Burgergal and I might be a little buzzed after a night out, but this is just crazy. She is making cookies for a little get together tomorrow, and she got an egg with two yolks. I guess that happens.
Then she took another egg out, since she needed more white. I jokingly said, “haha, I hope that’s not another double yolk.”
AND IT WAS.
Like woah.
Double double yolk. Apparently the odds are 1 in a 1000. So the odds of getting two in a row is 1 in 1,000,000. One in a million.
Right here, on b4b.
“Dis-moi ce que tu manges et je te dirai qui tu es.”
If Brillat-Savarin’s old adage is true, then consider me a ramp for the next month or so. For all of my readers on the East Coast, GO GET SOME. For those of you that are elsewhere, sorry, you are pretty much out of luck. Imagine the taste of a scallion, then add in the aroma of garlic and you’re just beginning to understand the flavor of the ramp. They have just arrived in NYC, so get to the farmer’s market early if you want to even have the opportunity to try them out.
Some of my favorite applications include:
– Pickled ramps: So easy, but so tasty. On sandwiches, on burgers, on hot dogs, by themselves.
– Pasta: Add a little extra garlic, sauté the bulbs up with some of the greens, add in the breadcrumbs for some texture, and toss with spaghetti. You’re singing.
– Soups: Chiffonade some of the leaves and add to soup for a subtle aromatic, and add some sautéed bulbs for some extra flavor.
I’m sure there are a million other things you can do with them, and all of them will be equally delicious. Do yourselves a favor and just get some. You’ll know what I’m talking about afterwards.
So it’s been six days since I got gum surgery, and from this side of having 99% of my meals either blended or liquid-based, I can honestly say that texture is a very important element of plate construction. Meals just aren’t satisfying, mentally or physically, without some bite. Maybe it’s a carnal instinct that we need to chew our food and attack it like animals, or maybe it’s just the satisfaction of masticating things to a pulp.
I don’t know, but I miss it.
I have been, however, reminded how good sweet potatoes are. They are awesome. So it butternut squash soup. Especially with some Tamarack Farm bacon and shallots.
Jell-O pudding packs are also pretty tasty.
I don’t really have much else to say, but this explains my absence from the blogosphere. I spoke with Seoul Brother, and hopefully we’ll be getting an update from his end of the world in the near future. Since his last post on Smokey Saloon, he has confirmed a couple of things. He had predicted a proliferation of burger joints in Korea, but that has not actually happened. However, what has happened is that he can buy American and Australian ground beef, which is a vast improvement in the burger-making department. Cheese continues to elude him.
But there is plenty of fermented skate to go around.
Also, I was watching No Impact Man, and he paid the folks up at Ronnybrook Farms a visit. Man, I was jealous! It looks like a good time up there.
Lastly, a fellow food blogger out there has sourced some material from b4b while compiling his list of great burgers from around the globe. Check it out and let him know what you really think: Matador Night’s List of 50 Burger Joints around the world.
Burgergal recently enlightened me to a happy hour special at the Beacon Restaurant and Bar. For a mere $19.95, any time from noon to 9pm, you get two drinks (well, beer, or house wine) and a burger or pizza.
Of course we had to be there. And my recent oral surgery (today, in fact) requires me to take a break from solid foods for a bit. In fact, one of the two things that I could do to “really mess it up”: take a bite into a sandwich. Now, before we get into a philosophical debate about whether a hamburger is a sandwich or not, safe to say that I will be heeding my periodontist’s advice.
All of that said, I needed one of my last meals to be a good one. And I’ve gotta say, the burger at the Beacon did not disappoint. I unfortunately did not take any pictures, since I was too ravenously devouring the burger, but there is a great set of pictures taken by our friends over at Midtown Lunch.
The burger comes out pre-cut, immediately revealing how cooked it is. Ours were a perfect medium, with a rosy color all the way through and a nice char on the outside. When I first saw the inside of the patty, however, I thought that it looked a little pre-salted, like Kenji on Serious Eats had warned not to do. It didn’t look like it would be as crumbly as a JG special, or even a Shake Shack smashed burger. This gave me my doubts, but at the price, who was I to complain?
But then I took my first bite. The meat was well seasoned, and it was juicy as could be. The flavor was great, enhanced by the onion bun, which absorbed all of the umami-rich fat that was dripping from the patty. The burger had a smokiness to it that was earthy, reminiscent of the black label (although much less aged tasting), which was further enhanced by the smoky ketchup that was served with it. With a slice of American cheese (as Laurent Tourondel says, “for a cheeseburger, the only cheese you can use”), it was great. Even now, the memory of the burger is with me, as I am relegated to Jell-O pudding and yogurt, and even that hurts to eat 🙁
The fries were ok, but nothing to write home about. They were a little inconsistent, with some being a little soggy.
But I still devoured all of them.
And that was that. And today I went to aperiTIVO with uberchef for a my true last solid/tomato-based/spicy/hot meal for a week or so. And it was great.
