Tuesday, August 11, 2009

How To Make A Proper Burger

The title of this blog is deceiving. The purpose is actually to review a burger I recently at from Craft Burger. As Nitro discussed in his post below, I too am a purist and ordered the cheeseburger combo with onion rings... err... the onion rings combo with cheeseburger. Either way you look at it, it got me wondering: Why is it so difficult for a city the size of Toronto to offer several proper burger joints? To find out, I thought I'd first share my thoughts on what a proper burger is.

There are two philosophies. One argues that the ground meat should include all kinds of things mixed in, such as onions, sauces, herbs and whatever cool things you can think of. The other argues that the burger should be pure – nothing but ground meat, salt and pepper – and the interesting flavours added via gourmet topping choices. I have tried both variations and am firmly a believer in the latter. Neither is no right or wrong, it’s just my preference. Lucky for me, in order to accommodate different tastes, the industry caters to my philosophy. This is how I make my burgers at home and here are the rules that I follow, which I trust are consistent with all burger purists’ views:

1. Start with high quality meat. If you doubt the ground meat, ask the butcher to grind up a chuck or sirloin in front of you. This will ensure that rule #3 below is safe. Oh, and don’t skimp on the fat, as this is what adds flavour and juiciness.

2. The meat should be very loosely hand formed into patties. This is perhaps the most important step! If you overmix it, the burger will be tough. Loose forming ensure juiciness and every piece will fall apart in your mouth as you take a bite.
3. It should be cooked somewhere between medium-rare to medium-well, depending on your preference. I like medium. Again, just my preference.

4. It must, must, must be cooked at high heat. This will result in a deliciously charred exterior and not overcook nor dry inside.

Sounds simple, no? I thought so too, until I started trying some of these so-called “gourmet” burger joints and realized that it was much more difficult than it sounds. Not to say the burgers are bad, because I really enjoy some of them, even if they don’t follow my rules. But they’re not “proper” burgers that would please a purist. Just like Pizza Nova makes great pizza for a pizza chain, but it’s certainly no true Italian pizza.

Now that I’ve gotten my griping out of the way, I’m clear to talk about my Craft Burger
gourmet burger! I followed rule #1, as they offered organic meat of good quality. Where it lost ground was in the rest of the rules. The texture of the burger tells me that the meat was certainly over mixed. It was cooked medium well, which I’m happy to accept. The char marks were a little too pronounced, so it was on the grill too long. This, combined with the over mixing, explains the dryness. Thing is, they go through hundreds of burgers a day. So how can you expect them to make each one so perfect? I don’t, but it sure would be nice for the prices they charge. On my burger, I got lettuce, tomatoes and smoked cheddar. The bun was great. Nice texture, toasted and soft enough to hold everything together nicely. Now for the best part – the cheese! The smoked cheddar, in contrast to the burger, was (somehow) super juicy, extremely flavourful and transformed my burger from a 6.7/10 to a 7.9/10. Wow! If I had a re-do, I’d ask for triple cheese and light on the meat! I’m thinking of dropping by there and picking up a block of smoked cheddar. You know, just to eat as a snack when I get hungry.

Oh yeah, and the onion rings were awesome. But that’s pretty obvious from the post below…

Friday, August 7, 2009

The BEST Onion Rings Period.

With the ever popular food snobbery movement showing no signs of subsiding, it is with a refreshing note that I publish this post on a food that is neither fresh, nor healthy, nor composed of "hard to pronounce" ingredients from exotic locales.

Today we ordered lunch from Craft Burgers in Toronto. Being a bit of a purist, I opted to get the traditional Cheeseburger combo with coke and onion rings on the side. After I finished the meal though, I realized that the description of the combo was inaccurate. It should have been called an Onion Ring Combo with a coke and cheeseburger on the side.

This is not meant to be a knock on the cheeseburger. It was good. But it wasn't perfect. The meat was a tad on the dry side which in the end got me full but left me generally uninspired. What was lacking in the cheeseburger though was certainly compensated by the onion rings. Those big rings were pure tastebud bliss. The batter crispy and dry, curiously and fabulously devoid of grease. So much so that they almost tasted like a healthy food! The inside was juicy with huge pieces of onion that just melted in the mouth. All of this was complimented by a zesty dipping sauce that had a perfect tinge of spice (I'm pretty sure the dipping sauce was for the rings, but I could be wrong). The onion rings were truly inspirational. I think the best I've ever tried. Even the two resident food snobs, Tuscan Tart and Habanero, were smitten by the zesty rings. Need I say more?

Thursday, August 6, 2009

El Burrito Grande: Part 1, Freshwest

Check it out. Three years ago, burritos didn’t really exist in our food courts. Since then, the only way to describe how many burrito shops have popped up is: HOLY SH-T! Why wouldn’t these things be popular?
It’s a wrap with nothin’ but goodness inside. Your choice of meat, rice, beans, veggies, cheese and whatever else you want to stick in there. Ok, it’s far from authentic (a true burrito is just basically meat in a wrap, topped with salsa and cheese, with rice and beans on the side). No, these super massive burritos are eaten like a sandwich.

I love burritos. And when I fulfill my once-a-week craving, I take my choice very (very!) seriously. Today, I chose Freshwest Grill, one of the first on the scene. Why? Because it’s more convenient and closer than the superior Burrito Boyz and Quesada, cheaper than the usually superior Z-Teca, and better than some of the others around. (I will eventually post reviews on the others, that’s a promise!) Yeah, it’s middle of the pack, but look… you can’t eat lobster tails every day, otherwise I’d be eating Burrito Boyz all the time. Freshwest is good, at times very good, but never exceptional and yet to be worse than not-bad. So I walked to the TD food court and got in line…

They make it how you want. I got chicken (I’m not a fan of their steak) with everything, but purposely excluded the rice, burrito sauce and sour cream. These burritos truly are grande (I estimate 2+ lbs), so cutting out some extra fat and bloaty carbs makes it more digestible. Today, the refried beans were watery.
The salsa was watery. I had to ask twice for extra stupid sauce (their hot sauce). Otherwise, the stuff that went in looked fresh. I carried it back to work and took a bite. Unusually overly salty, but I keep going. Wow, it’s quite hot today! But it’s just a mouth hot, the kind that’s hot when you bite into it and stays in your mouth, getting hotter as you eat more; it’s not a deep heat, which builds throughout your entire body, and more preferable to me (I will also eventually post some info on spicy food, and that’s a promise, too!). By the time I get to the last third, every bite results in a gushing out of today’s excess wateriness from the beans and salsa. Some goes into my sleeve, some onto my desk, and a tiny bit into the bite that’s in my mouth. OH NO, gotta get the sauce out of my sleeve!!! Damn, that’s not so easy, and really pisses me off. Anyway, I do what I can to clean up and keep going… back to the blog! Eventually, I need to get a fork and eat the filling out of the burrito shell, or else I’ll look like a salsa covered fool by the time I’m done.

So here’s what I’ll say. At $8.25 tax-in, including $0.75 extra for guacamole, this burrito is well priced. You can choose an “inside-out” (without the shell) or a salad covered in burrito toppings. Either way, you get good value. The filling is good, but not as inspired as some of the other shops. If you put 87 octane into a race car, you can’t expect it to win the race. Salty salsas don’t cover up the fact that the chicken is somewhat bland on its own. But on the whole, it’s tasty nonetheless. Here’s a pro tip: you gotta get there before 11:45, or else you’re in line for a crazy long time. And you gotta ask them to toast it “well done”, or else it will be impossible to eat as a sandwich. Yeah, it’s messy, but it’s a burrito. It takes true talent to make one that doesn’t fall apart, and that’s rare to find (stay tuned when I discuss Burrito Boyz). I’m pretty satisfied today and hope that next time the wateriness and saltiness is corrected.

Ah, El Burrito Grande. ¡Hasta la semana próxima!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

That Groggy Feeling......




It has happened to all of us before. That groggy feeling in the afternoon as you sit at your desk in your cubicle... there is a pile of work in front of you, a huge pile. But your energies (what's left of them) are focused elsewhere. Work is not on your mind. In fact, the only thing you are thinking about is whether your boss saw that last "head bob". The only reason you don't experience total paranoia is because you are so focused on trying to control the next head bob... which by the way is impossible.

This happens to me all the time. And the root cause?... a heavy lunch. By "heavy" I'm not referring to the poundage of lunch consumed.. although excess intake does contribute somewhat to the groggy. It isn't the root cause, however, because 3 pounds of salad will not give you the groggy. It might make you feel bloated and gassy but it will not give you the groggy. The groggy comes from certain foods that are just "heavy". It's hard to describe what "heavy" is, but we all know what foods have this quality. Ghandi roti is heavy. Grilled salmon is not. A large meat lovers pizza with mozzarella cheese in the crust is heavy. An oriental salad with mandarin oranges is not...

This leads me to the actual food review part of this post. Veal sandwiches. Before last Friday, I would have characterized a sloppy veal sandwich as heavy. I've tried veal sandwiches from different places in the foodcourts and they are quite good. But they are all heavy... and when you sit in the open like I do, heavy is not a good thing.

Last Friday, I was prodded to try a veal sandwich from Mustachio's which is located in the St. lawrence market. I was hesitant at first as I had stuff to do that afternoon, but my friends were persistent. So I ordered. 1 Veal sandwich with sauteed mushrooms and peppers.. all of this covered in extra sauce and cheese. I figured, if I have the veal I might as well go all the way.

The sandwich was amazing. I think one of the best that I've tried. Whoever constructed the sandwich must have had an architectural degree because the thing was well built. Typically when you load on the condiments and the extra sauce, the veal sandwich has a tendency to fall apart... at the very least sauce leaks out and splatters all over the keyboard. In the past, a veal sandwich for me was a minimum 15 napkin affair... this one... barely 2. No matter how I held the thing (ie two hands, one hand, forefinger and thumb...) the structural integrity of the sandwich never became compromised. In and of itself this would rank the st. lawrence veal sandwich as one of the best... but the sandwich tasted amazing as well. The sauce was tangy and savoury and the sauteed mushrooms were not overcooked and provided a distinct mushroom flavour that complimented the sauce and the veal. In fact, all of the different ingredients retained their independence yet combined to create a greater whole. The bun looked like the standard bun, but it was light. It looked dense but it wasn't. It felt very airy (?) yet it had the strength to maintain the borders of the sandwich and most importantly it didn't soak up the sauce.

So back to the groggy. The St. lawrence veal sandwich has all the makings of a heavy lunch. The portion is healthy and they pack in layers of veal mixed with melted cheese and sauce. Yet, it is quite the opposite. For reasons unknown, I didn't feel like I had a 2 pound cement block in my stomach after lunch and there were zero head bobs that afternoon! Victory!