Tikkabik

So my inside sources tell me that The Big Cheese, a fixture at the Los Angeles Convention Center and a favorite of E3 Expo showgoers, is no more. Located in Kentia Hall, that land of obscure Korean and Taiwanese peripheral makers, meeting rooms stuck behind high partition walls and vendors who lack the funds to pay for a booth in the "Big" halls or concourse halls, The Big Cheese would fill its area with the potent aroma of melted cheese and butter. I have it on good authority that some vendors actually requested placement within a short walk of The Big Cheese, its olfactory siren song proved so powerful.

Alas, the gentleman who runs the establishment has retired. And The Big Cheese has been replaced by -- well, something else.

This was, bar none, the best grilled cheese sandwich I ever had in my life. It was the combination of the warm, drippy processed cheese and the thick slabs of bread, toasted and grilled with butter infused throughout. Certainly not a gourmet meal, but soul food to its very core. A little bit of childhood. A guilty pleasure, to be sure. It was, I admit, a cholesterol-laden nightmare, especially for anyone who's even remotely lactose-intolerant, but it was a thing of frickin' beauty.

One never eats as well as one should when one travels, and nowhere is this more evident than at trade shows, where a greasy bratwurst or limp hamburger and a Coke will cost you $10 (if you're lucky). So the Big Cheese was a nice alternative -- it was a little taste of Mom's kitchen from home. Comfort food.

And now it's gone, forever. And it makes me sad.