Thursday, April 30, 2009

All Porked Out?

We love the other white meat. Oftentimes more so than we love the original white meat. A while back, we mentioned our eagerness to visit Porchetta, fancy wholesome purveyor of the other white meat.

We had some time on our hands yesterday, so we went for lunch. It was overwhelming, but not in that completely positive, twinkle in our eyes sort of way. More in the, wow, this is just TOO MUCH. It was a little...dare we say it...too much pork for us.

Nonetheless, for what it is, for what it advertises, and for what it is trying to be, it is quite good. We suggest you go and check out Porchetta's oinkers yourself and let us know what you think. Is it too much of a good thing, not enough of a good thing, or just right?

http://www.porchettanyc.com

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Bobby Flay on Burgers



The Burger Joint? Really? Proof that once again, Fobby Blay doesn't know crap about food, but the map might come in handy when you're heading out of town...

also: highly entertaining fark comments rebutting their choices can be found here

Friday, April 17, 2009

The Fifth Third Burger


It's made with five patties plus chili, American cheese, nacho cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, lettuce, tomato and sour cream — all piled on an 8-inch bun.

The mammoth meal weighs more than 4 pounds.

This monster of a burger is called the Fifth Third burger. It has five 1/3-pound patties of beef.

It's the caloric equivalent of nine Big Macs.

This is a burger that's so big, it has to be served in a pizza box with an open top.

CNN lists five burger joints worth visiting


Five tasty burger joints worth visiting

Double or...nothing?


NY Magazine breaks down the best double patty burger joints in NYC:
http://www.nymag.com/restaurants/features/55484

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

An Eggcellent Sandwich

Happy Easter! Check out Kitchen Adventures instructions for making a pretty amazing fried egg sandwich:

http://girlymae.vox.com/library/post/guest-blog-the-great-fried-egg-sandwich.html

Burger Series 18: Kingswood

We meet at Kingswood this month.

The Aussie restaurant/bar/lounge earned a place on Adam Platt's Where to Eat 2008 list and garnered a 2008 Best of NY's Best Bar Meal shout out. This is what Adam Platt has to say about the $15 (yes, $15!!!) burger:

In accordance with the fashion of the day, the menu also features a cheeseburger so imposing it prompted one excitable hamburger loon at my table to exclaim, "I'm going to have to take my jacket off to eat this burger!" The Ruby's Bronte Burger comes with a tangle of truffle fries, is dressed with a slab of melted Gruyere and a carefully arranged fan of avocado, and is, for the record, quite excellent. Indeed, what separates this newly popular, casually themed restaurant from the rabble of other newly popular, casually themed restaurants in town is the polished quality of the cooking...

Please let us know if you'll be able to make it so we can make a reservation with the right numbers. We hope to see you there.

- The Burger Series

Mona Greasa

An entirely new use for (poor) burgers....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NndPyWDnK34

Friday, April 10, 2009

3-Star Michelin chef creates a signature burger

It's a sign of the times when 3-star Michelin chefs start cranking out signature burgers, but that's what Cyril Renaud of Fleur de Sel has done at his new downmarket venture, Bar Breton. The food reviews are mixed (mostly on the mediocre side), but the burger review doesn't sound bad.

http://nymag.com/restaurants/reviews/55656/

Monday, March 23, 2009

Burger Series 17: Shack Shack (UWS)

It's short notice, but if you're around this Thursday, let's meet at the Shake Shack on the UWS. The Shake Shack doesn't take reservations and it can be a wait for food and seating, so if you can make it, start showing up around 7:30, order your food, get your buzzer, and head downstairs. We can try to save a few seats downstairs as they open up so we can sit together.

- The Burger Series

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Southwest NY Burger-Off Finalists, aka The Burger Series realizes it hates sliders

Southwest NY serves its Burger-Off Finalists this week, so the Burgers Series went to check it out.

The finalists:
1. New York Farmer: Sharp NY cheddar, carmelized sweet onions and horseradish aioli
2. Drunken Dutchman: smoked gouda, brandied mushrooms, applewood bacon and pommery mustard
3. Smokey Vermont: vermont cheddar, smokey chipotle BBQ sauce, applewood smoked bacon, carmelized sweet onions and tobacco onion strings

4. Everything, Please: w/ pepperjack cheese, double smoked bacon, carmelized onions, sauteed mushrooms and Avocado


If we had to pick the flavor profiles we liked best, we would probably pick the Smokey Vermont and Everything Please.

But, we aren't going to pick. Not because we didnt like the burgers, but because the finalists were served in slider form so it was hard to tell if the burgers were any good.

WE DON'T LIKE SLIDERS. We don't know too many burger afficionados who like their cow or bird patties in slider form. (It's different when it comes to pork, that other insanely delicioso white meat, but that deserves a separate post.)

Mini-burger patties are usually overdone, and the bread to patty ratio is always bass ackwards. The result? A cute little package that looks like a burger, smells like a burger, but tastes and feels like yummy cardboard in the mouth. Small, but lethal, and to be avoided whenever possible.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

City Burger serves the Bentley of Beef

According to a review by Ryan Sutton, City Burger serves top notch meat.

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Fries, soda and a burger at Wendy’s, McDonald’s or Burger King make up the all-American meal. It’s the chef’s tasting, prix-fixe menu for the no-expense-account crowd, which these days is pretty much everyone.

Problem is, that fast-food is junk food.

Here’s the test: Ever ask for a medium-rare slider at White Castle? Not recommended.

Enter City Burger in midtown Manhattan. The combo is $9.55 and comes in a paper bag. The fries are crispy, the root beer is cold and the burger, charred on the outside and pink on the inside. This is reason to be excited.

It’s still fast-food. But it’s not junk food, at least not in the typical sense. It’s high-end junk food. That’s because the beef comes courtesy of Pat La Frieda, the ground-beef purveyor behind some of the city’s best burgers, including Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack (another high-end junk-food joint).

City Burger is like a stripped down, politically indifferent version of Shake Shack. There are no “stroller parking” signs, they don’t serve sundaes with dog biscuits, and as far as I know, they don’t offset their electric bill with wind-power credits. It’s about as pretty as a Jack in the Box, which is to say, not very.

Also, there’s no hour-long wait.

City Burger is the “only restaurant in America serving the La Frieda Black Label grade beef mixture,” says a sign in the venue, if you care about that sort of thing.

Car Burger

The dry-aged blend ($11.99) is described on the menu as the “Bentley of Beef.” A heavy six ounces, it’s more restaurant- size than fast-food size, but you can still eat it with one hand.

It has a gently gamy tang, bleeds juices, is rare and creamy on the inside, chewy and charred on the outside. When City Burger opened about a year ago, they grilled their meats. Now, they griddle it, giving it a nice greasy crust. It needs more salt, but the pickles and American cheese make up for that. A soft bun soaks everything up. Definitely one of the city’s better patties.

Pair it with an egg cream and you have yourself a proper New York lunch. The non-black-label burger is good too: a mix of chuck, brisket and short rib, though it’s not as intensely beefy. Hearty appetites can choose “Combo #4” ($13.95): a burger; five spicy Buffalo wings; fries or overcooked onion rings “for a supplement”; and a soda.

City Burger is at 1410 Broadway at 39th Street.
Information: 212-997-7770
http://www.cityburgerny.com