Bits and Bites

So some people have been bugging me about updates about my trip.

Since I’m already back for two days, I guess it’s long overdue. But this will only cover the US portion of the trip. Most food photos were taken with my mobile phone, in available lighting, no flash, so some were really crappy.

Anyway, here goes:

Our first meal was at the local burger chain of San Francisco called Nation’s Giant Hamburgers. I don’t think it’s as gigantic as the name implies, but I thought the burger was pretty good.

The best is you can order your burger fried or flame grilled. I always enjoy it flame grilled, so I asked for that. And then you can also ask for grilled or fresh onions. I always prefer my onions on burgers grilled. Fresh onions sometimes feel to acidic, plus they are more gas inducing. I also like that they use whole / big lettuce leaves rather than shredded lettuce.

My other meal of significance is at Harris Ranch, on the I-5 between LA and San Francisco.

The I-5 is a relatively boring drive but you will be awakened by the smell of cows. And where there’s that pong of cows, there you will find Harris Ranch.

Here we found corn-fed beef. I just watched a documentary called Food Inc., and there are plenty of reasons to not eat corn-fed beef, but I’ve been to Argentina and I can tell you that grass feeding cows aren’t as soft as these corn feeding ones.

We shared a 20oz. order of of dry-aged prime rib. This is my half :

We ordered medium and it was a tad redder at certain parts than I liked. But it was so good, I barely touched the horseradish.

One thing about sharing is most restaurants took the initiative to split it into two plates and really plate it up nicely for us, as if we’d ordered two separate portions.

At the Camarillo Premium Outlets – the first time I’ve had a meal determined by shopping destination – I had a very expensive hot dog – the Kobe Beef Super Premium Hot Dog by Jody Maroni. Before this, I’d never heard of Jody Maroni, but his hot dogs were supposedly made famous on Venice Beach – or so the signboard claims.

Unlike the other hot dogs sold, I noticed this was split and grilled. The dog comes just with sausage and bun and everything else you add yourself.

It wasn’t a very big hot dog, was somewhat beefy and very salty. Indeed the saltiness disguised the Wagyu beef so much, it could’ve been any other cow in that dog.

On our way back from Camarillo, just off the 101 is Woodland Hills, where we found the Nordstrom Rack Topanga. This Nordstrom Rack would be the first of many we’d visit in the course of our trip. Later, we visited one in Fresno (on the way to Yosemite), another in Palo Alto, yet another in San Francisco, San Leandro, Colma, San Jose… did I miss any?

But I digress. Shopping makes me hungry, even if I’m not the one with shopping bags. (Okay, I had some.) Knowing nothing about Woodland Hills, I was forced to use the GPS to hunt for food. I settled on the chain food restaurant of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers.

So it was burger time again and I was so hungry, I drank this too fast and filled up.

Yes, a proper rootbeer float in a proper frosted glass. And because it foams up, they add a cup of rootbeer on the side for you to top up. And then they’ll top it up for you again if you ask.

I drank the whole glass of rootbeer before the burger even arrived and the result is, I’m ashamed to say, I left a pretty fine burger half eaten. I hang my head in shame. I could not do justice to this beautiful thing.

The patty was beautifully charred with a slight burnt flavour I so look forward to in a flame grilled burger. It was so good – the heart, the mind was willing, but the stomach just rebelled, refused to let another bite in.

You can see why I was crushed to have to leave the table with this perfectly cooked patty, still pink in the centre. The only thing I didn’t like was the shredded lettuce. But no burger is losing points on how the lettuce is cut.

… to be continued…