Shake Shack

This is the seventh post in the Eating the Big Apple series. Other posts include Soba Koh, Sylvia's Restaurant (Gospel Brunch), Torrisi Italian Specialties, Ippudo,Tasty Hand Pulled Noodle, and Il Buco Alimentari & Vinera.

Who has the best burger?

It's a touchy, touchy subject. Those from the West Coast (like my husband) swear by In & Out, citing their soft buns, high quality meat, and the variety of secret "off-menu" styles that are available. Friends from the DC area absolutely love Five Guys, a burger joint originally from Virginia that offers generously sized burgers with a wide variety of fresh, high quality toppings.

Up until this point, those were the only two I had tried. Bryan always insisted on stopping by In & Out every time we were in California, and I have several friends who are so obsessed about Five Guys (this is a couple years back), we would regularly make the trip to Dedham from Cambridge just for a bite of that burger.

Yet I would always hear about Shake Shack.

New Yorkers rave about Shake Shack. Fans point to the soft potato bun and deliciously juicy beef patty. Apparently their shakes are incredible too. Lines are notoriously long.

This past year Bryan and I finally tried Shake Shack. We visited twice - once at the original location in Madison Square Park and once at a newer location in the theater district (not too far from Times Square!).

Shake Shack is definitely a more recent phenomenon, starting as just a simple hot dog cart in Madison Square Garden to support the garden's first art installation. It became so popular that, in 2004, Shake Shack obtained permission to open a permanent kiosk right inside the park.

Since then, the lines have been notoriously long (the guy with the Lakers shirt above is at the end of the line). Don't be surprised if you have to wait 15-20 minutes for your burger. Thankfully, there are two lines. If you're just there for shakes, ice cream, or drinks, you can actually go into the much shorter line.

Their namesake burger "The Shackburger" (shown below), is a cheeseburger served with lettuce, tomatoes, and "Shack Sauce" (a ketchupy-mayo-like sauce with other spices).

Their burgers are cooked medium by default unless if you request otherwise. Frankly, I thought medium was just perfect. The potato bun is super soft and goes down quite easily with the juicy burger. The vegetables are all fresh, and overall, it's a great burger.

Their version of a hot dog - the Shack-cago dog- is topped with relish, cucumber, pickle, tomato, onions, sport pepper, celery salt, and mustard. It also uses the same type of potato bun. I'm really not a hot dog connoisseur, so I'll guess this is similar to a Chicago-style hot dog? (Yes, I'm embarrassed to say I was raised a Midwesterner and I don't know the answer to that . . .)

They serve all sorts of frozen custard. For some reason, this particular one I got was a bit melted, which made me sad. One time before, I had tried one delectable, single spoonful of perfect custard at the other location (they were passing out free samples), so I knew it could be better than this.

Perhaps this was an anomaly?

Bryan told me to go and get a new one, but I really didn't feel like standing in line again.

So I ate the melty one. The flavors of the custard were nice, but the melted, messy nature of the custard sort of ruined the texture and enjoyment of the dessert for me.

They had messed up our order and accidentally gave us a root beer float, which they let us keep. Bryan actually loves floats so he thought it was great. Me, I like my ice cream nicely solid. Why "melt" it with liquid and ruin a good thing? ;)

We visited one of the newer Shake Shack indoor "brick and mortar" locations in the theater district. This one is pretty close to Times Square (it's at 44th street and 8th Avenue). We stopped by here for a quick bite right before heading out to Penn Station (34th street) to take the train back to Boston.

This Shake Shack is trendy and modern inside, especially when compared to the outdoor benches at the Madison Square Garden location.

The lines are still ridiculously long and very often snake outside the door. They have those line-organizing barriers (like at Disneyworld!) to keep everything in order. Crazy!!

The seating area is reasonably large, and people eat quickly, so it wasn't too hard to find a seat.

Bryan got the crazy ShackStack® - a cheeseburger and a ’Shroom Burger topped with lettuce, tomato and ShackSauce. It was alright, with fresh ingredients and quality components, but Bryan thought it was a bit too crazy. It's virtually impossible to put that thing in your mouth, it's messy, and at the end of the day, it just wasn't as good as a simple cheeseburger.

"It tastes like a veggie burger with meat on top" - Bryan Che

I got the a single cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. It was just the right size and pretty darn good.


Thoughts
We both really enjoyed our burgers at Shake Shack. They definitely make a solid burger at a good price point ($4.55 for a single, $7.10 for a double cheeseburger). I can totally see why the lines are so long.

Having said that, Bryan still prefers In & Out. He didn't really like the beloved potato buns. He thought they were too "airy". He also is a huge fan of the "animal style" burger at In & Out (grilled onions, special "sauce"), and hasn't yet found another "fast" burger that quite competes.

Nevertheless, we both agreed that Shake Shack burgers are quite enjoyable and we would most definitely consider stopping by again if we were in New York.

And I still do want to go back and try a full cup of that custard. I am dreaming of a rich, thick and creamy bite without a melty puddle in sight.

Shake Shack
Madison Square Garden
11 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10010

Temple Bar

This is the third restaurant post in the new series, Welcome to My New Hood. Other posts in this series: Rafiki Bistro and Super Fusion Sushi.

I utterly can't believe it, but it's been just a little over a year since we moved into our our new place just north of Harvard Square.

This most certainly confirms that I am guilty of being just a tad sluggish on this "Welcome to my New Hood" Series. It isn't that I haven't been chowing down around my home (I have!). It's just harder to get inspired about my neighborhood joints when photos from trips like New York, Rome, Napa Valley, and Las Vegas vie for my attention.

But that's no excuse. There are some real gems just around the corner from where I live. I had originally expected to be secluded on my woodsy, tree-lined street, far away from any restaurants. I was pleasant surprised to find out how many really cool places are within a 5-minute walk from my home.



Temple Bar is one of these.

Temple Bar is owned by the Grafton Group, a group that also owns Park, Russell House Tavern, and Grafton Street Grill. The gastropub offers what it calls "modern American cuisine" with a focus on "seasonal, New England flavors at reasonable prices."

This place serves solid food at reasonable prices. It's a great reliable standby on those nights when we don't feel like cooking and don't feel like going out very far.
Have you ever tried a barrel aged cocktail? We certainly had not, and Bryan was most definitely intrigued by it. Hugh Reynolds, former bar manager at Temple Bar, had begun playing around with aging cocktails in charred oak barrels in order to round out and mellow the flavors of the alcohol.

Reynolds was the first in Boston to do this. Since then, other craft cocktails places, like Drink, have joined in on the fun. Though Reynolds is no longer at Temple, bar manager Alex Homans (from Russell House Tavern) continues the tradition.

The food at the Temple Bar is supposed to be "Modern American", though executive chef Greg Boschetti injects influences from many other cultures. Chef Boschetti trained under French chef Paul O'Connell at Chez Henri and Tom Berry (a "trailblazer" in Asian inspired bistro cuisine) at Temple Bar. As a result, don't be surprised if you see French, Asian, or other worldwide touches in his food.

For example, the Yuzu-Ginger Salmon Poke reminds me both of Japan and Hawaii. Chef Boschetti's version sits on top of a spicy cucumber salad and is topped with avocado mousse and shiso (one of my favorite Japanese herbs). The overall flavors of this dish are reasonably enjoyable and refreshing on a hot day.

Bryan loves duck, and he enjoyed this flavorful Tea Smoked Duck Salad. Thin slices of tea smoked duck breast are served over a healthy bed of arugula together with thyme roasted pear, candied pecans, and caramelized blue cheese in a roasted shallot-ginger vinaigrette.

The Slow-Braised Boneless Beef Shortrib is hearty and satisfying. It comes on top of horseradish mashed potato and is served with crispy shallots.

The White Truffle Pizza sounded promising, with avocados, tear drop tomatoes, baby Arugula topped with balsamic vinegar and white truffle oil. I couldn't really taste a strong white truffle essence. The crust was fine, but this dish did not particularly stand out.

We came back another time for brunch, where we started out by munching on complimentary baked muffins and coffeecake.

The House-Smoked Pastrami Reuben is great (and HUGE!). It comes stuffed with braised sauerkraut, house Russian dressing, and Gruyere.

I order the House Citrus & Fennel Salmon Gravlax, which comes with a toasted bagel, caper-herb cream cheese, and slices of tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions. The fennel and citrus cured gravlax is delicious (I do have a weakness for gravlax and love making it at home), and I enjoyed making little bagel sandwiches with it.

General Thoughts
In general, we enjoy going to Temple Bar. For a neighborhood restaurant, it delivers a nice combination of quality food, reasonable prices, and an interesting cocktail list. Usually the service is fine, though we have on occasion found it frustratingly slow.

Is it a destination-worthy restaurant?

Likely not - but only because I think Boston has a lot of really, really good gastropubs (heck, I used to have one within a 2-minute walk from home!). It's one of Boston's strengths in the dining arena - we have a lot of cozy little gastropubs that serve excellent beers and very good New American food. We're really fortunate in Boston that way. Perhaps it grew out of the Irish pub culture of a former generation.

More likely than not, you probably already have your own little gem of a "neighborhood pub" near by.

I'd love to hear about your favorite neighborhood gems. Please do share below in the comments section!

Temple Bar 

1688 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138

Hard Rock Cafe Boston

A long time ago - during my awkward, braces-wielding, teeny-bopping days - I used to be obsessed with Hard Rock Cafe.

It wasn't because I liked hard rock. In fact, I sort of hated it. Seriously, it was only because so many other people at school wore their shirts. You know how it is in middle school - you scope out what everyone else is wearing and you desperately try to copy it.

Hair-sprayed tall hair? Check. Huge Esprit tote? Check. Guess jeans? Hmm, actually my mom never let me get those, so I guess that's not a check. But I tried as hard as I could.

I also liked visiting Hard Rock Cafes because they served as badges representing cities I had visited. My hometown did not have a Hard Rock, which meant we had to travel to get the coveted T-shirts. My sister and I relentlessly dragged my parents to multiple Hard Rock Cafes every time we traveled. If there was a Hard Rock Cafe in a city we visited, we had to go there.

I have Hard Rock memorabilia from Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Beverly Hills, and Orlando - not to mention Banff (Canadian Rockies), Tokyo, Singapore, and Honolulu.

We were nuts.

Then I went to college and proceeded to completely forget about the Hard Rock Cafe.

That is, until a couple weeks ago, when I got an invitation from My Blog Spark to try Boston's Hard Rock Cafe's new menu.

Hard Rock? Wow, that totally brings back such funny nostalgia. It's been years since I've even thought about that place. 

I decided that, after almost 20 years, it was worth revisiting this place I'd sought after with such zeal during my childhood. I really had no idea how my new adult, food blogger self would see this place.

There was only one way to find out.

For those of you who have never heard of Hard Rock Cafe, it is a nationwide chain that houses cool rock memorabilia from famous (often local) artists.

It all started back in the seventies in London when Eric Clapton, who loved eating at this American restaurant called "Hard Rock Cafe", asked them if he could mark his favorite seat with a plaque.

They said, "why don't we put up your guitar?"

A week later, Pete Townshend of The Who dropped off his Gibson Les Paul.

Pretty soon, donations of guitars and other musical memorabilia began pouring in, and the restaurant slowly expanded throughout the world.

Eddie Van Halen

In Boston, for example, you can see Eric Clapton's acoustic guitar, Aerosmith's outfits, Van Halen's electric, and handwritten lyrics by Bruce Springsteen. It's sort of fun just to wander around the restaurant and peruse the stuff hanging on the walls.

Bryan and I arrived at the Hard Rock Cafe Boston on a warm, Monday evening. Although tons of seats were empty, the hostess told us there was a 20-minute wait. She could not seat us because the restaurant was severely understaffed.

"We only have 6 servers. You're welcome to go to the bar."

We walked over to the bar. Initially, the bartender told us she was maxed out and wouldn't be able to serve us. However, we indicated that the hostess had sent us here. She looked harried. A piles of dirty dishes sat forlornly a few seats down from us, desperately wishing to be cleaned up.

It was quite evident the staff was overworked.

Bryan tried to order a beer on tap, only to find out almost all of their beers were sold out.

"We had a crazy weekend; the patrons drank up most of the beer on tap."

Thankfully there were one or two remaining choices, so Bryan opted for one of them (sorry, I can't remember what it was!).

For appetizers, we tried the Santa Fe spring rolls, which were stuffed with spinach, black beans, cilantro, corn, jalapenos, diced red peppers and Jack cheese. It was satisfying (we were hungry!) and decent, though I did leave behind the tired bed of lettuce in which they sat.

We tried the hickory smoked BBQ combo with ribs and pulled pork. The ribs were, unfortunately, a bit tough and far from "fall-off-the-bone." The pulled pork was OK, but it was hard to really love either one considering we had just tried some pretty incredible barbecue a few weeks ago.

Hard Rock calls their burgers "Legendary", which compelled us to try one. These burgers are 10 ounces and come with either fries or onion rings. At $15 each, they are flirting with the prices of Craigie's famous bone-marrow-infused burger, the famous Radius Burger, and actually cost more than a Smith & Wollensky burger made from 100% prime beef.

The burgers were good - definitely the best item we had that night. The meat is juicy, cooked well, and slightly charred on the outside. It's filled with onion rings, cheese, and bacon.

They make regional versions of burgers too. The Boston version is topped with baked beans, which just didn't sound all that appetizing to me.

For dessert, they have normal sized desserts and "bites", which are small portions that only cost $3. We tried two different bites - chocolate mousse and chocolate peanut butter pie. Both tasted as expected - decent, but nothing to write home about.

Overall, Hard Rock Cafe is a mixed bag. The memorabilia is cool, and if you're a fan of rock, you'll love looking through the cool collection that the Boston Hard Rock Cafe has. However, the food is mediocre, not exactly cheap, and the service can be spotty (though I must say that after we sat down, our bartender actually took reasonably good care of us).

If you do come, the burger is pretty solid, and I'm guessing some classic "American" dishes might not be too bad either. However, I definitely wouldn't consider the food destination-worthy. There are much, much better places in Boston for the same price.

Disclaimer 
I received free gift certificates to try the food at Hard Rock Cafe as part of the My Blog Spark program. All opinions in the post are my own.

Happy Birthday Julia Child!

Julia Child, the iconic TV chef who introduced French cooking to everyday Americans, would have turned 100 today.

Julia Child lived in North Cambridge, not too far from where I live now. She loved shopping at Formaggio Kitchen and Savenor's (both of which, by the way, are fantastic gourmet markets). She regularly dined at Sandrine's and Harvest, both in Harvard Square.

In 2001 Julia Child donated her kitchen from her Cambridge home to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

I had the honor of being at the Smithsonian Museum of American History today to attend a special birthday celebration in honor of Julia Child.


There were A LOT of people there!

A band of musicians dressed up as chefs played a few songs, including happy birthday.

They passed out cookies made from one of Julia Child's recipes. Land O Lakes donated 50 kg of butter and Wegman's donated the rest of the ingredients and the labor cost. Can you believe they made over 3000 cookies?

Afterwards, we visited Julia's kitchen, which has recently been moved (within the museum) and rebuilt in a way that allows more people to view it at once. Whereas there used to be only three "viewing" windows around the kitchen, there are now six viewing windows.

Isn't this cute? Julia liked to use a pegboard to keep track of where everything went. If you look closely, you'll see the outline of each item drawn on the board indicating where everything goes.

I was so intrigued by all her kitchen gadgets.  What are all those copper pans in the back? It was also cool to think that this was the famous kitchen where she filmed so many of her TV episodes.

Julia Child's kitchen will become part of a larger new exhibit at the Museum of American History exploring food and wine in America from 1950-2000.

The exhibit will explore how food in America has changed as a result of technology (e.g., the scienrific advancement of food production and "Big Ag"), immigration (e.g., the rise of Mexican cuisine and, more recently, Indian and Asian cuisine), and major historical events, like World War II. Julia Child is a huge player in this history, being the one to bring the art of French cooking to everyday Americans.

They have acquired some interesting pieces to display, such as a Krispy Kreme doughnut machine and shopping carts from the 1950's compared to a Costco cart today.

The exhibit begins on November 20, 2012. It sounds exciting and I can't wait to see it!

A Peek of DC Food
Of course, I can't write a food blog post without posting any pictures of food, right? I've been in DC the past two days on a crazy food tour. Here's just a small peek at some of the stuff I've enjoyed!
A lovely cappuccino with "latte art" from Peregrine.

A gorgeous cocktail from the bar at the Federalist, the restaurant/bar that is part of the new (20 million dollar) renovated Madison Hotel.

Fantastic dumplings from The Source, Wolfgang Puck's restaurant-within-a-museum in DC.

A snack before dinner? Mussels served with pipirrana, Sherry dressing and honey from Jaleo.

The "Vegetal" gin and tonic from Jaleo, complete with radish, fennel, cubeb (tailed pepper), and kumquat.

Palak Chaat - a fantastic crispy spinach appetizer from Rasika West End in DC.

I still plan on visiting a few more places before returning to Boston. I will definitely write about all of these restaurants in full, gory (photolicious!) detail after the Eating the Big Apple series concludes. I've definitely visited some incredible places and I can't wait to share them with you.

Stay tuned!

Disclaimer - this trip, including all the meals, were provided by Destination DC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting DC as a travel destination. All opinions provided in this post are my own.