Monday, January 10, 2011

The Daily Grind

Jeffrey Steingarten appears regularly as a judge on Iron Chef, and seems to love to give the impression that he is an egocentric bore. He probably is, but give him credit - he considers it important in life to find the perfect hamburger. And he can write, which I'm in favor of as well.

In his quest, he summarized beautifully the criteria for evaluating a burger:

"What do we demand of the perfect hamburger? That the meat patty be profoundly beefy in flavor, mouthwateringly browned on the outside, and succulent (a combination of juicy and tender) on the inside. The bread or bun should not interfere with any of these virtues. It should be soft, mild and unassertive; its job is to absorb every last drop of savory juice trickling down from the meat while keeping the burger more or less in one place and your hands dry. Mouthwatering, beefy, juicy and tender - not too much to ask from life, but entirely elusive, at least to me. It's not as though I haven't tried. God knows, I've tried."

I've been hinting I'm fascinated with the combination of meats going into hamburgers as I think this may be one of the great secrets of the perfect burger. I've started playing around, and as you see from my reviews, I'm asking around about it. In my study of this I found a couple of useful articles on the internet, one about Steingarten's search and the other picking up where Steingarten left off. Highly recommended, and linked here:

Here is the article on Steingarten.

And here is the followup article.

From my experiments, short ribs is in. I think I like a little brisket, though it's hard to buy a little brisket, so plan on buying a whole brisket and cooking the 85% you don't use in your hamburger for another meal. I'm goofing around with chuck, hanger, which work well, but I want to move on to some loin cuts. Bobby Flay likes some sirloin in his burger grind.

RN 74 - Michael Mina's Cheeseburger

On Friday we had our office holiday lunch at Michael Mina's new restaurant, RN 74, which is over in the fancy Millenium Tower at Mission and Beale. I took the opportunity to share the cheeseburger with C. Lo as an appetizer.

They bill it as the "Prime Steak Burger", which comes with arugula, cheddar cheese and horseradish aioli. Sixteen bucks. I confirmed with the kitchen that indeed, they grind prime rib for the meat.

Unfortunately they overcooked it just a little - more medium than medium rare. It had some pink, but was no longer red. It did not matter much - it certainly wasn't dry, and the meat was quite tasty. They clearly use quite a bit of salt on the meat, which is ok by me. I did not find the meat mushy like Paul my butcher insists these high end loin cuts would become when ground. But I do think if you are going to use this you should mix it with something else. I'm going to try short rib and rib eye or New York one of these days.

Nice bun. Nice burger. Not the best in town - I still say Tyler's Wayfare Tavern is #1. I'm going to Spruce this weekend, which is touted to have one of the best in town.

RN 74 was quite a wonderful restaurant, though as expensive as you would expect a Michael Mina restaurant to be. They have some appetizers on the menu for sharing, and two of them were spectacular: maitake mushroom tempura and grilled flatbread with lamb merguez and chickpeas. We gobbled them down. And I see they have roasted marrow bones with bacon marmalade on the dinner menu. That has the sound of Oola's ribs - appetizer, main course AND desert. Followed, of course, by my funeral.

Monday, January 03, 2011

Did You Bet The House?

Stanford 40, Virginia Tech 12.

OK, it was 4 touchdowns, not 3. It was a gimme just like I said. And if you do the math, I even predicted 40 points for Stanford.

You're all welcome.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

The Bulls Head

I hadn’t been to the Bulls Head for eons despite the fact that I have lived in the neighborhood for over 30 years. By the way, every time I look at the restaurant sign, I want to call it the Bull Sheed.

It’s by the West Portal Muni Station, a hole in the wall steakhouse that has been there forever. I was reminded of it in looking at hamburger joints, and on New Year’s Eve, having left the office early, I decided to give it a shout for late lunch.

They actually are better known for their Buffalo burgers, but that will have to wait for another weight – my traditional New Year’s Resolution. So this will be my last cheeseburger review for a while.

You can choose among buffalo, turkey and beef burgers, and there is a long list of extras you can choose among. Additionally, you can order 6 oz. or 8 oz. I went for the half pound beef burger with cheddar.

It seemed huge. I think it may weigh in higher than advertised, and they pound it a little thinner which spreads it out to cover the really big bun. But looking at the pre-molded patties in the “check me out steak refrigerator,” they just look enormous. Never a bad thing.

The meat was pretty tasty, cooked perfectly. My objection was the bun is too soft, and it just starts to disintegrate as you eat it, which takes a while, because it is a many bite burger.

The fries looked good, but I ordered coleslaw which wasn’t. And I partook in the weirdest salad bar in the city. I was in a veggie mood.

It’s a fun, nearby place, but I suspect it is not even the best burger in my neighborhood. Certainly the O Club is better. But it’s big and edible. The big cheeseburger was reasonably priced at $9.50. Neighborhoods are better for old style places like that.

Bet Your House (Your House, Not Mine)

I don’t bet football games, or baseball or basketball for that matter. I stink at it. The guys that make the point spreads are just too smart for me.

That said, I keep looking at that Orange Bowl line, Stanford favored over Virginia Tech by 3 and keep thinking it is a misprint. Every day I look at the line and expect to see a big change, not a half point or a point but a TD.

I have not seen Virginia Tech play, but I have seen Stanford, and I think they could give anyone – Oregon, Auburn, TCU – anyone one hell of a game. Don’t forget, they were hammering Oregon at half time, but ran out of gas against the best second half team I’ve seen in a long time. The would have crushed all of those horrible Big 10 teams yesterday.

And this guy can play. Stanford scores points against everyone because of him. The over/under is 58, and I'd say the over is a lock, except I don't know if Virginia Tech is good enough to score the other 18 points to get the total there.

I think we on the West Coast were handed a gimme. The East Coast just hasn’t been watching. If you are a bettor, give the points. I want to go on record here before game time – Stanford by 3 TDs.

Remember, I stink at this, and I don’t really follow much college football. Just one moron’s opinion.