In and Out

While out in Cali for the New Year and new loss for the Badgers (aka the Rose Bowl) we had to have a sampling of the famous In-and-Out burger. While I have endulged before both when I was a vegetarian and not, DG had yet to try one.
A little secret I knew from some friends is that while the menu appears to be very limited to the basics, there is in fact, a secret menu. I will admit I only know one secret item, the animal (secret's out!) which adds lettuce, tomato, onions and a secret sauce (you know me and the sauce, budhum dum). Anyway, this burger is so delicious I had a second one the next day (hello diet starting Jan 3rd).
My favorite part of the burger is the toasted bun. It is done perfectly. The burger itself is toasted nicely. This isn't a big juicy burger like some of the other we have had but for fast food it is amazing. I have no idea what was in the secret sauce nor did I have any time to evaluate before I shoved it into my mouth but it had a worchester like taste as some points and more 1000 dressing taste at others. If Chicago had In and Out I would be either 500 pounds or working out 5 hours a day to keep up my burger a day habit.
If you have not had In and Out, run to the West Coast to try.
PS their fries are HORRIBLE. Apparently you can get them "animal" style but I cannot imagine that helping. They are like they took the potato cut it and then dried it. It looks like a dried apricot. The apricot has more flavor. Skip the fries this will of course free up your calories to partake in another burger or perhaps a shake.

I'm dying to know more of the secret menu so please pass along info.

Happy New Year my faithful readers! (HA)

Bad Apple

After a much hectic season of moving, traveling, house stuff and now Christmas we took a little break from it all to go back to our beloved hamburger eating! Boy do we have a doozey for you today. Bad Apple. It is nothing like it's name says. It is DELICIOUS! First of it was a hike to get to for us but seriously worth it. Bad Apple was listed as #1 by a couple websites but we had never heard of it. There were a few bad reviews which made me leery but decided to give it a go! It's a really cute wooden bar/restaurant with cool modern furniture touches. Decorated for the holidays which always makes you feel pretty homey. There were some old Morningstar employees there which I assumed meant it would be delicious since Mstar people have such good food taste (unless of course they are picking over the old food left in the cafeteria). I digress. Let's start with the starter. Normally I'm not an appetizer kind of lunch eater but they had cheese curds!!! Fried blissful cheese curds. I could not pass up and they did not disappoint! The friedness was fried to perfection, melt in your mouth crunch. They were white cheese which is the only thing I would have changed, I typically prefer a non-white cheddar but didn't bother me too much.

The burgers are hand made with a lot of different options for make your own toppings or original burgers already developed. I went with the Left Coast Burger which has cole slaw, swiss and "secret sauce". There is a peanut butter and bacon burger which sounded like might be just that combo that while sort of disgusting sounding is actually delicious. The DG went with the Slow Burn. My bun was a pretzel bun toasted nicely. The burger came out slightly more rare than I like (or ordered) but it had such a great char and seasoned so well I didn't mind too much that it was a little rare. The toppings added a nice crunch and sauce to my burger. As you know I like both the crunch and the sauce so was basically in heaven. The DG liked his burger although someone near us ordered the pork belly burger and he was slightly jealous of that so I think next time he'll switch his order. The downside to my heavenly lunch...the fries and more important the Ketchup! The fries were ho hom, they were fried unevenly leaving some mushy and some too fried. They were the skin on more rustic variety which are not my favorite but I could have over looked all of this if there wasn't such an issue with the ketchup!! Regardless of how you feel about Presidental Nominee John Kerry or his wife, you have to respect the ketchup she makes. Or even any of the other varieties out there. Ketchup is supposed to taste a certain way and have a consistenancy that is very standard. Bad Apple attempted to make their own. Need I say more? I know it's probably healthier for me and all but come on! This was horrible. It was a juicy watered down tomato juice that they perhaps added a thickner to. This was not ketchup and I was bitter about it touching any part of my food. This did force me to order a side of Ranch which was out of this world btw. For those doz reading (uh hem) it rivaled First Run.

Rating for Bad Apple - my new favorite burger in Chicago. Hate the ketchup with a passion, love the ranch pinch hitter sauce. If you like burgers that are seasoned well with a good crunchy burger and bun this is the place for you!!

Totally Behind

We are totally behind on the blog. The Dirty Ghirken and I did test out a place on the Southside (coming soon) and the DG has been busy all on his own testing out places while he has been traveling. Hopefully we will get around to updating the post so that a certain someone stops threatening to drop my blog!

I want to send a shout out to my other co-worker, the lovely Courtney Anderson. She and her husband are in the midst of renovating and homing (word?) up their newish house. Here is her blog: http://courtney-theandersons.blogspot.com/ and she give stuff away so if that's not reason enough!

So nothing too food related this week. We just are finishing moving into the condo, unpacking and homing it up. Lots to do. We did try Burger Baron which is right by our new place so we'll get on that blog entry soon.

XO

33 Club

I love the 33 Club for dinner. I don't love the 33 Club for lunch, at least for burgers. I hear their lobster roll is awesome. This day, however, was not a lobster roll kind of day. We were on our usual Saturday burger hunt. We actually didn't intend to go here for burgers but after a long morning/afternoon of walking around, farmers markets, etc. I was tired and hungry, not a good combo. So we stopped. I got the turkey burger, which as you know the Dirty Gherkin finds this against all rules. It had such great sounding topping through; Chipotle Cheddar and Poblano Peppers. I was just in the mood for that. What can say, meh. It was a handmade burger which gave it a plus in my book. It certainly was salted (perhaps too much) but that's where it ended. The Chipotle Cheddar and Poblano Peppers I was excited for fell off the mark. The peppers didn't have much flavor although nicely grilled. The Cheddar had no zing which I think was what I was really looking forward to. Bun was fine, toasted which I appreciate. Fries were decent. The Dirty Gherkin got the bacon burger (SHOCKING!) and he had the same impression although he thought the fries were fanastic or at least that is what he said when he ate all of mine. All in all if I could give it a meh grade that's what it gets, a C, meh.

Hamburger Mary's

The ambiance in Hamburger Mary's can be described as hanging out at your best gay friend's drag queen house eating crazy burgers and drinks. It's over the top ambience adds some fun to an already fun event. This particular trip we brought the Burger Baronness with us on our adventure. HM is a hike for us but we have been wanting to try to this place for awhile. After doing my first triathlon I thought that a nice burger was proper celebratory food! HM has a large menu of burger choices, the typical build your own to stuffed burgers to crazier concoctions. The burger of the month was something disgusting, I don't remember specifics but basically was like crab meat a weird sauce and a fried piece of fish. Pass. After a long debate I went with the Queen Mary Burger, perhaps a little subconscious plug to my enflated ego after the race. Pretty simple burger; cheddar and jack cheeses melted over grilled onions, bacon, lettuce, tomato and Mary's special sauce. As all of my faithful readers (ok my one, John) know I love some sauce, give me a dipping sauce and I am in heaven. I liked the toppings and the bun but the burger itself was clearly a frozen burger, not a nice handmade one that I had hoped. It wasn't a bad burger just could have done more with it, they spend so much time and care on creating toppings, etc, they could spend a little more time with the star of the show (and not meaning our drag queen waitress). Fries were decent. The Mary sauce I am pretty sure was just 1000 Island sauce which was meh. The Burger Baronness had the Bloody Mary Burger which was my second choice. This tasty burger was stuffed with crushed tomatoes Bloody Mary spices topped with Cheddar and Swiss cheeses and a tomato-Vodka sauce. The sauce was awesome, a little heat a little sweetness. Was definitely jealous of this part of the burger. The burger itself was better than mine probably because it was stuffed. The BB seemed to enjoy it as well. The Dirty Gherkin got the Barbara-Q Bacon Burger which he enjoyed, the bbq sauce was a nice edition he got some spicy sauce on the side which tasted more like wing sauce than a chipotle sauce but whatever. I would have to give the sauce price to the Bloody Mary Burger.

While I did not think that Hamburger Mary's had the best burger in town, it was decent and the fun environment certainly made for this to be a pleasant experience. If I found myself up in that neighborhood again (Andersonville) I would go back. Perhaps for their drag queen bingo!

I give it a B

The Plaza Tavern and Grill

The Plaza Tavern and Grill is an institution in Madison, WI. My parents hung out there when they were in college and my brother and I spent most of our birthdays there as well. The burgers are as unique as the place. I always get the same order from her without fail. Except my brief period of vegetarianism in the 90s. I get a Plaza Cheeseburger and cheese curds and usually a Point beer. This time we were headed to Beer Fest so I skipped the Point and just got a boring old Diet Coke.

The burger, it is a thin patty served on a squishy wheat bun. The kicker on this little piece of heaven is the sauce. It's like a Dilly Dill sauce/ranch/a tinge salty goodness. I of course put pickles on my lightly toasted bun (added crunch) and then I devour this pre-sliced (which I really like btw) burger. Of course cheese curds beat french fries any day of the week so that goes without saying.

This is my favorite burger not because it's necessarily the best quality beef or the best bun, it's really the sauce and the nostolgia. Next time you are in Madison, Wisconsin stop by for a burger, beer and hockey foosball (UW vs MN).

Custom House

I got a coupon thingy from Foodie.com for $5 burgers so we decided to give it a go! Custom House has a great reputation when Shawn McClain opened/ran it (he is known for Spring, Green Zebra and I think another). Anyway he is no longer there so this must be a way to bring in business for lunch or for anytime. The burger normally is $12 a pop so this is a good deal! Comes with fries even and cheese and toppings, not like the $1 burger deals at some bars where cheese is 25 cents, lettuce is 25 cents, etc.

There weren't many people there when we got there, maybe 4 tables but only 1 waitress. This lead to a bit of a wait for the food. We enjoyed the cool looking space and waited and waited. Finally our food arrived. The burger is a lot like the burger your dad would put on the grill, it had a slight char on it which at points was delicious as DK says it's carmalizing something but other bites it was burnt. There was some sort of secret sauce which you know I love. This one was sort of like a steak sauce maybe mixed with ketchup or some other tomato substance. It was fine added something to the burger. The bun was a brioche bun slightly toasted (thank goodness). Fries were pretty good, not too bad. I would say it ranks up higher than some of the others that we have tried...

While I really appreciate the crunch (Crunchaholic here) of the burger the bites that tasted like burn really ruined that crunch. Fine line there I guess.

Overall it was a good $5 burger but was it a $12 burger too? I don't know about that.

B burger