Jacques of all Trades

Weekend culinary highlight: brunch at Palena. Though like almost every time I head to Palena, it was impossible for me to order anything other than their outstanding cheeseburger.

Tonight’s dinner: turkey burger, mixed with chèvre and a little bit of chives and dill from the garden, amd served with an improvised guacamole. Along with grilled asparagus, cuke-and-tomato salad, and sautéed zucchini.

Weekend culinary highlight: this beauty from Burger, Tap & Shake

Weekend culinary highlight: the Straight Outta Dublin burger at Big Board on H Street NE—Irish cheddar, braised cabbage and Jameson pan-gravy.

So satisfying, and an excellent burger-to-bun ratio.

Weekend culinary highlight: the always fabulous burger at Central Michel Richard.

spicy whiskey bbq sliders. from the Pioneer Woman — Another potential Super Bowl Party Recipe.

(via gastrogirl)

A tasty burger at BTS (Burger, Tap & Shake)

Checked out Bobby’s Burger Palace, Bobby Flay’s new joint in DC.

Going for the Palace Classic, I have to say I was fairly impressed. Good quality burger, inexpensive (for the District) beer selections.

The “crunchified” aspect of the burger—adding chips in the middle—is a gimmick, but it works. Can’t believe he managed to swing a trademark for it, though. The “burger sauce,” on the other hand is inspired, and I can’t wait to find out what’s in it. It taste a bit like a sweeter Americanized mole, made into a sauce, and the flavor notes (coffee? Chocolate?) really work with the burger.

At 21st and I, this place will get plenty of lunch business from K Street, and a dinner/late night crowd from GWU, so it’ll be here to stay, I think. No need to rush over, but worth a visit next time you’re craving a burger, but not ready to tackle a Ray’s Hell Burger.

(cross-posted on Yelp!)

I’ll Gladly Lose All My Assets Today For A Hamburger Tomorrow (via DCist)

J. Wellington Wimpy would be proud: word is that Z-Burger will be handing out free hamburgers to customers on days after the Dow Jones Industrial Average loses 500 points or more. For example: since the Dow was down 508 points yesterday, you can saunter into Z-Burger’s 4321 Wisconsin Avenue NW location, say “Z-BEARger” (I see what they did there), and you’ll get a free beef, turkey or veggie burger. (via I’ll Gladly Lose All My Assets Today For A Hamburger Tomorrow: DCist)

columnfive:

Big Mac-ronomics: What the price of a Big Mac reveals about purchasing power around the world [infographic]

If you like to stay on top of business and economic news, chances are you’re familiar with the Economist’s Big Mac Index: what in its own words is “a fun guide to whether currencies are at their “correct” level.” Simply put, if a Big Mac costs 44% less in China than it does in the U.S., this suggests that the yuan is 44% undervalued against the dollar. Likewise, if a Big Mac is 23% more expensive in Canada than in the U.S., that shows the Canadian dollar is 23% overvalued. The infogrpahic below illustrates the latest Big Mac Index update, released on July 28, 2011.

(Click on the title above to learn more.)

Via Column Five for Credit Sesame

(via sunfoundation)

How to Make the Perfect Burger: Tips From Michael Landrum - Best Bites Blog (washingtonian.com)

If there’s one meal to make for Fourth of July weekend, it’s burgers on the grill. And if there’s one guy who can do it right, it’s Michael Landrum. The Ray’s Hell-Burger andHell-Burger Too owner has built a local mecca for hamburger-lovers that serves everyone from college kids to President Obama. For replicating Ray’s burgers at home, here are Landrum’s tips. 

Shake Shack, and other Danny Meyer restaurants to open at Nats Park next week, via DCist:

Given its long queue, we’d have to rate Shake Shack’s arrival in the District as a hit — and so it’s with excitement that we saw Dan Steinberg tweet this morning that the burger joint’s second location in the District, inside Nationals Park, will open next Tuesday. (via Nats Park Shake Shack to Open Next Week: )

Shake Shack is good and all, but I’m really excited about Blue Smoke BBQ rolling in!

Also, from the comments, someone pointed to Ray’s-Empire owner Michael Landrum’s epic post inspired by Shake Shack on the Don Rockwell message boards (which are gold for DC foodies):

While on the subject, I really would like to bring up something that has troubled me more and more lately, and that is, when did it stop being okay to like or prefer one burger without having to absolutely HATE another burger—especially with something so basic and so deeply personal when it comes to preferences and with so much of the whole temps perdu, temps retrouve thing going on? Why isn’t it alright to just like what you like and leave it at that?

And why does there have to be this forced competition where someone who prefers a different style or place becomes a sworn mortal enemy.

I’ll be perfectly honest, there are pretty much about six things in life that I love beyond anything else: women, music, burgers, ice cream, roller coasters and scotch (blended, and don’t even start with me—just go play adult kickball, or do some Civil War re-enactment sh-t or practice for your next Ba’at’lith competition and then argue about “craft” beer for twelve hours while your home-made Durian bitters age and leave my drinking preferences the eff alone)—and I guarantee you all that there is not a single day that I don’t wake up in the morning and immediately start to think about one or all of those things and how and when I can get in on some of that as soon and as often as possible.

And one more excerpt:

Arguing about which is the best burger is about as pointless as arguing about who the baddest ass bad-ass is—Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, Clyde “The Glide” Frazier, or Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain. It doesn’t matter—they’re all cooler than any or all of us, individually and put together. They can wear full-length leather trench coats and you can’t.

Or like arguing about who’s the cooler “Iceman”—Jerry Butler or George Gervin or Otzi. It just doesn’t make sense. (And before anyone says anything about that incomprehensibly stupid movie Top Gun, let me remind you that neither movies nor jet planes existed during the Civil War or in Middle Earth).