Giving that burger another chance...

Recently I was talking to my students about the sanitation concerns of cooking and consuming feedlot raised & factory ground beef versus meat freshly ground from pasture raised steers. I told them how I love a good rare burger once in awhile but would only order one in a place where I could trust the sourcing and the safe handling of the meat. The conversation got me thinking about The Farm burger that I’ve been craving and complaining about on this blog. Should I go ahead and give it another chance?

Last night, hungry and not wanting to cook despite a fridge full of food, I realized that yes, I wanted to give that juicy, delicious, grass-fed burger with those oh-so-excellent fries another chance. So, I went to The Farm sat at the bar and ordered a beer. As usual, even though I knew what I wanted, I perused the menu. Behind me was a large table of adults and kids. I overheard someone complain to their server that “ALL the burgers are well-done!” Uh oh. Now what? Should I get the pork chop special? The grilled char? Nope, I wanted a burger and those fries. So I ordered one…RARE. I was hoping that after the other table’s complaints that maybe, just maybe, they’d get it right.

I waited and worked on my beer. Not too long afterwards, my burger and those fries arrived garnished with a gorgeous slice of summer tomato and a homemade pickle. I poked at it…hmmm…it felt rare-ish! Good sign! I stacked the tomato, the sliced red onion and the lettuce leaf on top and waited...I wanted to allow the meat to rest and for the juices to redistribute. I began noshing on those fries dipped into the curry mayo. Divine. I waited another minute or two…and then carefully sliced the burger in half. Hey, not bad! Maybe not quite as rare as RARE should be, but a perfect medium-rare nonetheless. It was as juicy and delicious as I remembered it to be. I ate all of the fries and half the burger, took the rest home and devoured it a half hour later.

My burger fix has been satisfied…for now.

Its been a really long time since my last post. I've been very preoccupied with work (as a culinary instructor) while dealing with mom's death (as her daughter, as sister to both of my younger we-don't-wanna-deal-with-this brothers, AND as executor of her so-called estate). But I'm gonna go with an anemic post about my recent farmers market bounty this past Sunday...

It was, truth be told, quite fabulous. I seem to always come back with way too much stuff for a singleton who for the most part eats while working (yeah, one of the few benefits of being in the food industry). But I got it together...I dragged my haul home, and ended up prepping for the rest of the afternoon. My beloved local farmers market is literally right around the block on sunday mornings, which makes it imminently "doable" on my day off.  I blanched and cooked and/or par-cooked the beans, the corn, the beets and the broccoli. I popped all into the frig and have "dined" on the results for the past few days.

I really hafta get it together to wanna cook when I get home from work. Mostly, I fantasize about going out for a you-cook-you-serve-me-and-then-you-get-to-clean-up-afterwards multi-course meal in one of the recently opened trendy neighborhood joints and then end up settling for a pizza made with those fabulous brown rice tortillas I love so much or a salad thrown together from the aforementioned par-cooked mise en place.

What am I gonna do tonight? I've already cut, squeezed, mixed, shook and then poured myself a really yummy pomegranate margarita....with my new fave variant....ground black, white and pink peppercorns mixed into the salt rimmed glass. (Doesn't that qualify for my daily quota of cooking?)

I'm kinda craving The Farm on Adderley's burger made from grass fed beef. The trouble is that it's almost always over cooked. I hafta have a rare (but not still moving)  burger for it to be worth my while. As far as I'm concerned, it's a waste of a meal to negotiate a well-done blob of ground meat. Though I'll admit, this meat is such high-quality meat that it never tastes as yucky as a commercially raised/processed/ground blob of well done flesh does. I will, however, ALWAYS love those fries....only once or twice were they a disappointment (soggy and cold...yikes!)

My other thought is to go to Purple Yam. I've gotta say, aside from how delicious their food is, Amy and Romy are fabulous. I LOVE them. Perhaps I'll finally go try their Korean Meatballs with Kimchi on Purple Yam Bread with a side order of warm and inviting!