Be Careful What You Read (or The Search for the Best Burger)

My brother went to New England Culinary Institute and has had an interesting string of jobs:

• fine dining in Chicago where he got to shop for fresh ingredients and determine what the nightly special would be
• worked at a Alzheimer's center where he managed his budget so well that he hired another person, bought new stuff for the kitchen AND in a place where the residents were chronically underweight he was praised for making food so good that they actually ate and gained weight (it's a funny world where you  hear "congrats - your residents are getting fatter!!!")
• wine store manager - my personal favorite since this was in town and I frequently got great tips on wine selections, samples, etc.  I should write about the time I asked the wine store clerk to go to Rome with me...but that's for another day.

At any rate, my brother, Henry, has always been more interested in reading nonfiction while I almost always prefer fiction.  It's one of the many ways we're different.  When he moved Colorado and I was trying to reconnect with him after not really seeing him in years, I asked what his favorite book was at the moment.  As kids we used to read a lot -- it was an easy way to entertain ourselves with all the road trips and on those days where you just weren't up to trying to communicate with the neighbor kids that didn't speak the same language as you.  And I've always felt that what a person reads tells me a lot about them.  Sorta like a horoscope or palm reading for the bibliophile (and just as accurate -- haha).

He gave me a copy of The Best Food Writing for the previous year by Holly Hughes.  I kinda perused the table of contents, saw that it was a collection of articles from various sources, and asked him if he had a recommendation of where to start.  (I rarely read books like that in any sort of conventional order.)  In his typical enigmatic way, he shrugged and said "I thought this was one of the better years, so any place is good."

I'm a fan of hamburgers and fries, so the first article I read was on some author's search for the best burger ever.  This was a terrible idea.  It got me thinking about what I liked and sorta changed my outlook.  No longer was I interested in fast-food burgers -- maybe that's not so bad, but wait.  I kept thinking about the burgers I really liked:  Chili's Ground Peppercorn Burger, Red Robin's Banzai Burger, etc.  The article's author talked about several "high-end restaurant" burgers and what goes into a burger and quality of meat and other ingredients.  I was craving burgers.  I went to Red Robin.  That didn't help.  The next day I went to Chili's.  That didn't help.

The next day I caught up with my brother and told him about the article and that it had me on this odd, insatiable quest for a supreme burger.  He smirked.  Clearly I was highly suggestible and an amateur at what was a occupational hazard for him (as a chef he must read tons of articles on food and preparation).  How is he not like 300lbs?  He's tall (6-foot, plus or minus), thin, with the teeniest hit of a belly.  I found out later that after cooking all day, he's sick of it.  His pantry is stocked with cereal and his frig holds a couple sodas and some milk.  His wife won him over by making him a dinner of macaroni and cheese (presumably from a box) -- she's quite proud of this and I love her for it.

"Maybe just read the next article -- and you'll be onto another quest," quipped Henry.  Brilliant.  Frustrating.  I had the urge to stand on his feet and pull his hair again like I did when we were kids.  Except he's a lot taller than me now and that probably wasn't the way to get to know him again.

It didn't work, by the way.  I'm still looking for great burgers.  Which is why when I saw (via facebook) a list of the restaurants that are in some local Denver burger contest later this year, those restaurants moved to the top of my dining out adventures list.

The first one we tried was Argyll.  It's a "gastropub".  ...? I had to look that up -- basically it seems to me that it's pub food "kicked up a notch" as Emeril would say.  It seemed like a Scottish pub in my completely inexpert opinion -- on the lower level of a small shopping block, dark, a little noisy, bottles of wine on the wall (I'm always tempted to order one just to see the guy take it off the wall), our waiter was wearing a plaid newsboy hat, there was a framed kilt next to our table... 

Here's what I was after -- and why Argyll made it to the top of my list in my current burger quest.

The Argyll Burger Ground Lamb and Beef Patty on a Potato Bun w/ Harssa Aioli & Hand Cut Fries. Optional toppers:  avocado, fried egg, bacon, Cheeses:  English Cheddar, Stilton Bleu, Gruyere, Haystack Goat

When I ordered their signature burger, I said to the waiter "I'm having trouble deciding if I should get cheese on it -- what do you recommend? Cheddar?"  The waiter said, "Whoa! Let me stop you right there.  Since you can get a fried egg, bacon and goat cheese on it, most people do that -- it's like having 5 animals at once!"

Holy cow.

I didn't do it; I'm not that brave.  It was a great burger though.  But I can't say it's the best -- I have 9 more restaurants to try first -- but the bar is set pretty high now!


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Postscript -- to complete the dinner review, here's the rest of what we tried:

Olives - Olives Marinated w/ Pepper Flakes, Anise and Orange Zest served with Feta and Garlic Confit
Fried Oysters 3 Fried Oysters w/ Horseradish, Ginger, Pickled Apples, Fennel & Watercress
Shephard’s Pie Layers of Stewed Lamb & Beef w/ Vegetables, Topped w/ Mashed Potatoes & Herbed Horseradish Croutons
Lemon Tart topped with blackberries and fried basil

The Olives were interesting -- temperature warm and a teeny bit spicy from the pepper flakes.  I like the Fried Oysters -- except that the fennel stayed with me throughout the entire meal (and even later!).  Iggy loved the Shephard's Pie (that's the spelling copied and pasted from their web site...not mine...maybe it's the Scottish spelling or maybe my spell checker is on the fritz) and he is going to try making it at home (yay!).  The only down side was being so full -- even an hour later when we got home I still felt really full.

 This was the only non-Scottish or non-food-themed thing I saw while there.  Is there a link between Scotland and Japan that I missed?

How 'bout them cupcakes?

My friend, Antonia, read about The Shoppe in Denver in a magazine. I was intrigued by their website and we set up an evening to meet there for dessert.

They are located on Colfax -- and if you're at all familiar with that street you'll be curious about which section. When I first moved to Denver Colfax was known as a street where you could buy *anything* and supposedly you could see "working girls" if you were to drive down it for a couple miles. I have no idea -- we never went back then (I was in Jr. High). About 10 years ago when I was learning to play hockey -- and starting with roller hockey -- we used to go to Pete's Kitchen afterwords for breakfast or gyros. This was back when they were winning awards for "best late night eats". Man -- I should go back. A gyro sounds pretty tasty. If our game was late enough, we could see the drag queens since they tended to congregate there after midnight. I always loved that because even if I shower after hockey (fairly big *if*) there's no way I am going to look put together at 2am -- and there were people there that looked like they stepped out of a fashion magazine. Another thing I enjoyed was that a few blocks from this night life type area was a really upscale French restaurant that there was no way I could afford at that time. I love juxtapositions like that. (Although that's probably not the right word.)

Anyways, back to the present... Recently they've done a whole "revitalization" project and moved one of the most popular independent book stores in Denver there (The Tattered Cover) as well as some trendy new restaurants. Well, we weren't headed to that new, trendy part. But a few blocks away sorta sandwiched between a liquor store, a closed retail store and some other off-beat stores is The Shoppe. The specialize in cupcakes -- and have menu of a few dozen different kinds. While waiting in line we saw a little boy carrying his cupcake back to his table. His eyes are so wide -- and he was taking every step very gingerly so as not to hurt the cupcake. Very cute. My eyes might've been just as wide when I got my order!

I tried a latte (yum!), the Lavendar Lemon Cupcake special, a sample-size peanut butter cookie sandwich and a sample-size carrot cake cupcake. I would recommend the sample-size items -- you get to try more flavors that way. The Lavender Lemon smelled like lavender and tasted like lemon. Strange separation of the senses, but wonderful!

The woman who rang me up said "now if you can't finish that all, we will give you a box". Very thoughtful of her to assume I'm not a glutton... I responded that I would give it my best shot since their website does recommend that you eat the item on the day of purchase. And if, due to extenuating circumstances, you do have to wait until the next day they seem to begrudgingly acknowledge that you could store it overnight in an airtight container.

I had no issue finishing mine...

I loved the ambiance of the place too. The dining room is probably the size of my office (then 2nd bedroom in my house). They have lots of art on the wall -- a couple walls of art on display by artists that's also for sale. It looked like those rotate periodically because I saw something announcing the next artist. They have another wall that's all paintings/decoupage/collage type stuff of cupcakes. A couple of the walls are built at angles and I love the lights. I would hang these in my house if they wouldn't look out of place.



They have a book nook and t-shirts for sale. It *is* a lot of stuff crammed into a small little space, but I didn't feel crowded. The best part might've been the turning spice rack next to the napkins filled with jars of every kind of sprinkle, decoration, red hot, candy, etc. imaginable for topping off your cupcake.

I hear they do wedding cupcakes too...

Jing!

Before I knew I was getting a restaurant diary for my birthday, we went to Jing and I decided to keep track of places we ate that I liked (apparently if you say something once and embarrass Iggy by taking pictures he will remember this behavior -- and even encourage it!).


I have a soft spot for Jing. It's one of the first places Iggy and I went. We went there on what I didn't consider a date. It was February 15th. I purposely asked him out the day after Valentine's Day so that he wouldn't think it was a date. (After the fact I learned that his friends considered it a date since it was on Valentine's weekend.) We went to a movie first (Frost/Nixon) and then went to dinner afterwords to discuss the movie. When we were all done with dinner and standing up to leave, I said sorta offhandedly "Funny - we never even got around to discussing the movie." Iggy sat back down and said he really did want to talk about the movie. (Big points -- I was impressed!)


Besides that association, I love the atmosphere. There are circular booths done in white suede. There's a waterfall. And all the art and is minimal and striking. But I especially love the ceiling. There's this curtain-type thing that spirals around is a double curlicue. It has beads on the end and it must've taken several bolts of fabric to make. It starts short and gradually gets longer as it spirals toward the center. The picture below is only of half of it, and doesn't really do it justice, but you get the idea. It's really cool. I would totally do that in my living room if it wouldn't look weird.






This time we went for Denver Restaurant Week. There's a Pris fix menu for $26.40 each (or $52.80 per couple -- gotta love the Denver Mile High theme -- even though I forget which step of the Capital building is actually 5,280 feet high).


We sat in the bar for a bit since we were uncharacteristically early. I ordered a mojito of the specials menu made with Thai Basil instead of Mint, but I think I ended up getting the Strawberry Mojito. That was pretty good. Iggy tried the Ginger Limeade (vodka, Canton Cognac, fresh ginger) -- that was better.


When we sat down at our table we ordered Buddha Drops. These are drinks that come with a little flower in it (the "Buddha Drop") and eating the flower will make your mouth and tongue tingle for a while. Kinda fun. Supposedly it enhances the taste of the food and the drink. Maybe...but all I could focus on was the tingly sensation. It was fun (but distracted me from the food rather than enhanced it)! I got my Buddha Drop in a Love Potion No. 8. (Thought it was supposed to be #9? Maybe that's too risky for being in public? Maybe something got lost in translation? Maybe it's an elaborate joke on people like me who are easily confused?) That is made of vodka, Hypnotiq and grenadine. It's a pleasing lime green color. I quite enjoyed it. Iggy got the "traditional" Buddha Drop drink which probably tasted better, but wasn't lime green and didn't have a catchy name. His loss.

Clockwise below: Buddha Drop, Ginger Limeade, Strawberry Mojito?, Love Potion No. 8
I am not really a sushi fan. Or even a fan of fish in general. I say it's because I'm a Pisces and I don't eat anything that swims in solidarity. That includes alligator. It's not that I have tried most of it...it's just that it all seems to taste ... well, fishy or be chewy. On the Montana trip CuervHo ordered some sushi and sashimi and let EZ-Ho and me try some. I did like some of that but I'm not sure I could make a whole meal of it. Luckily cows and chickens don't swim or I would be a vegetarian. (haha) And honestly, it probably goes back to a childhood experience with trout. Having never seen it before we came back to the States between stays in Greece, that's what was for dinner on the farm -- the guys had spent the day checking the trout lines and we were having the rewards of their efforts. I dug right in only to have a caring aunt explain that "you have to be careful of bones". I looked all over that dumb thing and didn't see any bones. I was expecting something ... well, bone-shaped. Like the ones you see on the Flintstones. I asked for some clarification and found out that the bones were these super-fine clear things all throughout the fish. That is just way too darn much effort. I asked for a hot dog instead.


Anyways, I convinced Iggy (also not a fish fan) to try the sushi that was on the 5280 appetizer menu -- along with some reliable sliders. Not bad. Even for a non-sushi person. Iggy didn't finish his and I didn't help him out though, so maybe not something I will order next time.


The sliders were great though -- the hot jalapeno was a nice touch with the cucumber. And you gotta love a burger served on that puffy dough thing that you usually get with the duck at Chinese restaurants. Yum!


In the picture below:

Four Sauces for dipping: red wine, teriayki, wasabi, pepper; Kobe Beef Sliders: little burgers served on Shanghai buns with a cucumber strips and a jalapeno on top; California Rolls

I didn't take pictures of our dinners, but they were quite good and the presentation was cool. I had the most fun with the drinks and the appetizers...so that's what you got above.

You should go -- let me know what you think!