It is completely improper to add tomato to a grilled cheese sandwich. It's not that the two things don't fit together; indeed, they do fit together beautifully.
But combining them all into one sandwich is absurd.
And by absurd, I mean something loosely akin to: Ketchup is good. Fries are good. Steak is good. All of these things can fit together very well in one meal. And while it's OK to put ketchup on fries, it's absurd to soil that meal by putting that same ketchup on a steak.
If tomatoes and a grilled cheese sandwich are to be components of the same meal, then that's a wonderful thing indeed. But that is a result which is unilaterally accomplished by including a bowl of tomato soup.
As a fundamental part of the natural order, the inclusion of tomato soup is the only right and pure way by which this combination of flavors may be reached.
I think you're seeing a compound word because it's part of your native dialect, whereas I'm seeing each word independently.
If you think about "grilled", "cheese", and the silent "sandwich" as different words composed together, then it should logically follow that you can use anything you want as a sandwich filling and then grill it.
Sandwiches can contain anything, just like a taco can. Everyone knows that.
But when a sandwich contains cheese along with other additional internal ingredients, the act of grilling it is metamorphosical. In this irreversible process, it ceases to be a sandwich and becomes a melt.
So while a tomato and cheese sandwich can be an amazing and delicious thing, a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich is impossible.
To say that it is any other way would be like saying that a caterpillar and a butterfly are the same thing.
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Oh. That's easy enough.
It is completely improper to add tomato to a grilled cheese sandwich. It's not that the two things don't fit together; indeed, they do fit together beautifully.
But combining them all into one sandwich is absurd.
And by absurd, I mean something loosely akin to: Ketchup is good. Fries are good. Steak is good. All of these things can fit together very well in one meal. And while it's OK to put ketchup on fries, it's absurd to soil that meal by putting that same ketchup on a steak.
If tomatoes and a grilled cheese sandwich are to be components of the same meal, then that's a wonderful thing indeed. But that is a result which is unilaterally accomplished by including a bowl of tomato soup.
As a fundamental part of the natural order, the inclusion of tomato soup is the only right and pure way by which this combination of flavors may be reached.
(Dipping is encouraged, though.)
I think you're seeing a compound word because it's part of your native dialect, whereas I'm seeing each word independently.
If you think about "grilled", "cheese", and the silent "sandwich" as different words composed together, then it should logically follow that you can use anything you want as a sandwich filling and then grill it.
Radical sandwich anarchy!
Sandwiches can contain anything, just like a taco can. Everyone knows that.
But when a sandwich contains cheese along with other additional internal ingredients, the act of grilling it is metamorphosical. In this irreversible process, it ceases to be a sandwich and becomes a melt.
So while a tomato and cheese sandwich can be an amazing and delicious thing, a grilled tomato and cheese sandwich is impossible.
To say that it is any other way would be like saying that a caterpillar and a butterfly are the same thing.