(Almost ) burger paradise

I've been a little behind with my postings, ok, well a lot behind. I'd like to blame it on the new apartment, but I think mostly I've just been lazy. Alas, I am back (hopefully, more regularly), so let's see what I can knock out here.

A few weeks ago Jeff's family was coming into town which usually means a uber-fancy dinner (per se, Jean Georges were restaurants visited in previous visits), this time, we were a party of 8 and decided to try a place down in Tribeca, which was known primarily for its low markup on its wine and its steak.

While I am a bonafide steak lover, and don't eat it very often, so usually am overjoyed about an opportunity for filet mignon (I think it's already well established that I have high food tastes and expectations, so does it really seem that surprising that I always go straight for the filet?). However, on this particular evening, I wasn't feeling the filet option. Surprised myself at my lack of interest, I browsed the rest of the menu to try and find something to suit my taste for the evening.

Which is when the hamburger option caught my eye. Generally speaking, if I'm at a restaurant known for some kind of specialty I'll go for it. Since steak was their thing, and I didn't feel like that, the hamburger seemed like the perfect compromise, and I am always in the mood for hamburgers.

So I ordered the burger and as a last minute addition I asked for blue cheese as well. Fast forward several glasses of wine, and the food arrives. So the restaurant is dark, I have had a few glasses of wine and there was this strange (what appeared to be) beige-ish very very thin patty on top of my hamburger. Confused and a little frightened, I gingerly stuck one tine of my fork in the patty-like thing, and to my great surprise it was the blue cheese....not too strong, (because an entire patty of strong blue cheese would have been terrible), but certainly not for those who don't like blue cheese. Like a kid in a candy store, I dug in to my blue cheese burger, and the warm oozy blue cheese melted into the ground beef. I knew I had one delicious burger on my hands.

I tried to savor every bite, but I think I really devoured the whole thing before anyone could even notice my burger. wow, it was one good burger.

Which got me to thinking, is the goodness of a burger (for me) dependent on the toppings? But I thought back to my favorite, the Red Coat burger, and that's just good burger meat. What I also thought about in terms of my burger enjoyment, if I have a burger that is not pink in the middle, I am immediately turned off. it's just too dry, and there's no flavor. So that seemed to lean towards a good meat = good burger theory.

And then, a couple of weekends ago we went to Michigan and went to Red Coat. And I always get blue cheese on my burger there. And there I realized it is clearly a combination of the toppings and the meat. At Red Coat the amazing sauce mixes with the blue cheese and the burger drippings, which is just plain delicious. But they also, ALWAYS cook just as you want it (probably a factor of the sheer number of burgers they cook every day). So many of the supposedly "best burger" places in Manhattan which I have visited in an attempt to find the best burger, do not cook it the way I want it. And that's because they see burgers being the new hot trend and got into this business but they don't actually know how to cook burgers.

However, the most important thing I realized is that it starts with the good burger meat and proper cooking. That can get you to a good burger. But if you have good toppings and sauce, that'll put it over the top into amazing status. Now, if I could only perfect this for home cooking, I'd be all set.