 (Average) (could've been 4.5 if I just had the soup)
