Friday 7 January 2011

Red Mill-ers Crossing

On the greatest day of my life (so far), I was in Seattle.
It included laughing at otters at the aquarium, going to the rock'n'roll /sci-fi museum, a trip to the cinema to see "Date Night" (even that couldn't bring this day down), a trip up to Red Mill for an awesome burger, then a Pink Floyd lazer show. Oh boy!

So I was in a very good mood to start with, we get to Red Mill Burger, and it's surrounded by weirdness and nothing (or maybe just gaps in my memory). A small row of shops, mostly facing away from the street, and the "no house the same as the next" that the fancier American suburbs do so well.

I'd been stupid enough to phone ahead and try to book a table, when I arrived it became clear just how foolish that was. It's a grab a table, while the other person orders kind of affair. Which I used to hate, but I've been either lucky or ruthless lately.




The cheeseburger there was a pretty greasy affair, the foil wrapping really helped, reminding Susan of the guilty childhood pleasure of fastfood. But here the only regret was it's finished, and you're too satisfied to justify ordering another. I'll need to get better at describing burgers if this is to continue, hopefully you'll forgive me if I put it down to time passing, and memory failures. Just look how happy I am here -



Oh I'd almost forgotten about the peanut butter milkshake!
Out of the top three mentioned so far, this was definitely the closest to a trashy, this shouldn't work, feels like it's been put together a bit slap-dash, burger. And maybe everything else is getting a bit too far away from the nature of a classic burger. So in some ways, this would be the top of the list.

Grosse Burger-Joint Blank

A massive walk around NYC, splitting off from the group for the sake of a burger we'd heard a lot about. Leaving everyone else to quote Home Alone 2 lines at the Plaza Hotel.

A pretty confusing walk later, and we're outside a really fancy looking hotel - Le Parker Meridien. A few moments of feeling completely out of place in the lobby, we duck behind a red velvet curtain. Then as if we're in a more gastronomically centered Twin Peaks (wait, that's just Twin Peaks then) we're in a old fashioned italian styled, totally jumping burger bar. It's clear that you need to know exactly what you want before you're at the front of the queue - like the New York before everyone became halfway nice.

The makeup of the cheeseburger is pretty classic. But the constituent parts all yell quality at you, as they're mushed up in your mouth. A total joy.

A famous burger bar, made to feel like a hidden gem.

With hindsight, the massive walk beforehand might have increased my enjoyment of this burger.
One of my favorite sayings, from Scott our tour manager - "Hunger is the best sauce".
Usually he's meaning "shut up about food, you'll get some soon".
But there's definitely some truth to it.

Close En-Counters of the Burger Kind

Counter Burger Visit 1.

We were on holiday and enjoying LA a great amount more than I'd expected. The Counter (which I always call Counter Burger, and refuse to change) is known for it's seriously dizzying range of choices.

*photo in here of menu*

This was about 3 years ago, so I don't remember it exactly, but I do remember feeling a bit let down as I ordered. There was a wildcard thrown in there, but I was going for a beef burger, in a hamburger bun, spicy pepperoncinis, nothing too crazy.
But when it arrived it absolutely hit the spot, along with the skinny fries - half potato, half sweet potato.

This was before my obsessive *take a photo of all the great food I eat* nature set in. Which happened somewhere in the depths of mainland Europe, thanks for the Kaiser Chiefs and Popcorn Catering. They didn't serve burgers, otherwise they'd probably make the list.