The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die

[ai698]

Rick "who thinks Blake's Lotaburger in Albuquerque and elsewhere should be near the top of a proper list" Denney

Blake's sounds good. I think I'll get one tomorrow.

[ai698]

Steve,

I rolled through SE NM other day. Just missed you. What happened to the golf course in Carrizozo?

It's a pasture, now. No idea what happened. I usually play out at Holloman AFB which isn't much better, but they do cut the grass (what little there is). Our group was scheduled to play in Zozo on Labor Day, but had to back out due to conflicts.

[CJ Krause]

yup

[CJ Krause]

yup

[Chuck(G)]

I like recycled plastic in weatherproof deck wood, like Trex, but most of the other uses seem to be pretty lame.

Take carpeting made of recycled milk jugs. Yeah, it's recycled, but it's not durable--and can't be recycled. So it ends up in the landfill anyway.

I've wondered if plastic could be recycled back into oil for fuel, or maybe burned to generate electricity.

[Chuck(G)]

How bout a couple dozen of these?

Just don't eat them before you play......

Leave out the cheese and get them from a place that hasn't cleaned the grill in about 30 years--and never, ever buy them frozen at the grocery store.. Ah, sliders, belly bombs, whatever...

[Dylan King]

A could go for a double king burger with cheese, egg, and everything on it.

Why when one tells a sandwich maker he wants "everything on it" the maker still insists on asking as he goes along and makes the sandwich. This is often how my conversation goes...

"I'll have a double king with egg and cheese and everything on it."

"You want lettuce?"

"Yes. Everything."

"Ketchup, onions?"

"Yes. I said everything."

"Mayo, mustard?"

"Yes, yes, yes. I said everything!"

[kegmcnabb]

Yeah MellowSmokeMan,

When I saw your name as the last poster in this subject, I thought to myself, "must be a vote for Fatburger!"

I used to love these when I was going to school in LA and later, when I lived in O.C., I would enjoy them when I had occasion to drive into LA or the Valley. I sure miss them. And, while not quite as good, I still occasionally get the In 'n Out Urge, if ya know what I mean.

Rick Denney,

Oh yeah, as a long time former Albuquerque resident I know that ya gotta love a LottaBurger now and then. Not really the best burger, but the only one that satisfies when that's what you're craving. Now that I live in Wisconsin, the cheese on burgers rules, but oh man, what I wouldn't give for a place that piled green chiles on! The Owl Cafe in ABQ had good green chile cheeseburgers, too. Hey, I dig Sadie's too, but they have never been quite as good since they moved outa the bowling alley into the big, shiny, new place. The Garduno's on 4th has a killer bowl of red chile, as does Barrella's in the South Valley. And in Santa Fe, Tomasita's for a roast beef and green chile burrito. Surly, condescending wait-staff, but mouth-watering chow.

Oh man, I miss good New Mexican cuisine!

[CJ Krause]

yup

[CJ Krause]

yup

[Rick Denney]

Hey, I dig Sadie's too, but they have never been quite as good since they moved outa the bowling alley into the big, shiny, new place. The Garduno's on 4th has a killer bowl of red chile, as does Barrella's in the South Valley. And in Santa Fe, Tomasita's for a roast beef and green chile burrito. Surly, condescending wait-staff, but mouth-watering chow.

Oh man, I miss good New Mexican cuisine!

Yes, they were a little better in the bowling alley and you didn't have to drive as far north. But back then they had better competition, too, because Mexican Carry-Out Kitchen was still in business in the north Valley. Sadies had to be on their game to compete with the stuffed sopaipillas at the Kitchen. But they are still excellent.

Garduno's has gone all chainified now, and is not the same as it once was. Might as well eat in the Heights. I expect the store on 4th to close at some point--folks in Duranes and other north valley locales won't stand for that yuppiefied mexican food.

Tomasita's had a branch in Austin, Texas of all places for many years. That was the first store-bought pasole outside of New Mexico that impressed me, and they had carne adovada that was to die for. Pretty good by Santa Fe standards, but I'll still take Sadie's in absolute terms.

Before Tomasita's closed in Austin, they passed along the secret of flat, blue-corn enchiladas to Chuy's, which is a funky local joint in Austin with a couple of branches elsewhere (including Houston and Dallas). They added the Southwestern Enchilada to the menu right about the time Tomasita's closed in Austin, complete with ground beef, green chile, blue-corn tortillas, and a fried egg. Now, THAT's an Albuquerque-style dish that makes any hamburger a waste of time.

I miss it, too, more than you know. But not as much as I miss San Antonio Tex-Mex.

Rick "with hunger pangs in Virginia" Denney

[Rick Denney]

[quote="bloke]

Flores the name- sounds more like flowers

Only if you have a bad case of Gringo-mouth, and you're being compared to an "English" speaker from East Texas where I grew up.

I can hear my cousins saying:

"Look at them purty flars."

"That feller Juan Flars was a good field worker."

Of course, to Juan's family, it would be FLO-res, where the O is long as in "flow". The R would be rolled and the S would be a hard S, not a Z.

Rick "fluent in Gringo-mouth" Denney

[Joe Baker]

They got at least one of them right: the #5 at Kellers Drive-In in Dallas. Not your usual GQ sort of place -- I couldn't believe anyone who ever READ GQ would ever eat at Kellers, let alone their writers. Gravel parking lot, rode-hard-and-put-away-wet car-hop gals, but what an amazing burger; I haven't had one in years, but it was always my favorite. The #5 had a quarter-inch thick slice -- not 'rings', mind you, a FULL SLICE -- of the sweetest purple onion on earth. Wash that thing and an order of onion rings down with one of their chocolate malts and it is some good eating!

One they left off: Hank's in Tulsa, OK. Everything on the menu is first-rate. When I was a kid it was our weekly treat: a Hank's hamburger and a Dad's root beer. I don't think they make the Dad's root beer any more, but I had a Hank's just a couple of years ago, and it was as good as I remembered it.

A great burger that you can't get anymore was at Judge Roy Bean's in Dallas; I don't remember the name (it was named after some old-west character -- Jesse James, or Buffalo Bill or somebody) but they had a mushroom and swiss burger that was as good as any I ever ate. I never understood how they managed to go out of business; they were not particularly cheap, and they were always packed.

Another great one that's gone now is the GM Steakhouse on Guadalupe in Austin. They sold Cheeseburgers for $2.25, and "Cheeseburgers without cheese" for a dime extra. Absolutely huge burgers, and really, really good.
____________________________
Joe Baker, who thinks Whataburger is still good, but isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

[TexTuba]

Joe Baker, who thinks Whataburger is still good, but isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

I agree. Living in the hometown of Whataburger where there is one on every major intersection I say it's gone down. The best one I've ate at is in Edna Texas. I think it's in Edna, it was on the way to Houston. Anyway, great service, FAST service, and just great food. If you're ever in that direction, you owe it to yourself to try that particular one off of I-10 going to Houston.

Ralph

[TMurphy]

How bout a couple dozen of these?

Just don't eat them before you play......

Add a sack of chicken rings, and a large milkshake (chocolate or vanilla whichever your speed), and you're on!

[MaryAnn]

The Owl Cafe in ABQ had good green chile cheeseburgers, too.

Isn't the Owl Cafe more in, like, Socorro? I remember it being on the way between Las Cruces and AlbuTurkey. Stopped there once for a burger; yeah it was good but my socks didn't melt off my feet or anything.

Remember that last mad cow they found in the US recently? Remember, it was a "downed" cow, and they sent it to a pet food factory?

First our dogs are going to come down with Mad Cow and then the rest of us who eat beef are going to come down with it. Like, it takes many years for symptoms to show up in the cows, and all the cows that don't have symptoms yet are being slaughtered and sent to .... your grocery. And your hamburger place. There is no way "they" are going to ruin the beef industry to protect the public.

I have a cartoon on my wall at work in which two cows are talking to each other; one says, "Aren't you worried about mad cow disease?" And the other replies, "Why should I be? I'm a woodchuck."

I miss NM Mexican food too....the slop they serve in AZ that they call Mexican food is more like something from Mars. What they call "salsa"in restuarants is more like diluted ketchup with a little hot sauce in it. ICK!

MA, who is forever off beef but who substitutes buffalo occasionally. Buffalo is grass fed.

[Chuck(G)]

Taking one of these:



and turning it into one of these:



seems like a huge waste of good food. You wind up with something that's uniformly textureless without much taste either.

Every year, one of my neighbors goes and bags himself an elk and has the whole thing ground into hamburger. No steaks, roasts or even sausage. It seems that he doesn't particularly like the taste of elk and hamburger is the only way he can stand it....

[Rick F]

At the risk of dating myself, I remember when these White Castle burgers were $.05 a piece in NJ. Back then, 50 cents would buy a real bellyache.

And like Chuck said, don't try the frozen ones from the grocery. Yuck!

[Mark E. Chachich]

my best burger picks, by city (in no order):

Baltimore, Maryland - Ponca Bird

Columbia, South Carolina - Fat Buddy's
(get the Buddy Fries with the burger)

Spartanburg, South Carolina - The Beacon
(the double bacon cheeseburger is my favorite at the Beacon)

Charlotte, North Carolina - Spoons


enjoy,
Mark

After all of those burgers, if you want a great hot dog:
Doug's Dogs in Columbia South Carolina
(with chilie and onions with a bowl of butter beans and fatback and a cup of ice tea, yehaw!)

on a similar note:

Diner:
New Ideal Diner - Aberdeen, Maryland

Pizza (in no order):
Maria's - Benson, Maryland (on Rt. 1)
La Brasca - Columbia, South Carolina

BBQ (in no order):
Duke's - Blackville, South Carolina
Sheely's - Leesville-Batesburg South Carolina
Meyer's - Blythwood South Carolina (ribs and Candied yams)

Mark

[kegmcnabb]

Garduno's has gone all chainified now.

Whoa...too bad. I hadn't eaten at the one on 4th for a few years, but when I was in Las Vegas, NV last November I ran across a Garduno's (evidently one of the new chainified ones) and was supremely dissappointed. I had hoped maybe the originals were still good.

Quote:
Isn't the Owl Cafe more in, like, Socorro? I remember it being on the way between Las Cruces and AlbuTurkey. Stopped there once for a burger; yeah it was good but my socks didn't melt off my feet or anything.

It's about ten minutes south of Socorro, in San Antonio, NM.

There is a second one on Euclid in ABQ. Perhaps not the greatest green chile cheese in the world but when you live up here in CheeseHeadLand you would kill for even a close approximation of one. Nice folks in Wisconsin but their idea of spicy is a touch of paprika thrown in the pot. (Let's not even talk about the macaroni in the chili!)