The Times’ Top Recipes of 2009
I hate to cook, but I’m providing this link for those of you that like to cook in the hopes that I’ll be around when you feel the need to prepare a white-chococlate bread pudding with whiskey caramel sauce.
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2010.
A critic’s most memorable dining experiences of 2009
Although the article appeared in the LA Times, it’s not limited to restaurants in LA.
I’ve eaten at a few of these places and I keep hearing such great things about Bazaar, by Jose Andres. Jason is determined to prepare one of Andres’s recipes for a party one of these days, and I hope this means he wants to try Bazaar with me the time after the next time I’m in LA.
Any New Yorkers care to weigh in on this one?
10 best non-Starbucks coffee shops in Manhattan
I always just drank coffee at Starbucks. Oh, and at this tiny Greek kitchen on the way from my subway stop to the school where I taught in Chinatown. $1.50 would get me a cup of coffee with tons of sugar and milk (perfect amounts for me) and a hot buttered bagel with a fried egg inside.
I don’t think I’ve blogged about the burgers in Houston yet. I used to think In-N-Out was pretty much as good as it got. Burger Lounge in SD confirmed that for me. I haven’t been to Five Guys yet, but I will. I have to share something with you non-Houstonites, or perhaps non-Texans. The best burgers I’ve ever had are all in Houston. And places like Father’s Office don’t really count as a point of comparison, because yes, if you put foie gras or duck fat or something like that in your burger, then yes, it tastes great, but is it still really a burger? When I talk about eating a good burger, I mean no-frills, but great taste. Patty can be mass-produced or hand-formed, and the ingredients should get no fancier than bacon and barbecue sauce. I expect a good burger to have a beef patty, lettuce, tomato, maybe onions, maybe cheese, maybe some pickles, and maybe ketchup and mustard to be in the category of a “burger.” I have tried several different burger joints in Houston, and with the exception of Avalon Diner (possibly the worst burger I’ve ever had), all have tasted - gasp! better than In-n-Out. I will admit that most cost more than In-n-Out, though. I’m not sure if Smashburger costs the same or not, but I’ll talk about that in a different post.
Beck’s Prime is a drive-thru joint, but there is limited seating. The seating and “patio area” remind me of the Jack in the Box on Valley View in La Palma. It looks pretty ghetto, but the burgers are anything but. They use hand-formed patties, and beef is (surprise, surprise) very delicious in Texas. I don’t even know how to describe what makes it so great. Maybe the lack of freezers? I have no idea. Beck’s Prime is a small chain, and the ingredients are basic (although you have a choice of several more “gourmet” burgers on their menu if you desire more than the basic burger toppings), but good quality. Fresh produce, and small touches like romaine instead of iceberg lettuce. The quality of the ingredients is what probably makes the burger so good. It does cost a bit more than the usual Houston burger, though, about $7-8.
I would also like to highly recommend their Strawberry Cream milkshake. This is one of the few places that makes strawberry shakes correctly (by “correctly,” I mean that they don’t use Nestle Quik or Carnation Instant Breakfast). One of the best strawberry milkshakes I’ve ever had is at Barney’s Burger on College Ave. in Berkeley (my neck muscles would get sore from trying to drink the shake through a straw), and this one definitely compares to it. I need to drink them side-by-side to be sure, but if my memory serves me correctly, Barney’s Burgers has a thicker shake. The friendly employees at Beck’s Prime recommended that I drink the milkshake with a spoon rather than a straw, but I stubbornly used the straw and managed pretty well. Also, Jason and I shared the “small” milkshake and got full, so I would like to tip you off that you can request a dessert-sized portion of the milkshake (it’s not listed on the menu), which is half the size.
The fries are delicious here as well. I haven’t tried anything but the burgers here (they were so good that I come here with burger cravings), but I suspect everything tastes good. If you want to have a good burger for dinner, I would highly recommend this place, and if you want any indication of how good I think this place is, this is the first place that I took my sister to when she came to visit me in Houston.
Here’s a photo I found online of a Beck’s Prime burger:
The weird thing about this photo is that the lettuce looks very different from the way I remember it. Beck’s Prime uses one or two big fat dark green leaves folded up, not pale and shredded like in the photo.
Multiple Houston locations (they just opened an 11th location in north Houston)