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Photo of the Day: The Motor Burger from The White Spot in Charlottesville, Virginia
Had breakfast there last June with my father and brothers--I'm the only one who's spent any serious time south of the Mason-Dixon Line. They ordered eggs, etc., and I ordered biscuits and gravy. They were all jealous at the end of the day. Experience is everything. Or at least a lot.
Leftovers: The Day's Stray Links
About alcohol and caffeine. So, exactly how many people does the FDA say die from Irish coffee each year. You know, I'm a basically a liberal, but Basta!
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
@NorrinRazael--Only because when you're using a shaker, its easier to just go from one glass to the other than it is to stir it. It just takes one time from glass to glass to do the job. And I emphasize the matter because so few bartenders do it this way that I either have to specifically ask them to do it, or spill all over when I order one. And it's especially difficult when the thing is garnished all to hell.
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
Bebo and Daniel, reading over this, I still think the meaning of "come out" is confusing. Now, as I read most of your initial post, Daniel, you like burgers rare or medium rare because there "is far more meat flavor when the burger has more fat and juice in it". The next clause of the sentence seems to be adjectival, alluding to "elements that come out the more the meat is cooked." The "come out" can be interpreted two ways: come out as leave, or come out as be increasingly noticed.
From what you said earlier in you post I suspect the former, but I don't think it's entirely clear yet.
Photo of the Day: The Motor Burger from The White Spot in Charlottesville, Virginia
Had breakfast there last June with my father and brothers--I'm the only one who's spent any serious time south of the Mason-Dixon Line. They ordered eggs, etc., and I ordered biscuits and gravy. They were all jealous at the end of the day. Experience is everything. Or at least a lot.
Leftovers: The Day's Stray Links
About alcohol and caffeine. So, exactly how many people does the FDA say die from Irish coffee each year. You know, I'm a basically a liberal, but Basta!
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
@NorrinRazael--Only because when you're using a shaker, its easier to just go from one glass to the other than it is to stir it. It just takes one time from glass to glass to do the job. And I emphasize the matter because so few bartenders do it this way that I either have to specifically ask them to do it, or spill all over when I order one. And it's especially difficult when the thing is garnished all to hell.
Would You Eat This Lobster?
Look, what if lobster aged like Bordeaux? That it got tenderer and sweeter and more complex as it aged? There would be no sympathy for this guy because of age. None. At. All.
Instead the restaurant would get $500 or a grand, or more, for it. And the lobsterman would get 20-40% of that.
The question of egg capacity would simply mean that only large male lobsters could be harvested, making them even more desirable. And probably an underground market in females would also develop. Can you imagine what they might go for?
This is just the nature of humans, and thus, the nature of markets. So if they're tough and not as sweet, we can anthropomorphize all we want, because we really don't think it'll taste all that good.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
@kilbeggan--Aah Aalborg! I'm not sure I can get the carroway taste to go with the rest. But it's certainly worth a try, given that aquavit, in my book, is the single biggest rush in the normal western (West from Moscow to Tokyo) drinker's world.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
@NotAmerican -- doesn't it get a little salty? Soy sauce is much saltier than Worcestershire. And what's caster sugar? It's not a type I've ever seen. Dry mustard is an interesting thought.....
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
Oh,and I emphatically second the addition of celery salt to the recipe!
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
The addition of a little canned beef consomme or broth really helps to deepen the taste--for a gallon of mix I use one can, undiluted. And yes, I used to make my mix by the gallon when I was tending bar. At any rate, the consomme really makes a big difference. I suspect the substitution of Sriracha for the Tabasco might have a similar, but less notable, effect, as Sriracha makes Tobasco taste comparatively thin.
Yes, either gently shake or pour your BM from one glass to another--when you just pour the mix over the liquor in the glass (as happens at far too many bars), the liquor is just displaced to the top and if you try to stir enough to mix it in the glass, you're going to spill all over.
And don't go over board on the garnish.
Mix it Up: Stocking Your Home Bar
The lemon/lime squeezer is the classic gadgeteer's money hole. Think about it: you can use the squeezer or you can roll the fruit well, then cut in half, and squeeze the juice out with your hand, using your fingers or a strainer you already have in your kitchen to catch the seeds. Now, how much more juice are you going to get using the squeezer? A penny's worth? A nickel's worth? That's a lot of squeezing for the thing to pay for itself. Same for garlic presses, in my book.
jazzing up white rice
And of course, curry and mango chutney, or either all by itself.
jazzing up white rice
Try adding an eighth or quarter cup of wild rice for each cup of white rice. You don't have to add a lot to make a big difference. Salt and butter, of course.
Tasting P.B. Loco's Wacky Line of Peanut Butters
@aharste and everyone. Even better, just add a tablespoon or two, depending on taste, to the water of a chicken ramen soup mix (the cream of chicken flavor is best, I think) and the cheapest 5 oz. can of chicken you can find, and curry powder to taste. A little S&P: amazingly good and filling, for not much $.
Dinner Tonight: Fennel-Dusted Chicken with Brown Butter and Capers
Why remove part of the breasts? To speed cooking time so you don't burn the butter? Can't you just saute the breasts in the oil, until you flip them and then add the butter if that's the case? And the term "tenderloin" is new to me vis-a-vis chicken breast. Is that the thickest single muscle in the breast?
Video: Minnesota State Fair's Food on a Stick
I grew up in Minnesota, and I have some gripes about the place, but the State Fair isn't one of them. It's the best.
Serious Cocktails: The Gin Boomlet
A year or so ago the NYTimes did a gin tasting: (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/dining/02wine.html?scp=1&sq=gin+rating&st=nyt). Three of the top 5 were the least expensive--Seagram's and Gordon's and Plymouth. There's a second secret to gin--keep it in your freezer. Even if you drink it on the rocks, keeping it in the freezer keeps that edge that FDR referred to as a "frozen cloud."
Grilled: Daniel Zemans, Chicago Correspondent
Uh, wait a minute.
Welcome to AHT, but he's apparently decided to forego meat for some unspecified (there's always hope!) time. Sort of makes hamburgers and probably most pizzas off the menu, huh?
Guess we won't be reading as much of Daniel as we used to.
Back in the USA After a Burger-Less Vacation
Nearly 40 years ago I went to Rome to study, and discovered an A&W around the corner, on Piazza Barberini. It had typical Roman tavola calda foods, as well as burgers. I just checked on Google Earth streetview, and it looks like it's a multi-screen movie theater now. That's how big it was.
Standing Room Only: Bari Foods
Pauper--I'll make a trip to visit the place on your recommendation. I didn't mean to imply some sort of sandwich assembly line, tho. Let each sandwich maker make the entire sandwich. Just don't let them waste their time taking orders or ringing them up. Someone who doesn't know the proportions can do that.
And at Subway I'm real vocal in the line, "Please, not so much lettuce! More peppers, please! Just a little more oil, OK?" so that all the proportions are mine. They want to hate me, but I keep smiling and being as overtly grateful as I can, and they finally smile back.
Meet Your Farmers: John Lee of Allandale Farm, Massachusetts
Yessir, those Latinos sure do love stoop work.
Standing Room Only: Bari Foods
Can I ask why you think their "painfully inefficient" system "ensures quality?" It seems to me that you could put all the current staff that know how to properly proportion all of the sandwiches into sandwich-making only, add one person taking orders and working the register, and probably double the output with no change in quality. While we like to think that slowness means no shortcuts are being taken, thus maintaining quality, sometimes inefficient is just inefficient.
Win Burgers for a Year from AJ Bombers
I haven't had a chance to stop in yet, but there was a long line out the door when I drove past at lunchtime today.
Surprisingly Good Burger at Springbok Bar & Grill in Van Nuys, California
And, of course, didn't notice it hanging on the wall in another picture.
Doh!
Surprisingly Good Burger at Springbok Bar & Grill in Van Nuys, California
Did you ask them why they don't have the South African flag to go along with all the others on their sign? Can't be sure, but it appears the old flag may be there, 4th from the left. Was the sign put up before the end of the apartheid regime, do you know?
Minneapolis Burger Flowchart
How can you entertain a "jucy lucy (cheese filled)" without Matt's in the decision tree? Unless you're bringing kids with you. Much better than 58.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
I personally love the photography of the burgers as I'm one who prefers her burgers as rare as possible. Whenever I see an autopsy shot of a burger that's been cooked through, my mind just goes down the rabbit hole of "well, that's a damn shame" because my brain equates gray/pink-gray meat with dry and tough. Sort of the opposite reaction of the folks that have the visceral reaction to the red and rosy burgers.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
These days, I find myself eating more steak tartare than cooked hamburgers of any level of doneness, so I disqualify myself from commenting on burger doneness. Raw meat is fine with me, and photos of lightly cooked meat with bright red centers are quite visually pleasing to me.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
Well not entirely. I absolutely think it's true for a number of those who don't order rare burgers (including real life friends and some commenters above, such as the one who said he wasn't going to diss his digestive tract), that fear of food-borne ilness plays some role in their preference. For that subset of burger fans, I'm wondering when and how their concern developed.
Anecdotally, when someone takes issue with my ordering a rare burger, it's typically on the grounds that I am playing Russian Roulette with my life.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
morganoliver, just to be clear, are you really saying people only dislike rare burgers out of fear?
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
Actually, this last comment makes me wonder if there should be a new poll--whether a burger has ever given you food poisoning, e coli, etc. I've never been felled by any of the above, nor has anyone I know, but maybe there's a well-reasoned fear of rare after all? I've previously attributed a liking for well-done burgers to irrationality, a la those who fear immunizations, etc. Anyone?
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
I like great meat cooked medium well, average meat cooked well. Charred, even. I figure, our ancestors worked to harness fire, and I'm not going to diss their memory - or my digestive tract. Pink is good in other circumstances and locations, but my burgers? No way.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
Looks from the poll like the medium-or-more vote only has slightest of margins (51 to 49 right now). Also, I imagine that people who want a medium burger (I'm on the MR/MED line) will not be made squeamish by seeing a picture of one that is medium-rare so I don't know how useful it is to lump them in with the well-doners.
Here in Toronto it is a battle against regulations, servers, and proprietors to get a less-than-well burger so it is always good to see photographic evidence when restaurants are (safely) serving burgers the way I like them. You can always ask for a more well-done burger.
Thanks for the great work.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
I am a rare burger man myself (ever since the server at P.J. Clarke's mistakenly swapped my medium burger with a coworker's 6 years ago) but I think this is less about individual preferences than documenting well made, exceptional burgers.
Like it or not (I don't), a rare or even medium-rare burger is an exception these days, and worthy of photographing for reasons beyond aesthetics. Probably 75% of the time that I order a cheeseburger, not counting places like 5 Guys, my request for rare is received with a nod and a smile, after which I receive something that's gray and flavorless all the way through. My experiences have also been that outside of NYC, "underdone" burgers are even harder to procure. Well-done burger eaters, be content with the knowledge that outside of this site and a few accommodating spots, it's your world that we are all living in. Let me smile at the blood-dripping meat on the screen, even if you think I'm insane and/or risking my health.
(also, the idea of a well-done sirloin burger, mentioned above, is horrifying. Rare ground chuck, please, with a slice of American.)
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
Medium for me,...and I dont think I've had a burger that was as succulent as it had been at medium. Anything made less than that is still "moo-ing".
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
Sprout, have you ever been to London? At most fairly respectable places, you will get a medium burger, and at most good places, you will get a medium rare burger as standard.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
@Sov: To be crystal clear: I meant come out as in leave. The more the beef is cooked, the more the fat breaks down and the fat juices and the meat juices are progressively cooked out of the burger.
Dear AHT: Sick of Undercooked Burgers
@Sov: I'll replace "come out" with "leave the burger."
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
The best Bloody Mary I ever had, bar none was in a restaurant in St. Helena, Ca. Can't remember the name but the secret ingredient was
cocktail sauce, not a lot, just a little, try it!
Photo of the Day: The Motor Burger from The White Spot in Charlottesville, Virginia
A great place for delicious cheeseburgers. While fried egg and country ham additions are not unique to the White Spot, they've been serving them there for decades. Along with Pat's in Roanoke, Wright's in Staunton and Mike's in Blacksburg, the White Spot is certainly a must on the 'high altar' of Virginia's burger stops. More often than not enjoyed after a night on the town only makes these ample, juicy, full-of-wonderful-favors, burgs more enjoyable.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
Here is mine:
2 oz Vodka or Gin
Worchestershire Sauce to taste
A Few Dashes Celery Seed
Fresh Ground Horseradish to taste
A Few Dashes Salt and Pepper
Three Dashes Tobasco
A Few Dashes Ground Mustard
1/2 oz Guinness or other Stout
Lemon and Lime Juices From Muddling
Three Dashes Angostura Bitters
Tomato Juice
In the bottom of a mixing glass, put two lemon and two lime wedges, salt and pepper. Muddle to extract all the juice from the Citrus.
Add the remaining ingredients and fill with ice.
"Roll" the mixture back and forth from mixing glass to shaker tin and back again a few times.
Fill a tall glass or Collins glass with fresh ice and strain mixture from mixing glass into serving vessel.
Garnish how you see fit. I like a pickled green bean and Lemon wedge.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
My cousin's husband used to make mine with Clamato juice. I was surprised at good that was! Horseradish, pickled okra and/or pickled green beans and Frank's hot sauce if no horseradish make it tasty to me. Personally, cilantro is too bitter for my taste.
Would You Eat This Lobster?
What a great marketing opportunity. Keep the Big Boy Alive! Put this lobster on display and l make the best of it.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
Many years ago, my husband asked his cousin for his personal recipe for a Bloody Mary because it was the best we had ever tasted. He sent us his recipe on the email and I've been making my version of it ever since.
His had key lime juice, Angostura Bloody Mary seasoning (a liquid like their bitters) and both V-8 juice and Clamato juice in it. I ran out of Clamata awhile back so I've been using V-8 and Sacramento Tomato Juice and they have been really good.
I switch off the hot sauces and try different ones each time. He uses a local one down in FL that we can't get up here without ordering through the internet so I use different favorite ones. I have a whole collection of hot sauces (over 80 bottles at this point) so I try a different one every time.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
Aquavit - I agree! but not all the time.
Got off of tabasco - and using Frank's hot sauce now.
Definitely olives -- and please no celery, thank you very much
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
Absolut Peppar vodka and plain tomato juice. The vodka adds all the spice needed.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
HORSERADISH---the strength depends on the age. If it's old , it's weak, fresh, it's strong. I feel you should taste it before using! Strong horseradish in a Bloody Mary is what really makes it! Dave
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
Thanx to all for the Bloody recipes. I haven't had a good one since I quit cruising! RCCL used to have the best ones ever (but I'm sure they came from a "mix"). I'll have to try each one here and find the best. Thanx again!
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
My recipe for the mix:
1TB worcestershire
1TB lemon juice
1/2tsp crystal hot sauce
1/2tsp horseradish
1/2tsp celery seed (NOT celery salt)
8 ounces of V8
season salt for the rim of the glass
add the blended vodka and mix to the glass,
then grind black pepper on top.
stalk of leafy celery for the garnish
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
I, too like Svedka as a reasonably-priced but respectable vodka. The big one goes for $18 at the local Costco. (Or you can pay Jewel $25, if that makes you feel good.)
In this vein, did others see the article in the "Weekend" section of the WSJ that described how many of the makers of premium-priced, designer vodkas produced their pricey masterpieces? They start with a RR tank car or tank-truck load of industrial-grade beverage alcohol (97 proof) from Archer-Daniels-Midland and cut that with some kind of fancy water (melted iceberg ice, anyone?) an arty-farty label, a tricky name, and a price to impress the fashion-conscious.
You know who you are.
I'm gonna try some of the suggestions here, including the horseradish, the Sriracha, the aquavit, the cilantro, the celery salt, and the Clamato.
Maybe not all at once, though.
Time for a Drink: Bloody Mary
I'll try the cilantro but currently I'm all about:
Veggie juice
Svedka vodka (good quality but not too expensive that it's a shame)
Sodium reduced soy (not so salty)
horseradish
lime
Carribean hot pepper sauce (puts Tobasco to shame)
Cheers to a Sunday morning!
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Bebo and Daniel, reading over this, I still think the meaning of "come out" is confusing. Now, as I read most of your initial post, Daniel, you like burgers rare or medium rare because there "is far more meat flavor when the burger has more fat and juice in it". The next clause of the sentence seems to be adjectival, alluding to "elements that come out the more the meat is cooked." The "come out" can be interpreted two ways: come out as leave, or come out as be increasingly noticed.
From what you said earlier in you post I suspect the former, but I don't think it's entirely clear yet.