Cheeseburger

The Burgernator. Restaurant, or Superhero?

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Burgernator – Eaten 04/09/16

Burger Eaten – The Burgernator

Eaten by: Ryan

My friend just rented a house in Kensington Market, so I thought I’d pay him a visit. It was about 3pm and I hadn’t eaten since a banana at 8:30 am that morning, so I when the Burgernator sign caught my eye, instinct took over, and I was in for the kill.

The mission? Find and devour the biggest, baddest, greasiest burger on their menu.

Enter, The Burgernator… The namesake… The double cheeseburger with grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns… Or, the eternal fountain of happiness, as I like to call it.

We’ll start from the bottom, and work our way up. Grilled cheese sandwich, burgernator sauce, smashed patty, cheese, sautĂ©ed onion, burgernator sauce, smashed patty, cheese, sautĂ©ed mushroom, burgernator sauce, smashed patty, cheese, sautĂ©ed onion, burgernator sauce, and a grilled cheese sandwich to cap it off.

I know that Burger’s Priest, and Holy Chuck both offer a grilled cheese sandwich bun swap, but this was actually my first time trying one! It’s absolutely not for the faint of heart, so proceed with caution. I had heart palpitations for 3 hours, post burger, but my dear lord, it was mighty worth it.

I was honestly so tired after eating this, that I had to bail on meeting up with my friend John. I went home, took a nap, and hopefully we’ll reschedule for next week!

Until next time!!

Fancy Schmancy

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Bymark – Last Eaten 03/22/16

Burger Eaten: The Classic 8oz Bymark Burger

Eaten By: Ryan

Have you ever had a 35$ burger?

Until this week, I hadn’t either.

My Regional Vice President of Sales was in town this week, and took us out for dinner at Bymark, a Mark McEwan Group restaurant in the Toronto’s Financial District. Mark McEwan is a nationally recognized celebrity chef, and for good reason. He took a simple sandwich, and elevated it to places and levels of flavour that I did not know were possible.

The 8 oz blended patty, containing a concoction of ground rib eye, chuck, and flank was perfectly crusted, perfectly juicy, and cooked to a perfectly perfect medium-rare. The Brie de Meaux from France, provided a sharpness and creaminess that overwhelmed my taste buds. The Porcini mushrooms sautéed with sherry inserted an earthy, sweet, and deep texture and flavour, but all of this delightfulness was overshadowed by shaved truffle flakes dancing right underneath the top bun.

I would have never had the opportunity to eat this burger if my manager weren’t in town, but that being said, I have to find a way back. One thought is to contribute one dollar per week to the newly created Bymark Fund, but I think I might have more luck convincing my boss (who luckily ate the burger as well) to come back more often!

This was a burger from the gods, and Mark McEwan and his team deserve a seat in Heaven for their Bymark delight!

Until next time!

Airport Burgers – Vol. 1

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Grindhouse Killer Burgers (Hartlsfield Jackson Atlanta Airport) — Last Eaten 04/02/16

Burger Eaten: The Apache Burger

Eaten By: Ryan

Airport food isn’t usually something to write home about. Overpriced, Over salted, and a general sentiment of “when is my shift over” from every employee in the place. On a recent layover in Atlanta, I discovered an outlier! Grindhouse Killer burgers blew me away!

Served on a potato roll, The Apache is topped with pepper jack, grilled onions, and roasted New Mexico green chiles. I was a little bit stuffed up, and the spice from the chiles opened up my sinuses in just the right way. This was such a juicy patty, and some of the tastiest beef I’ve ever had.

I Absolutely loved this burger, and when I went grocery shopping today, bought a few fresh chiles I hope to roast and jar for my next home made burger. Just another ingredient to add to the arsenal!

 

 

Good Company in NOLA

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Company Burger Downtown — Last Eaten 04/01/16

Burger Eaten: The Company Burger

Eaten By: Ryan

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Just a delight!

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Work took me to New Orleans this week, and while the gulf calls for seafood, I had to sneak away from Bourbon Street and find myself NOLA’s best burger.

I googled, searched the forums, asked a couple of locals on the street in the French quarter, and the overwhelming majority directed me to Company Burger.

I would usually drool over paragraph upon paragraph, describing the inner workings of the beautiful feast bestowed upon me, but today, I think a list of the top 10 reasons to check out Company Burger is necessary.

  1. Smashed patties: 2 crispy chuck patties, smashed on a flat top, cooked to perfection, with a hint of pink, ok with me, considering they grind the meat in house
  2. They make their own bread and butter pickles. How rare is that!?
  3. MAYO BAR! – This place makes 4 different types of mayo from scratch (original, chipotle, basil, and garlic) and gives patrons as much as they want. This is a game changer.
  4. Milk bun – soft, high level of absorption, however, crisped on the inside to maintain it’s shape.
  5. No tomatoes or lettuce on the menu – They showcase their beef, and don’t allow customers the options of masking its beauty by overwhelming their palette with too many distracting flavours
  6. MAYO BAR AGAIN!!
  7. 2 slices of cheddar! – It irks me when I order a double cheeseburger, and the burger spot skimps out by putting 1 slice in between the patties, instead of 2! This joint does it right. Double Cheeseburger should mean twice the meat, AND twice the cheese!
  8. Fries cooked twice to provide extra crispiness
  9.  19 beers on tap
  10. They let you leave with your beer, as is the NOLA tradition!

 

I just want another one. Anyone from Louisiana coming to Toronto any time soon??

Yorkville Has Good Burgers Too!

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La SociĂ©tĂ© — Last Eaten 08/09/2015

Burger Eaten: L’Hamburger Maison (The House Burger)

Eaten By: Ryan

 

I paid for my University degree by working as an expediter in the kitchen of a 4 diamond CAA french bistro in Ottawa. They never served a burger to customers, but once a week, the staff meal before service would be burgers. Another example of the burger stars aligning for Ry Guy. 😉

I’ve always loved trying burgers at ‘fancy’ restaurants, because typically a burger isn’t crafted by a chef. For lack of a better term, burgers are usually designed by gluttons like myself. This is important, because blending of flavours, marbling and aging of meat, quantity of toppings, acidity, are all things that undoubtedly add to the experience but are often overlooked.

La Société is run by chefs. True French chefs. Although the 23$ price tag quite blatantly reflects that, the money was well spent.

Triple creme Brie, Quebec bacon accompany pickled red onions, a sweet and spicy fig chutney, and a roasted tomato aioli that are all crafted in-house.

This burger was so good, that I emailed the chef the next day, asking for both his pickled onion, and his tomato aioli recipes. He replied, but opted not to share his secret, but rather have me ask for him next time I was in for a burger so he could come say hello.

I’m still hoping I can pry the recipe out of him!

A Holy Experience, Part 2

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Holy Chuck — Last Eaten 03/01/2016

Burger Eaten: The Big Bad Wolf

Eaten By: Ryan

I am blessed. I found out today, that the restaurant across the street from my condo building that has been under construction for the last 2 months, is going to be a new Holy Chuck location. I am ecstatic, thrilled, eager, anxious. I am also nervous, because I will likely need to purchase a new gym membership, having a world class burger joint twenty seven steps from my front door. Yes, I counted…

The Big Bad Wolf does something I really enjoy. They grill there patties in mustard. A concept made famous by the secret menu at In N Out Burger in California, mustard grilled patties have crept their way into a few spots in Toronto over the years. What happens, is the patty develops a crust, but instead of it being a sweet crust caused by the melting sugars and Maillard reaction, the crust takes on the tangy flavour of the mustard to create a deep umami sensation that does not present itself often.

The mustard madness doesn’t stop there. Do you see the elaborate structure in the picture below? Yes, that is exactly what you thought it was. Deep. Fried. Mustard. They squirt mustard into the deep fryer, and it develops a fantastic coating in seconds. Once pulled out, it’s nestled atop the burger in stunning fashion, calling for the lucky eater to crush it into edible size before taking a bite. The texture and creaminess created is utterly fantastic.

I love this idea, and I hadn’t heard of it before trying it at Holy Chuck. I’d say it’s worth a go. If you have kids, take them too. I can’t imagine a world where a child doesn’t get excited crushing a mountain of fried mustard.

Happy Burger-ing!

Ry.

A Holy Experience

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Welcome to my blog!

Before we get started, I’d like to cover a few ground rules to both keep myself accountable, and ensure the focus of future posts is clear to readers everywhere.

This blog will focus solely on burgers and burgers alone. We eat A LOT of burgers. That being said, there’s no point wasting time talking about the milkshakes, the fries or the world famous chicken strips a restaurant might have. We are the BurgerBruthers, and what we care about most is the first bite, the moment when our nervous system is firing on all cylinders, deciding if we will be adding a new member to our Burger Hall of Fame.

With that, we’ll introduce our first experience.

Burger’s Priest Queen Street West. (Last Eaten – 12.28.2015)

Burger Eaten: Double Cheeseburger

Eaten by: Ryan

Burger’s Priest has, since the turn of the decade, held the unofficial crown of Toronto’s Best Burger. I’ve likely eaten north of fifty double cheeseburgers here in the last 4 years, so it’s safe to say I’m alright with their reign over the city.

This burger was my introduction to the “California Style” patty.  It’s a technique made famous by In-n-Out Burger, the famous American Chain that has exploded in popularity in the Southwestern United States. I’m heading to San Francisco in April, so look out for a review because I will definitely eat a cheeseburger or four during my stay.

I’m getting distracted. Burgers tend to do that to me.

Burger’s Priest starts with a thin, freshly ground 4 ounce patty, smashed into a flat-top grill on both sides, to ensure every micrometer of surface area seared beautifully, and cooked only for a few minutes to ensure as little moisture escapes. Cheddar cheese is melted on thirty seconds before the burger begins assembly.

Fully loaded, the burger comes with shaved white onion, lettuce, sliced sweet pickles, tomatoes, mayo, mustard and ketchup. The bun is simply perfect. It’s unbelievably soft, yet plump and textured enough to absorb whatever juices ooze out upon biting in.

The finished product melts in your mouth. The meat is incredibly fresh, and seasoned with salt and pepper beautifully. The cheese has completely melted, but isn’t greasy. The veggies hold up, and provide a crisp, fresh contrast to the savoury patty.

My brother and I each gobbled our burgers up in about 90 seconds, and then ordered a another one that we cut in half to share. Although we were quite satisfied with the initial portion, the experience is always overwhelming and ends too quickly. The second burger was necessary, even if it meant an impending food coma was on the horizon.

A Monday Evening well spent.