Just Say "NO" to Brioche Buns

my favorite burger, from Alonso's, on a too-absorbent brioche bun which fell apart as I was eating.

Can someone please explain to me why every restaurant seems to think that using a brioche bun to sandwich a hamburger is a good idea? For generations, a plain white-bread "hamburger roll" was just fine. Fast food companies still use them. McDonald's has been using regular white bread rolls for almost 80 years, on over 100 billion burgers, without any complaint. Up until recently, so did every other restaurant that served a hamburger. So why do so many places now use brioche, especially on big and juicy burgers?  

This leads to my main argument against brioche buns: their structural weakness. While the tender and buttery texture of brioche is appealing for various baked goods, it lacks the sturdiness required to contain the substantial and often juicy components of a burger. The porous nature of brioche buns tends to absorb moisture quickly, leading to sogginess and potential structural failure. Womp Womp. As a result, the burger may become a messy affair, detracting from the intended pleasure of enjoying a well-assembled sandwich...and requiring far too many napkins.

Then there's taste. The best burgers have a harmonious blend of flavors and textures. Personally, I think a brioche bun messes up that harmony. For one thing, brioche, a type of French bread known for its high egg and butter content, possesses a delicate sweetness that can overpower the savory elements of a well-seasoned burger patty. This imbalance can lead to a clash of flavors. I feel the traditional hamburger benefits from a neutral bun that complements the savory components without overshadowing them. Leave brioche for toast with butter and jam (my personal favorite way to eat it).

 

It's also worth mentioning that brioche buns tend to be higher in calories, fat, and sugar content compared to their traditional counterparts. Hamburgers are fattening enough. Opting for a brioche bun may contribute to a higher caloric intake without adding significant value to the overall dining experience. And what about people who have allergies to eggs or dairy? No burgers for you! (And stay away from Martin's Potato Rolls, though delicious and structurally sound, they contain milk and butter.)

I do love me a good hamburger, but I have found myself eating far fewer of them than in the past, all because of that damn brioche bun (which has also started ruining chicken sandwiches). Perhaps that is good for me, health-wise, calorically, but I'm also missing out on the happiness that a perfectly constructed burger can provide.

Restaurants, please reconsider following the fad and go back to using real hamburger buns. Leave the fancy French bread to French restaurants. Or breakfast.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Everybody Goes to Gino's...

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on September 8, 2011.

Gino's service has improved quite a bit, thankfully, and we go there on a semi-regular basis.

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...and I think they were all there on the same evening we decided to try out the brand-spankin' new Gino's in Towson. Not only were they all there, but they all got their food before we did.

We thought we were smart, getting to the restaurant at 4:30pm. There was no line, and there seemed to be open tables both inside and outside, so we figured we were golden. Wrong-o. After placing our order for two Gino's Giants, one with fries and one with onion rings, plus two fountain drinks, we were given two plastic cups, a plastic card with the number "1" on it, and a receipt noting the time of 4:35pm.

4:36pm: We fill our cups with fountain beverages and grab two seats at a short counter near the side entrance. The plastic "1" went into the metal ring atop the condiment caddy to alert a server to our presence when he or she brings out our food. The restaurant is pretty full and includes almost as many people waiting for carry-out as sitting at tables. Most of the seated people already have food, so I'm pretty confident that we'll have a short wait. I'm expecting 20 minutes.

4:42pm: My chair is jostled by some fatass with a balance issue. There's definitely enough room to move past me.

4:50pm: Food seems to be coming out at a decent clip, so I'm sure that we'll get our food soon.

4:55pm: It's been 20 minutes, but we're still not eating.

5:01pm: At this point, I start to wonder if offering an amuse bouche might not be a good idea, just a little something to appease those of us waiting for a while. At a fine dining establishment, we would have been done with the appetizers and waiting for our main courses by now. (Of course, were we at Alchemy, our main courses would be on the table already, too.)

5:05pm: Hey! That couple came in after we did, and they just got their food! Grr.

5:08pm: My chair is jostled again, by a server taking food to another table. Grrr.

5:10pm: That trio definitely came in after we did - and they're eating! Grrrr.

5:12pm: I notice that the line for ordering food is out the door. There should be a sign out front like the ones posted near roller coasters, "one hour wait from this point." Better yet, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

5:13pm: A lone woman diner, sitting at a table behind us, manages to get the attention of a staff member to complain that she had been waiting since 4:29pm and still has not received her food. She also kindly points us out as coming in right after her and being in the same boat.

5:15pm: A server offers us a coupon for a free shake on a future visit. I think, "fat chance of that."

5:16pm: Another server comes over to check our receipt. Apparently our order disappeared and they need to know what food we paid for.

5:20pm: My chair is jostled for what must be the fifth time by a vertically-challenged busser who can't seem to be able to lift the plastic bucket of soiled napkins and food baskets high enough to avoid whacking me with it. At this point, I'm almost annoyed enough to whack her back.

5:26pm: Our food arrives. At this point, both parties that arrived after us but who were served 15 minutes earlier have finished eating and left the building.

After fifty minutes of sitting in a restaurant redolent of beef and fried potatoes, we are ravenous. After a couple of bites of both fries and burger, Mr Minx turns to me and asks, "Salty?" Yes, I have to agree - both items had been aggressively seasoned. The onion rings, on the other hand, were perfect, and just the way I like them: cut into extremely thin slices and fried to a deep golden brown. They come with a little tub of sauce that tastes a bit like a Sriracha mayonnaise, but not as interesting. It was a little too spicy for the rings, but it works with the fries. The fries are merely ok, a little hard, and of course, salty. Our sandwiches - two well-done patties topped with American cheese, dill pickle slices, lettuce, and Gino's "secret sauce," on a squishy sesame seed bun - sadly arouse no feelings of nostalgia in either of us. Not that they aren't good - apart from the surfeit of salt and pepper, they are tasty, with a good ratio of toppings to burger, and just enough sauce to drip out onto our fries but not cause the bun to disintegrate or the meat to slide out - they just taste like fast-casual burgers. Not like Gino's burgers.

Granted, it's been at least 30 years since I've had a Gino's Giant. There was a Gino's down the road from Catholic High, on Edison Highway, and occasionally a few of us would hike down there after school to grab a burger before heading home. I remember liking Gino's much more than McDonald's. The burgers seemed tastier - possibly because of the Baltimore Colts connection - and they sold Kentucky Fried Chicken back then, too.

Today's Gino's is more like a Five Guys, except with a crappy system. In my experience, at Five Guys, one places an order at a counter at one end of the store, then goes to wait at a separate counter on the other side, or at a table. Folks who are ordering and those who are waiting do not mingle. At Gino's, the restaurant is set up like a more traditional fast food joint, with ordering and pickups done at a long counter at the back of the restaurant. Unlike a fast food restaurant, however, a customer does not immediately receive a pre-made burger and fries slapped onto a tray or placed in a paper bag, quick-and-dirty service allowing the customer to get out of the way of the next patron in line. Instead, like at Five Guys, Gino's patrons have to wait for their food to be cooked to order. Those who choose to eat in can take a table, but those waiting for carry-out orders sit and stand near the counter, some getting in the way of customers who attempt to avail themselves of self-serve fountain beverages.

While getting a piping hot burger that spent no time languishing under a heat lamp is a good thing, having to wait nearly an hour (in our case) is not. The problem seems to be the order numbering system. At other restaurants, one gets a receipt with a number printed on it. The receipts come out of the computer in numerical order, so it's pretty easy for someone making food to know the sequence in which the orders were placed, and thus, the order in which they should be filled. At Gino's the numbers are completely random. Our number was "1." The number of the couple in front of us was "31." The woman who came in at 4:29pm had the number "54." The trio who were in line behind us received "100." And "100" received their food before both "54" and "1."

All I have to say is, "WTF?"

6:30pm: Editing post which has become a rant about more service not equalling better service. (Ok, so I didn't edit out too much.) All I'm gonna say is...table service is a dumb idea. Patrons are perfectly capable of listening for when their number is called, getting their fat asses up from a chair, and retrieving their meal at the counter. Instead, servers who do not know exactly where their particular customer is sitting are often forced to circumnavigate the entire dining room AND check outside before finding their quarry. The high backs on some of the booths getting in the way of a server's line of sight don't help things one bit.

Initially, I was quite happy to see that Gino's was making a comeback. That quickly turned to disappointment when I realized the only thing that the new restaurant had in common with the original was the font used in the logo.

My recommendation to folks who are still eager to try Gino's, even after reading this, is to wait a couple of months so the crowds die down a bit. Maybe the table service doesn't seem like such a dumb idea when the restaurant isn't lousy with patrons. I think I'll schedule my next visit for sometime in 2012. By that time, the new Perry Hall location should be open, and they'll get the crowds, leaving Towson a quieter place.

6:45pm: Find a giant chunk of black pepper stuck in back molar.

Gino's
8600 LeSalle Road
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 583-0000

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on May 2, 2014.

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We have a ton of stuff on our freezer. Other than ice cream, I mean. There are several quarts of gumbo from Cajun Kate's, leftover pork shoulder from that 8-lb behemoth I cooked last month, half a roast duck from the Great Wall grocery store in Catonsville, a leg of lamb, pasta sauce, various types of sausages (chorizo, andouille, lap cheong, hot dogs), ground beef, a skirt steak, bags of nuts, yeast, coffee, and bread, and more. And this is one of those standard above-the-fridge freezer jobbies, not a big ol' chest freezer. (So don't believe me when I say we have nothing in the house to eat. What I really mean is that there's nothing that I feel like defrosting and cooking.)

There was a pound of ground chicken in there too. I can't remember why we bought it exactly, maybe to make some laab, but there it was, looking slightly freezer-burned, buried under a pile of other foodstuffs. I determined that if it was not indeed funky with freezer burn, I'd make chicken burgers with it. And not just chicken burgers, but Thai red curry chicken burgers. We had two open jars of Thai Kitchen red curry paste in the fridge, and I've been looking for a way to use the stuff up. We also had a partial jar of  Maesri "chilli paste with basil leaves" and a jar of sliced Kaffir lime leaves. I love that chilli paste stuff and have used it in a number of things over the years. As for the lime leaves--have you noticed how difficult they are to find in the supermarket? And when you do find them, you have to use them right away or they'll go bad? Then I found sliced ones in a jar at H-Mart. They're not quite as powerfully-flavored as fresh, but they'll do in a pinch. And I think their flavor is an essential match to red curry paste.

So...back to the burgers. Ground chicken can often be unpalatably dry, so I always add some chia seeds soaked in water to add moisture. The omega-3 boost doesn't hurt, either. The curry paste also helps to make the meat moist. In fact, the raw mixture will be very moist, so don't be anal about trying to get perfectly round patties. Refrigerate them for a while before cooking so the flavors meld and the patties firm up a bit.

These were a big hit. The burgers were not only moist, but also super flavorful. We ate them both on bread and as-is with a salad, using the special sauce as dressing.

Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers

2 teaspoons chia seeds soaked in 1 tablespoon water
1 lb ground chicken
1 tablespoon coconut milk powder
4 teaspoons Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste
2 teaspoons finely minced Kaffir lime leaves
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to incorporate the chia and curry paste. Form into patties, between 4-8, depending on the size of your rolls, number of guests, or appetite. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour so the flavors will meld.

Heat canola oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. When hot, add the chicken patties. Cook for 4 minutes on the first side, then flip and cook an additional 3 minutes.

Serve with Special Sauce.

Special Sauce

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Maesri Thai chilli sauce with basil
1/2 roasted red bell pepper, diced
2 scallions, white and green part, chopped

Combine all ingredients. Serve with Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - A Quick Trip to NYC

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on December 18, 2012.

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I like to visit New York a couple of times a year, mostly to sniff perfume, but also to eat. I hadn't been up there since January, so it seemed like a good idea to visit the big city during the Christmas season. My train was getting in to Penn Station just before 11am, the time when Shake Shack opens, and I felt that would be a good way to start my day.

Shake Shack has been generating long lines and tons of good buzz since it opened in Madison Square Park in 2004. There are now six locations in New York, two each in DC, Connecticut, and Florida, one in Philly, and two in the Middle East (with London coming soon). The world is apparently obsessed with burgers. I love them myself and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. As with the Five Guys' hoopla, I find it's mostly much ado about nothing. The Shack Burger is a fine, tasty burger. The edges are slightly crisp, the cheese is melty, and the bun is properly squishy. It's a good fast-food-style burger. Nothing orgasmic, earth-shaking, or life-changing. I'd eat it again if it were in front of me, but I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to do so.

Single Shack Burger

Later in the day, I hoofed it from 5th and 58th to the Time Warner Center at 8th and 59th. Why is it that a three block walk across town feels like 10 blocks? Up several escalators, I found A Voce. (You may remember that the restaurant's executive chef, Missy Robbins, cut her finger so badly in the first episode of Top Chef Masters season 4, she had to leave the competition.) I had tried to make a reservation the day before, but was told by Open Table that no reservations were available for that evening. I decided to walk in and take a chance. If they had nothing for me, I'd head up another floor and try Chopped judge Marc Murphy's Landmarc. But the hostess was able to seat me at a two-top facing the bar, where I was attended to by a handsome and charming young waiter. The service was really quite fantastic at A Voce - attentive, yet casual. At one point, my waiter wanted to know how I was doing with my appetizer, but he couldn't get close enough to my table to speak to me, as a water boy was in the way. He merely raised a questioning eyebrow and gave me a thumb's up. I nodded in affirmation, he smiled and walked away. I didn't even have to stop chewing.

Funghi al forno: roasted trumpet mushrooms, fonduta, mache, hazelnuts

The meal started off very well. There were a number of appetizers I wanted to try, but I settled on the funghi al forno. The roasted mushrooms were almost meaty in texture, and indeed required a steak knife to slice into manageable pieces. The fonduta - a truffled cheese sauce - was incredibly rich, yet not overly so. Once the mushrooms were gone, I found myself reaching for a piece of focaccia to sop up the remaining sauce. The hazelnuts added a toasty nutty crunch to round out the dish. Really lovely overall.

Speaking of lovely, that focaccia came with a dish of whipped ricotta with fresh basil, drizzled with olive oil. Good thing there wasn't a spoon with it, otherwise I might have embarrassed myself by eating it straight from the container.

Pici: cocoa pasta, duck bolognese, golden raisins

While the first course was successful, the pici that I ordered for my entree was a total disappointment. Pici is a hand-rolled pasta, somewhat like a thick spaghetti. Imagine making a snake of modeling clay by rolling it between your palm and a table top, and you've got pici. Because they're somewhat thick and about  4" long, picking them up with a fork is like wrestling with a bowl of tarantulas. They're not easily twirled, so a fork full had random ends hanging out in each direction, some of which were happy to slap me in the face as I brought the fork to my mouth. Eventually, I used my knife to cut them into shorter bits. In any case, awkwardness was the least of the dish's problems. The sauce was a bolognese in name only. It had an agrodolce (sweet and sour) thing going on that could have been quite delicious had the sauce had any other thing going on, too. The tiny nubbins of ground duck (which could have been any meat - turkey, rattlesnake) served as a textural element only, and I couldn't taste the cocoa in the pasta. After three or four bites, I was bored with the dish. Thankfully, it wasn't a large portion, so I pushed on and finished it, knowing that a doggie bag wouldn't safely survive the three-plus hours it would take me to get home.

On the side, I had a generously-portioned bowl of beets. I suppose it was sized for the table, but I love beets so a mess of them is fine with me. They were served chilled and topped with finely chopped pistachios. Some of the beets tasted citrussy, others tasted slightly pickled - there was definitely more flavor in the side dish than in my entree.

Since I had a glass of wine with dinner, I passed on dessert. It was just as well, as I was presented with a mignardise of two very soft, house-made, limoncello marshmallows. One bite was enough sweetness for me.

I love New York. I love dining in New York. Sure, I'm disappointed sometimes, but I am always happy to have the opportunity to try popular restaurants and formulate my own opinions about them.

Shake Shack
300 W 44th St
New York, NY 10036
646-435-0135

A Voce Columbus
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
212-823-2523

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - A Tale of Two Burgers

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on June 27, 2012.

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We went to Hamilton Tavern specifically to eat their Crosstown Burger. We'd both been jonesin' for some beefy goodness after eating mostly poultry and fish for the past several weeks. Word around town was that Hamilton Tavern had some of the best burgers in town and we needed some of that.

We also heard that the Tavern got crowded, so we got there just after it opened on a Saturday afternoon, took one of the few tables in the small restaurant, and settled back to admire the Art Deco bar back and the old tools that decorated the walls while we waited for our food.

Not long after we got our beers (Brewer's Art Resurrection for me; the owner is a partner in that restaurant, too), our fried pickle appetizer arrived.

The juicy slices of sour pickle slices coated in an armor of batter and deep fried were accompanied by a tangy goat cheese dip. Personally, I think a sweeter dip would have provided more of a contrast in flavors and would have worked better, but I enjoyed the pickles in their rather hard crusts.

After a bit of a wait (perfection takes time), we got our burgers. Mr Minx got his as advertised, but I opted to add sweet spicy bacon to my burger and swapped out the fries for a side of Boh-battered Os.

The burger portion of the meal was outstanding. The fat patty was juicy and moist inside, pink but not quite medium. The Tavern did not skimp on the horseradish cheddar, and the cheesy flavor was prevalent in every bite. The bacon added a bit of sweetness that I really enjoyed. My only problem with the sandwich was the bun from nearby Hamilton Bakery; it tasted terrific, but shedded something awful. Not exactly fell apart, it was sturdy enough to withstand the weight and moisture of the burger, but pieces of the crust adhered to my fingers every time I put the burger back down on the plate. Eventually I was left holding the insides.

The onion rings were a huge disappointment. If I thought of them as donuts filled with onion, they worked better, but as onion rings, they were a failure. They were too doughy, not crispy enough, and too sweet. Mr Minx's fries were bland and a bit undercooked.

Overall, however, a stellar burger experience that we're eager to recreate over and over again.

Flash forward to the following weekend, when we once again had a hankering for red meat. Not wanting to be boring and go back to Hamilton Tavern, we decided to head to Piv's Pub in Cockeysville. Their online menu listed a 10oz char-grilled burger on a brioche bun, which sounded pretty tasty.

And it was tasty. The meat had a good char on it and the grilled flavor took me straight to Summer cookouts. But, unlike the burger at Hamilton Tavern, Piv's burger was as dry as a desert. There was a slight tint of pink inside, but it was nowhere near the requested medium. And the burger was as flat as a pancake, with a dense, compressed, texture, which tells me that it was smashed unmercifully against the grill, which produced a nice crust but allowed all of the meat's moisture to escape into the flames.  

Honestly, why do people do that? Are they stupid? Are they in such a rush to get the food out to the customer that they willingly let quality slide? Eating this dry burger made us realize why the wait for our burgers at the Tavern seemed so long. Because they were cooked with care.

We also tried the slider sampler, which included one each of shrimp salad, crab cake, and pulled pork in addition to the horribly dry beef. The best of these was the crab cake, which was moist and had nice chunks of crab. The shrimp salad was bland, and the pulled pork was very salty. The rolls had been toasted, which might be a nice touch for larger burgers, however, these were very dry as a result. And the fries, the kind with the little bumps on them, what I call "shrapnel," clearly came out of a bag from the freezer. Disappointing.

Slightly less disappointing was the wedge salad, which inexplicably came deconstructed, with bland bleu cheese dressing and mass-produced croutons. Once everything was cut up and mixed together, it tasted fine, but it wasn't $8.50 worth of salad.

Neither meal was perfect, but you can probably guess where we'll be spending our money in the future.

Hamilton Tavern
5517 Harford Rd
Baltimore, MD 21214
(410) 426-1930
hamiltontavern.com

Piv's Pub
9811 York Rd
Cockeysville, MD 21030
(410) 666-7487

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - A Quick Trip to NYC

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on December 18, 2012.

I like to visit New York a couple of times a year, mostly to sniff perfume, but also to eat. I hadn't been up there since January, so it seemed like a good idea to visit the big city during the Christmas season. My train was getting in to Penn Station just before 11am, the time when Shake Shack opens, and I felt that would be a good way to start my day.

Shake Shack has been generating long lines and tons of good buzz since it opened in Madison Square Park in 2004. There are now six locations in New York, two each in DC, Connecticut, and Florida, one in Philly, and two in the Middle East (with London coming soon). The world is apparently obsessed with burgers. I love them myself and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. As with the Five Guys' hoopla, I find it's mostly much ado about nothing. The Shack Burger is a fine, tasty burger. The edges are slightly crisp, the cheese is melty, and the bun is properly squishy. It's a good fast-food-style burger. Nothing orgasmic, earth-shaking, or life-changing. I'd eat it again if it were in front of me, but I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to do so.

Single Shack Burger

Later in the day, I hoofed it from 5th and 58th to the Time Warner Center at 8th and 59th. Why is it that a three block walk across town feels like 10 blocks? Up several escalators, I found A Voce. (You may remember that the restaurant's executive chef, Missy Robbins, cut her finger so badly in the first episode of Top Chef Masters season 4, she had to leave the competition.) I had tried to make a reservation the day before, but was told by Open Table that no reservations were available for that evening. I decided to walk in and take a chance. If they had nothing for me, I'd head up another floor and try Chopped judge Marc Murphy's Landmarc. But the hostess was able to seat me at a two-top facing the bar, where I was attended to by a handsome and charming young waiter. The service was really quite fantastic at A Voce - attentive, yet casual. At one point, my waiter wanted to know how I was doing with my appetizer, but he couldn't get close enough to my table to speak to me, as a water boy was in the way. He merely raised a questioning eyebrow and gave me a thumb's up. I nodded in affirmation, he smiled and walked away. I didn't even have to stop chewing.

Funghi al forno: roasted trumpet mushrooms, fonduta, mache, hazelnuts

The meal started off very well. There were a number of appetizers I wanted to try, but I settled on the funghi al forno. The roasted mushrooms were almost meaty in texture, and indeed required a steak knife to slice into manageable pieces. The fonduta - a truffled cheese sauce - was incredibly rich, yet not overly so. Once the mushrooms were gone, I found myself reaching for a piece of focaccia to sop up the remaining sauce. The hazelnuts added a toasty nutty crunch to round out the dish. Really lovely overall.

Speaking of lovely, that focaccia came with a dish of whipped ricotta with fresh basil, drizzled with olive oil. Good thing there wasn't a spoon with it, otherwise I might have embarrassed myself by eating it straight from the container.

Pici: cocoa pasta, duck bolognese, golden raisins

While the first course was successful, the pici that I ordered for my entree was a total disappointment. Pici is a hand-rolled pasta, somewhat like a thick spaghetti. Imagine making a snake of modeling clay by rolling it between your palm and a table top, and you've got pici. Because they're somewhat thick and about  4" long, picking them up with a fork is like wrestling with a bowl of tarantulas. They're not easily twirled, so a fork full had random ends hanging out in each direction, some of which were happy to slap me in the face as I brought the fork to my mouth. Eventually, I used my knife to cut them into shorter bits. In any case, awkwardness was the least of the dish's problems. The sauce was a bolognese in name only. It had an agrodolce (sweet and sour) thing going on that could have been quite delicious had the sauce had any other thing going on, too. The tiny nubbins of ground duck (which could have been any meat - turkey, rattlesnake) served as a textural element only, and I couldn't taste the cocoa in the pasta. After three or four bites, I was bored with the dish. Thankfully, it wasn't a large portion, so I pushed on and finished it, knowing that a doggie bag wouldn't safely survive the three-plus hours it would take me to get home.

On the side, I had a generously-portioned bowl of beets. I suppose it was sized for the table, but I love beets so a mess of them is fine with me. They were served chilled and topped with finely chopped pistachios. Some of the beets tasted citrussy, others tasted slightly pickled - there was definitely more flavor in the side dish than in my entree.

Since I had a glass of wine with dinner, I passed on dessert. It was just as well, as I was presented with a mignardise of two very soft, house-made, limoncello marshmallows. One bite was enough sweetness for me.

I love New York. I love dining in New York. Sure, I'm disappointed sometimes, but I am always happy to have the opportunity to try popular restaurants and formulate my own opinions about them.

Shake Shack
300 W 44th St
New York, NY 10036
646-435-0135


A Voce Columbus
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
212-823-2523




Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Everybody Goes to Ginos....

Our first visit to the new Gino's really pissed me off. Thankfully, they have improved a great deal, both service- and food-wise, and we eat there regularly. Well, not regularly, because there's more to life than hamburgers, but once every couple months. That's regular for us.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on September 8, 2011.
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Everybody Goes to Gino's...

...and I think they were all there on the same evening we decided to try out the brand-spankin' new Gino's in Towson. Not only were they all there, but they all got their food before we did.

We thought we were smart, getting to the restaurant at 4:30pm. There was no line, and there seemed to be open tables both inside and outside, so we figured we were golden. Wrong-o. After placing our order for two Gino's Giants, one with fries and one with onion rings, plus two fountain drinks, we were given two plastic cups, a plastic card with the number "1" on it, and a receipt noting the time of 4:35pm.

4:36pm: We fill our cups with fountain beverages and grab two seats at a short counter near the side entrance. The plastic "1" went into the metal ring atop the condiment caddy to alert a server to our presence when he or she brings out our food. The restaurant is pretty full and includes almost as many people waiting for carry-out as sitting at tables. Most of the seated people already have food, so I'm pretty confident that we'll have a short wait. I'm expecting 20 minutes.

4:42pm: My chair is jostled by some fatass with a balance issue. There's definitely enough room to move past me.

4:50pm: Food seems to be coming out at a decent clip, so I'm sure that we'll get our food soon.

4:55pm: It's been 20 minutes, but we're still not eating.

5:01pm: At this point, I start to wonder if offering an amuse bouche might not be a good idea, just a little something to appease those of us waiting for a while. At a fine dining establishment, we would have been done with the appetizers and waiting for our main courses by now. (Of course, were we at Alchemy, our main courses would be on the table already, too.)

5:05pm: Hey! That couple came in after we did, and they just got their food! Grr.

5:08pm: My chair is jostled again, by a server taking food to another table. Grrr.

5:10pm: That trio definitely came in after we did - and they're eating! Grrrr.

5:12pm: I notice that the line for ordering food is out the door. There should be a sign out front like the ones posted near roller coasters, "one hour wait from this point." Better yet, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

5:13pm: A lone woman diner, sitting at a table behind us, manages to get the attention of a staff member to complain that she had been waiting since 4:29pm and still has not received her food. She also kindly points us out as coming in right after her and being in the same boat.

5:15pm: A server offers us a coupon for a free shake on a future visit. I think, "fat chance of that."

5:16pm: Another server comes over to check our receipt. Apparently our order disappeared and they need to know what food we paid for.

5:20pm: My chair is jostled for what must be the fifth time by a vertically-challenged busser who can't seem to be able to lift the plastic bucket of soiled napkins and food baskets high enough to avoid whacking me with it. At this point, I'm almost annoyed enough to whack her back.

5:26pm: Our food arrives. At this point, both parties that arrived after us but who were served 15 minutes earlier have finished eating and left the building.

After fifty minutes of sitting in a restaurant redolent of beef and fried potatoes, we are ravenous. After a couple of bites of both fries and burger, Mr Minx turns to me and asks, "Salty?" Yes, I have to agree - both items had been aggressively seasoned. The onion rings, on the other hand, were perfect, and just the way I like them: cut into extremely thin slices and fried to a deep golden brown. They come with a little tub of sauce that tastes a bit like a Sriracha mayonnaise, but not as interesting. It was a little too spicy for the rings, but it works with the fries. The fries are merely ok, a little hard, and of course, salty. Our sandwiches - two well-done patties topped with American cheese, dill pickle slices, lettuce, and Gino's "secret sauce," on a squishy sesame seed bun - sadly arouse no feelings of nostalgia in either of us. Not that they aren't good - apart from the surfeit of salt and pepper, they are tasty, with a good ratio of toppings to burger, and just enough sauce to drip out onto our fries but not cause the bun to disintegrate or the meat to slide out - they just taste like fast-casual burgers. Not like Gino's burgers.

Granted, it's been at least 30 years since I've had a Gino's Giant. There was a Gino's down the road from Catholic High, on Edison Highway, and occasionally a few of us would hike down there after school to grab a burger before heading home. I remember liking Gino's much more than McDonald's. The burgers seemed tastier - possibly because of the Baltimore Colts connection - and they sold Kentucky Fried Chicken back then, too.

Today's Gino's is more like a Five Guys, except with a crappy system. In my experience, at Five Guys, one places an order at a counter at one end of the store, then goes to wait at a separate counter on the other side, or at a table. Folks who are ordering and those who are waiting do not mingle. At Gino's, the restaurant is set up like a more traditional fast food joint, with ordering and pickups done at a long counter at the back of the restaurant. Unlike a fast food restaurant, however, a customer does not immediately receive a pre-made burger and fries slapped onto a tray or placed in a paper bag, quick-and-dirty service allowing the customer to get out of the way of the next patron in line. Instead, like at Five Guys, Gino's patrons have to wait for their food to be cooked to order. Those who choose to eat in can take a table, but those waiting for carry-out orders sit and stand near the counter, some getting in the way of customers who attempt to avail themselves of self-serve fountain beverages.

While getting a piping hot burger that spent no time languishing under a heat lamp is a good thing, having to wait nearly an hour (in our case) is not. The problem seems to be the order numbering system. At other restaurants, one gets a receipt with a number printed on it. The receipts come out of the computer in numerical order, so it's pretty easy for someone making food to know the sequence in which the orders were placed, and thus, the order in which they should be filled. At Gino's the numbers are completely random. Our number was "1." The number of the couple in front of us was "31." The woman who came in at 4:29pm had the number "54." The trio who were in line behind us received "100." And "100" received their food before both "54" and "1."

All I have to say is, "WTF?"

6:30pm: Editing post which has become a rant about more service not equalling better service. (Ok, so I didn't edit out too much.) All I'm gonna say is...table service is a dumb idea. Patrons are perfectly capable of listening for when their number is called, getting their fat asses up from a chair, and retrieving their meal at the counter. Instead, servers who do not know exactly where their particular customer is sitting are often forced to circumnavigate the entire dining room AND check outside before finding their quarry. The high backs on some of the booths getting in the way of a server's line of sight don't help things one bit.

Initially, I was quite happy to see that Gino's was making a comeback. That quickly turned to disappointment when I realized the only thing that the new restaurant had in common with the original was the font used in the logo.

My recommendation to folks who are still eager to try Gino's, even after reading this, is to wait a couple of months so the crowds die down a bit. Maybe the table service doesn't seem like such a dumb idea when the restaurant isn't lousy with patrons. I think I'll schedule my next visit for sometime in 2012. By that time, the new Perry Hall location should be open, and they'll get the crowds, leaving Towson a quieter place.

6:45pm: Find a giant chunk of black pepper stuck in back molar.

Gino's
8600 LeSalle Road
Towson, MD 21286
(410) 583-0000


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Bookmakers Cocktail Club

Though I had a cocktail at Bookmakers Cocktail Club earlier in the year, neither Mr Minx nor I had eaten there before recently. Bookmakers was participating in the annual Dining Out for Life campaign to benefit Moveable Feast, so we decided to give the place a try and support one of our favorite local organizations at the same time.

"Cocktail" is in the name, so we had to start off with a couple. I had the Blind Melon, made with St George green chile vodka, ancho reyes, fresh lime, watermelon, and Thai basil. It was fine. Maybe a little weak. Far more savory than I thought it would be. Mr Minx had the Grayson, with Bulleit rye, yuzu, ginger beer, Velvet Falernum, 1821 Japanese chili-lime bitters, and toasted cinnamon. So many ingredients! Much stronger than mine, with a pronounced bourbon flavor.

Our waitress seemed very happy to be there for DOFL and eagerly gave us both food and drink recomendations. We started off with the pork belly and a Caesar salad.

BOURBON GLAZED PORK BELLY

old grand-dad bourbon, cucumber salad

The serving of pork belly was pretty generous, and while the textures were great - soft fat, crispy top, tender meat - it was cold. Well, not cold exactly. Parts were room-temperature. When I asked our waitress about it, she said it was supposed to be that way. A little odd, but it tasted great, so ok. The cucumber salad was actually a mess of really tangy pickles that cut the fat of the pork nicely.

CAESAR SALAD

lemon confit, brioche croutons, white anchovies, parmesan crisp

I had a pretty damn classic Caesar. The platonic ideal, IMHO. Lemony, vaguely fishy, with light croutons and a lovely bit of crispy parm on top.

8OZ DRY-AGED ROSEDA CHEESEBURGER

american cheese, smoked tomato & onion, red leaf lettuce, chef's sauce

Making a decision on an entree was difficult. Well, for me anyway. I went with the cheeseburger, intrigued that there are only so many of them available per night. It was impossible to eat as-is, since the rather firm bun had broken on the bottom so everything just sloshed out. I had added a fried egg, which would have made it too messy to pick up and eat anyway as it was too tall to bite. I knife-and-forked it, leaving much of the bun behind. Please, chefs, just use squishy buns for burgers. There's no need for brioche or any other type of bread (unless it's toasted rye, as in a patty melt) to touch a burger. It makes it difficult to eat and, if too big and cottony, muffles the flavors of all the goodies inside. Especially when the flavors of the components are as good as the ones on this sandwich. Loved the smoked tomato and onion, and the chef's sauce.

LAMB SHOULDER RAGU

pappardelle, mint, sorrel, snap peas, green beans, goat cheese

Mr Minx had pasta, because that's his thing. I thought the pappardelle was a little tough, but he snarfled up that dish right quick. Lamb and mint really is a lovely combination in a pasta sauce, reminding me a bit of the famous mint love letters dish we ate at Mario Batali's Babbo (and I also attempted to recreate at home).

We wanted to run up the tab a bit to get the maximum amount of money for Moveable Feast (Bookmaker's was contributing 25% of the proceeds) so we also got a side dish of brussels sprouts, served with sweet and chewy candied bacon and parm. We eat a LOT of brussels sprouts (can't really avoid them these days, can you?) and these were among the best we've had. No pic, as the restaurant was dark and they were dark and the bowl was dark so the photos I took were even worse than the ones included here.

We also ordered a couple more cocktails. Mr Minx had the Thyme Collins. He's not a gin lover, but he wanted to see how much he hated the stuff if it was mixed up with thyme, lemon, and soda. It still tasted like gin, but it wasn't a turn-off. (For me, it's tonic that's the deal-breaker.) And I had what I'm going to declare as my favorite new drink - the Federale, made with Tapatio blanco tequila, Becherovka, cinnamon, fresh lemon, grapefruit, and mint. It was like the most sophisticated non-margarita margarita ever. I could have downed 3 or 4 (they are small) but that would have been dangerous.

We don't normally order dessert (at least not every time we go out) but for the sake of more money to charity, we ordered the baked mini donuts to share. Three each mini chocolate glazed and powdered sugar donuts were served with a little cup of coffee-flavored cream for dipping. I got the concept, but felt the donuts were dry (although the chocolate glaze was boss) and the cream was too liquidy.

In any case, despite minor quibbles, we really enjoyed the meal. Service was terrific, drinks were good, and so was the food. We got in and out just before it started to get really loud (one of the benefits of eating early - we can have a conversation without shouting with the rest of the shouting yahoos) which helped make it a good experience.

Bookmakers Cocktail Club
31 E. Cross Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
443.438.4039



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Clark Burger

When the Senator Theatre changed hands a while back, we were promised an expansion and a restaurant. The expansion added three smaller screening rooms without changing the size of the main room, allowing the theatre to show multiple features simultaneously. A welcome addition to our movie-viewing pleasure. But the small space in the front of the building, once a dry cleaner, stayed empty for well over a year. The story was that a burger joint would be opening in that space, which, considering its petite size, was probably all that would fit comfortably. And that the owners would be Canadian. And they would serve poutine. We waited impatiently.

Not that there isn't plenty of terrific pre- and post-movie eats available just around the corner at the Belvedere Square Market, and at Sofi's Crepes across the street. But we wanted gravy smothered fries topped with cheese curds. Who doesn't? (Shaddup, vegans.)

Clark Burger opened in January 2015, with the promised poutine. But we didn't get an opportunity to dine there until the summer, when the big front windows were open up to the fresh air, making the small restaurant seem a little bit bigger. And, well, kinda too warm. (Ugh. Hate summer.)

Before a screening of Ant Man, Mr Minx, MinxBro, and I sampled three of their burgers and an order of poutine. My brother had the "Wake N Bacon," topped with a fried egg, Tillamook cheddar, fried onion, srirachi aioli, and of course, bacon. I had the Clark Burger, with cheddar, bacon, lettuce, pickle, and CB sauce, hold the sliced onion. Mr Minx had the Barque Burger (shown above) with Montreal-style smoked brisket, minced onion, dill pickle, and spicy mustard.

The burgers are good. The patties are thin, so you won't find too much pink inside, but the chuck blend they use is flavorful. Even more flavorful is the bacon they top their burgers with - it's lean and thick cut and pretty perfect, at least to my tastes. And no, it's not "Canadian" bacon. One can also concoct one's own combo of burger toppings/sauces. If you choose this option, do make sure you add bacon.

The poutine was delish. The house-made gravy is thick and rich and there were ample cheese curds. They have several versions beyond the classic version we tried, including ones with smoked meat, bacon and fried egg, or chili and bacon. As long as there's bacon, I'm there.

I also enjoyed the smoked meat. I wish they served it as its own sandwich, rather than merely as a burger or poutine topping. It's good, pastrami-esque, and deserves to be showcased.

Burger joints are popping up all over the place these days. I'm glad some of them, like Clark Burger, are worth a visit.


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Bobby's Burger Palace

I know a lot of people don't like Bobby Flay for one reason or another, but I'm not one of those people. I've had positive experiences at his restaurants, Gato being the most recent, and enjoy watching him on TV, particularly when he gets his ass beat on Throwdown. For months I looked forward to the opening of Bobby's Burger Palace in Towson, and at long last, that day came in early August.

BBP is of the order-at-the-counter, server-brings-food style of fast casual restaurants. This keeps the prices somewhere between full sit-down (Red Robin) and fast food (Five Guys) service. Burgers hover in the $8-9 range and most have toppings inspired by US regional specialties; the Miami burger, for instance, is styled like a Cubano sandwich, with ham, swiss, pickles, and mustard. There are also plainer versions, like the classic with American cheese, the Bobby Blue with bleu and bacon, and the "Crunchburger,"which includes potato chips.

We settled on the New Mexico and the Philadelphia, with an onion ring/fries combo, paid, got our number, and took a table outside to wait.

The place wasn't busy, so we got our order pretty quickly. The onion rings and fries came first, accompanied by a spicy "fry sauce" akin to chipotle mayo. The fries were excellent, crispy, skin-on, Boardwalk-style specimens. The onion rings (there were only two, one at the top and another on the very bottom of the container) were large and crusty with batter. A bit too much batter for my tastes - I prefer very little, actually. But they were crunchy and the hot onion didn't slide out of its casing and slap me on the chin, so I have to give it some points for that.

The New Mexico burger had queso, roasted green chiles, and pickled red onions. It didn't taste anything like the green chile cheeseburger that I had in Albuquerque, and that's a good thing. The patty itself was moist and cooked to a perfect medium, the cheese had some staying power and didn't drip out, but the chiles didn't pack the punch I was looking for. The surfeit of onions made up for it. There were so many, I'm sure Scott Conant was being offended somewhere.

Neal's Philadelphia burger DID have a punch - those hot peppers were indeed HOT. I would have taken at least half off, but my brave husband worked up a sweat as he ate all of them. His burger was also perfectly cooked, with a nice amount of cheese.

One of the best things about the burgers at BBP are the squishy sesame seed buns. Honestly, why do so many places insist on brioche buns? Fancy isn't better. Squishy rules.

We had fountain sodas with our meal (Fresca!), but milkshakes and malteds are available in 10 flavors, including pistachio, which I might have to try at some point. There are also three flavors of booze-spiked shakes (also on the "to try" list), plus beers, a lone margarita, and BBP red or white wine. The wine is definitely not on my "to try" list. Sorry, Bobby. The food menu also has a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches and salads, but it's a burger palace, so eat burgers. They were pretty good, so we'll be back.

Bobby's Burger Palace
515 Virginia Ave
Towson, MD 21286
410-296-7227



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Abbey Burger Bistro

Recently, as we were writing an article on burgers for Discover Baltimore, we felt the need to do just a tad more research. Also, we needed photos. We had been to Abbey Burger Bistro in the past on an epic day of eating. At that time, we were doing research for our first book, Food Lovers' Guide to Baltimore, and did a tour of Grilled Cheese & Co., Thai Arroy, Abbey, and Midnite Confection's (apostrophe theirs) Cupcakes all on the same evening. By the time we got to Abbey, we were stuffed with cheese and tofu and weren't able to enjoy our burgers as much as we could have. Still, we came away with good feelings about the place and vowed to return.

We arrived early on this occasion and were able to snag a table near the front door, which offered us a bit of light for photography. We eschewed the meats of the month (nothing against wild boar, but camel sounded a bit too strange) and the build-your-own-burger option and ordered straight off the menu.

We chose the fried pickles as our starter. Such things can be really hit or miss. We've had really bad ones and really mediocre ones, and were still looking for really good ones. And we found them at Abbey. The sour pickle slices were in a light crunchy batter that the menu billed as tempura but we thought was more similar to fish-n-chips-style beer batter. They were so tasty, they didn't really need the lightly spicy mayo-based dipping sauce (but we used it anyway).

As for the burgers, Mr Minx went for the Baltimore burger, topped with crab dip, applewood bacon, and cheddar. He enjoyed it, but my palate doesn't care for seafood + bacon (shrimp, scallops, and clams being exceptions). The bacon makes the seafood taste fishy to me. He also ordered a side of fries, which were perfect - very brown, crisp, and fresh-tasting.

The same cannot be said for my side of chips (the default), which were the unfortunate victims of humidity. Most of them were melded together into one damp mega-chip, and the loose ones tasted stale. But my burger, a mostly traditional "paddy" melt, was nice. The burger was cooked to medium, as requested, and there was plenty of cheese and sauteed onions. I did, however, miss the Thousand Island dressing.

Abbey offers myriad meats, toppings, and breads, so one can have kangaroo on an English muffin with brie, grilled pineapple, and salsa, or lamb, sprouts, white truffle oil, and relish on a pretzel roll. Or even a tasty combination of toppings. We'll give that a try next time, and I'm definitely ordering fries with my elk, nacho cheese, fried egg, and buffalo sauce on a pita.



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Kooper's North

Not long ago, we were writing an article on local burger joints and needed photos. Though I've eaten burgers from Kooper's Chowhound food truck, I hadn't eaten them in-house, and neither had Mr Minx. Driving up to Mays Chapel and dining at Kooper's North seemed like a good way to get some dinner and perhaps some good photos, too.

It was a lovely day, but all of the outside tables were taken. Inside, the restaurant is fairly dark, so we took our photos both with and without flash. Can't say any of them turned out well, but at least we got to eat....

We started out with a bowl of the Slainte gumbo. No, it's not Irish gumbo, but it originated at Kooper's sister restaurant in Fells Point, Slainte. If you ask me, and I know you didn't, it's the best gumbo in Baltimore. It's thick and rich, with a nice browned-flour roux flavor and a generous amount of crawfish. It's spicy, but not overwhelming, and worth a taste. The bowl size is HUGE, so you might want to get a cup to start with, unless you want to share, or have it as your entree.

On to the burgers. Mr Minx had "Billy's Wagyu" burger, with applewood-smoked bacon, garlic herb cream cheese, and something they call "truffle arugula." The burger was juicy, with a nice grilled flavor, but between that and the bacon, the cheese and arugula could barely be tasted. And I was hoping I had found a substitute for my all-time-favorite burger, the Boursin Bacon burger at the late, lamented Gampy's.

My burger, the Farmstead Lamb burger also had the truffle arugula, plus feta cheese on a patty made from both lamb and veal. I found the burger to be extremely lamb-y (a good thing) which was probably why there was also some bland veal in it, too. The bun was weird - a tough, dry, ciabatta-ish thing that was too big for the burger. It reminded me of an un-toasted English muffin. If you get this burger, ask for a standard bun, which might also help hold on the crumbled feta that kept falling out of the sandwich.

The meat on both burgers was really pretty good; I think next time I'd choose the create-your-own option. And the gumbo - I'll always get the gumbo.



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Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers

We have a ton of stuff on our freezer. Other than ice cream, I mean. There are several quarts of gumbo from Cajun Kate's, leftover pork shoulder from that 8-lb behemoth I cooked last month, half a roast duck from the Great Wall grocery store in Catonsville, a leg of lamb, pasta sauce, various types of sausages (chorizo, andouille, lap cheong, hot dogs), ground beef, a skirt steak, bags of nuts, yeast, coffee, and bread, and more. And this is one of those standard above-the-fridge freezer jobbies, not a big ol' chest freezer. (So don't believe me when I say we have nothing in the house to eat. What I really mean is that there's nothing that I feel like defrosting and cooking.)

There was a pound of ground chicken in there too. I can't remember why we bought it exactly, maybe to make some laab, but there it was, looking slightly freezer-burned, buried under a pile of other foodstuffs. I determined that if it was not indeed funky with freezer burn, I'd make chicken burgers with it. And not just chicken burgers, but Thai red curry chicken burgers. We had two open jars of Thai Kitchen red curry paste in the fridge, and I've been looking for a way to use the stuff up. We also had a partial jar of  Maesri "chilli paste with basil leaves" and a jar of sliced Kaffir lime leaves. I love that chilli paste stuff and have used it in a number of things over the years. As for the lime leaves--have you noticed how difficult they are to find in the supermarket? And when you do find them, you have to use them right away or they'll go bad? Then I found sliced ones in a jar at H-Mart. They're not quite as powerfully-flavored as fresh, but they'll do in a pinch. And I think their flavor is an essential match to red curry paste.

So...back to the burgers. Ground chicken can often be unpalatably dry, so I always add some chia seeds soaked in water to add moisture. The omega-3 boost doesn't hurt, either. The curry paste also helps to make the meat moist. In fact, the raw mixture will be very moist, so don't be anal about trying to get perfectly round patties. Refrigerate them for a while before cooking so the flavors meld and the patties firm up a bit.

These were a big hit. The burgers were not only moist, but also super flavorful. We ate them both on bread and as-is with a salad, using the special sauce as dressing.

Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers

2 teaspoons chia seeds soaked in 1 tablespoon water
1 lb ground chicken
1 tablespoon coconut milk powder
4 teaspoons Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste
2 teaspoons finely minced Kaffir lime leaves
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to incorporate the chia and curry paste. Form into patties, between 4-8, depending on the size of your rolls, number of guests, or appetite. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour so the flavors will meld.

Heat canola oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. When hot, add the chicken patties. Cook for 4 minutes on the first side, then flip and cook an additional 3 minutes.

Serve with Special Sauce.

Special Sauce

3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Maesri Thai chilli sauce with basil
1/2 roasted red bell pepper, diced
2 scallions, white and green part, chopped

Combine all ingredients. Serve with Thai Red Curry Chicken Burgers.










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