The Angry Whopper and the Art of the Buffet

Hi all.

Tried an Angry Whopper the other day, which is basically a Whopper with crunchy spiced onions, jalopeno peppers and hot 'n spicy sauce. The result - average. I'd rather have a Whopper.

Also came across this article on Digg today. Invaluable advice for devloping the noble art of buffet.

http://1000awesomethings.com/2008/12/29/864-mastering-the-art-of-the-all-you-can-eat-buffet/

In-N-Out - The Real Deal

There were three things that I wanted to do in San Francisco

1. I wanted to visit my friends
2. I wanted to go to Amoeba Music in Haight Ashbury
3. I wanted to eat a Double Double at In-N-Out


1 and 2 were easy but 3 almost didn't happen.

But eventually I got there. Wasn't able to have one for lunch but had the joy of eating one in the car while we driving down San Francisco's famous Lombard Street.

What's the big deal?

It's not about the size even though it has two 100% beef patties, two slices of cheese, hand leafed lettuce, tomato, and onion.

It's not about the packaging or presentation -

It's all about the taste. The In-N-Out Double Double tastes just about perfect.

It's hard to describe. It's just right.

It's fresh, it's tasty, it's even the right size.

It's just part of a greater package, it's just part of a fast food chain that actually cares about what it produces.

Even the fries are chipped in the shop by hand!

It's just a great burger and a great franchise.

But back to the burger, how do I rate it?

Value - 5 (I can't think of $3.19 that I'd rather spend on food)
Taste - 4.5 (almost perfect...but then again what is?)
Messiness - 2 (it is messy, but then again I was eating one in the car)
Would I eat one again? 5 (I'd eat one a week if they were anywhere near me in Carlingford!)

Pity that the franchise is almost exclusively on the West Coast of the USA. If only I could convince them to come out here.

For more information -
http://www.in-n-out.com

Baconator Part 2

Back home now and time to finish off my reflections on the USA.

But first things first, the Baconator.

On paper is sounds so good - 6 strips of bacon, 2 1/4lb patties, two slices of cheese.

And it looked like this in the ads -
But the reality was oh so different.

Sure it was big. Sure it was greasy and heavy. But it was no more than a sodden, tasteless mess.

It was one of those cases where the disappointment was palpable. Where I was sure that if I ordered it again, it would be different.

But, I'm not sure.

This is how I rate it
Value - 1.5 (it's $4.69 of regret)
Taste - 1.5 (again, a real disappointment, hardly any bacon flavour at all)
Messiness - 2.5
Would I eat it again - 2.5 (it can't really be this bad can it? But if it is, then this would be a 1.0)

The Baconator

Not much time to write as we're about to catch the plane, but just posting to say that I've finally had the Baconator.

Got to eat one at Moab, home of the famous Delicate Arch.

Compared with the wonders of Moab how did the Baconator fare?

This is what it looks like.

I'll let you guess what it tasted like.

For more information:

http://www.wendys.com/food/Nutrition.jsp

The Counter

Visited the Children's Museum today and came across a new burger joint. It's called 'The Counter'.

It looks pretty upmarket and the burger's are priced accordingly.

The best thing is that you have the choice of building your own burger, even to the point of having a 1 pound patty if you want!

All the burgers are 100% Angus and the meat is never frozen and certified humane raised and handled, hormone and antibiotic free.

But who cares how does it taste!

Unfortunately I was pressed for time so I ordered an 'Old School' burger off the menu - All-Natural ground beef, Tillamook Cheddar Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Pickle and Red Relish.

Had to wait 10 minutes for my order as they're all made fresh on the spot. Pattie was supposed to be medium but looked pretty well-done to me.

Anyway, it comes in a massive box and when you first open it, it looks pretty good.

And it tastes pretty good as well. But to tell the truth, it tasted like a burger that you'd make at home which is good, because it shows you how fresh it is, but isn't really anything special.

I think the real attraction comes in building your own burgers. Would love to give this another try. They're opening a franchise in Crows Nest next month. May have to give it a go.

Value - 2.5 ($8.50 for the burger, but you get what you pay for)

Taste - 3.5 (one of the better burgers going around, would probably score higher for a custom burger)

Messiness - 1.5 (it really was pretty messy with the red relish going everywhere)

Would I eat it again? - 4.0 (there are over 300,000 different combinations that you can try, so you're bound to find something you like!)

For more info -

http://www.thecounterburger.com/

Bison on the menu

Had a fabulous dinner courtesy of my very generous brother-in-law and sister-in-law at one of the best restaurants in Salt Lake City - Log Haven.

It's about a 5 mile drive into a national park and it's feels like it's in the middle of nowhere, but it was really top-class.

I had the Rocky Mountain Elk Ribeye and Pearl had the North American Bison Tenderloin. I thought my Elk was average, Pearl thought the Bison tasted a bit of liver. We swapped and we loved what we had.

Here's the Bison

You can find out more about Log Haven here - http://www.log-haven.com/

Anyway, it inspired me to try some more Bison and I decided that we'd have ourselves some Buffalo burgers.

Buffalo burgers are readily avaialble and it's about $11.50 for 8 quarter-pound patties.

Anyway, made ourselves some burgers with bacon, egg, pineapple, mushrooms, beetroot, fried onions, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and ketchup.

The result

The burgers were great. But to tell the truth, we couldn't really tell the difference between Buffalo and regular beef.

Arby's Pepper Jack Melt

Just a quick post this time.

Was outlet shopping and shopped right through lunch and spotted an Arby's on the way home. Having almost no money left I ordered the cheapest meal on the menu, the Pepper Jack Melt meal for $2.99.

It's great value, and the burger which consists of cheese sauce, slices of roast beef and a bun wasn't too bad in an unnanturally soft, almost pre-digested sort of way.

Anyway, probably wouldn't be my first choice on the menu as the roast beef sandwiches would be more my style.

For more info:
http://www.arbys.com/menu/

Big N' Disappointing

Have been offline for a while exploring the wonders of Southern Utah. But got to drop in at McDonald's in Beaver on the way and couldn't resist the chance to try a burger we don't get Down Under, namely the Big N' Tasty.

It was all down-hill from the time I opened the box. Firstly, it wasn't so big.

Then I took a bite and it wasn't so tasty either.


Basically another ho-hum burger from McDonald's.

Value - 1.5 (it was $5.19 for a value meal)

Taste - 1.5 (not really that different to a quarter pounder)

Messiness - 4.0 (wasn't really big enough to get messy)

Would I eat it again? - 1.0 (Big N' Tasty...Small N' Average)

For more info: http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/bagamcmeal/itemDetailInfo.do

God Bless America!

I know it's not burgers but I couldn't miss this opportunity, especially on such a historic occasion.

Let me introduce you to the contenders (courtesy of Baskin Robbins) -

'Whirl of Change' representing Senator Barack Obama.

And 'Straight Talk Crunch' representing Senator John McCain.

These were special flavours that were produced for the Presedential Election and our in house polling went like this:

Whirl of Change - 4 scoops.

Straight Talk Crunch - 2 scoops.

So based on 538 electoral votes that leaves Barack Obama on 359 and John McCain on 179.

Let's see how close we get...

PS - Whirl of Change tasted better as well.

The Original Six Dollar Burger

So the quest begins.

Have arrived in Salt Lake City and went to Costco this morning and was going to have Sushi but the restaurant was closed. So what to do?

Off to try a burger!

So in we went to Carl Jrs and it first cab off the rank was The Original Six Dollar burger.

The burger itself is $3.99 but it's $6.49 with a drink and some fries and to be honest, it was pretty good.

The pattie was tasty and pretty big. The tomato and onion and lettuce all looked pretty fresh and there was even table service.

I was thinking about how I would rate my burgers and I've decided to use the Hungry Jack's Whopper (or Burger King for people in the rest of the world) as the mean in terms of my criteria:

1. Value
2. Taste
3. Messiness
4. Would I eat it again?

In other words a Whopper would get a score of 2.5/5 on all of these counts.
So how does The Original Six Dollar Burger compare?

1. Value - 2.5
2. Taste - 3
3. Messiness - 1.5 (it was pretty messy with sauce dripping all over the place)
4. Would I eat it again? - 1.5 (in the end the thought of regularly eating a burger with 1010 calories and 68g of fat versus 650 calories and 39g with the Whopper is a little bit too much to swallow).

For more info:

http://www.carlsjr.com/menu/

Welcome to Burger Quest!

Welcome to my first blog!

For some people blogging's just all about them.

For others it's about getting people to think.

Some just want to be controversial.

Me...I just want to find the ultimate burger!

First stop QF73 and the US of A.

Hope you enjoy the ride.