A Brilliant Switch

After finding out that pretty much everyone I know thinks that Chili's has excellent food, and that there is now a Chili's just up the road basically, I figured I would peer pressure people into going to Chili's next time an opportunity presented itself. And after a long afternoon of enjoying some Coffeehouse Porter and #9 and watching the Olympics while listening to Nicky talk about Apolo Ohno and laughing at Odin relentlessly harassing Remy, this opportunity arrived.

Now, I have been to Chili's once before and thoroughly enjoyed their fajitas. However, I have been craving burgers lately, even though I just had one on Thursday. Thus, after about 10 minutes of looking at the menu and not really reading any of the foods, I decided to go with the Jalapeño Smokehouse Bacon Burger. However, I was not especially excited about the jalapeño-ranch sauce that was scheduled to come on said burger. The more I am exposed to it, the less I like ranch flavoring. I don't even eat those Doritos any more, and they used to be my favorite! Thus, I came up with a brilliant plan!

I asked the waitress to bring me the ancho-chile BBQ sauce from the Southern Smokehouse Bacon Burger instead. And, as Melissa will attest, that sauce was fantastic. It was delicious on the burger AND on the french fries. I am pretty pleased with the decision.

As for the burger itself, I have mixed reviews. Everything on the burger was really good, but they just did not manage to cook the burger appropriately. I have a very general expectation for a medium rare burger: it should be a little bit pink. This burger was not pink at all! Luckily, the bacon was about a quarter inch thick, and there were just enough jalapeños to make it a little spicy. I will give them another chance at some point in the future. But they better not overcook my burger again! I have very little patience for that nonsense.

-Jon

It's Been Too Long

I don't even remember when the last time I had an R.F. O'Sullivan burger was. I mean, obviously I could look back and figure it out, but that is not going to happen after the number of "sodas" I have consumed at the present. Basically, it's been far too long.

It's pretty much a mini-RPI reunion here at Alex's apartment, which is much smaller than it should be for this number of people. Also, there is currently a dog on my bed. Well, air-mattress.

But I digress.

We went to R.F. O'Sullivan (and Son) for dinner, because that just has to happen. It's literally around the corner. Not going would be a crime against. . . burgers? I am not sure. A crime against someone anyway. Scott and Amy were my ride, so we arrived, drank some #9s, and headed over to meet Erica at the Church of Burgers. After a long wait (like 26 minutes), we got our table and menus, which were completely unnecessary. All 5 of us got various versions of the Blackjack Burger, which, if you recall, is currently the reigning burger champion. Also, we got more beer (I mean soda), which was probably not needed. At least some of it was Summer Ale.

The burger was as delicious as I remember, which is great since a lot of the time things end up being crappy when you try them again later. Like the movie Mighty Ducks? Remember that movie? Watch it again, and you will be incredibly disappointed.

Alright, I should probably end at this point. If the post doesn't make sense, we will just blame it on the fact that I am in quite a bit of pain after dropping a 60-lb weight on my foot this morning. That or the booze. Take your pick.

Editor's note - It is now the next night, and that dog ended up ruining a good night of sleep for at least 3 people. And I still have very little idea what I was trying to convey when I typed this up the first time. Apologies for that. I will (not) try harder in the future.

-Jon

A New Record

After a wild night with the Funbags, I had to make my way down to CT for Amy and Scott's engagement cookout/yard sport extravaganza. And since my car had to spend the night across town, that meant I got a late start on my trip down after walking across town to pick it up. This actually worked out pretty well, because it meant that the food was already ready by the time I arrived.

I am not exactly sure what the seasoning on the burgers was (because the name of the seasoning was Burger Shakers, a somewhat vague title), but it was great. I think the order of events was something along the line of: open a Magic Hat, eat a burger, finish Hank's game of croquet, eat another burger, sit on a hammock, eat another burger (this one only had a bottom bun for some reason, which caused much amusement for everyone else present), sit around making jokes about college, sit around making jokes about pretty much everyone we went to college with, and eat another burger. Yes, I ate 4 burgers. That is a personal best. And, possibly more impressive, there were no repercussions like meat poisoning. I think that record will probably stand for a while, if not forever.

-Jon

Two Stories in One

So apparently writing things on time is not really my thing.  I have heard that there is a way to "back-date" these things, but I am not exactly sure how to do that, or really what the heck that means.  Catherine?

Technically the first pair of burgers should not count, but I haven't had a burger in a long time so let's just go with this.  For opening weekend of the new place, James decided that it was time to grill something.  Our ideas were: burgers, bacon or a cake.  Also, it would appear that the last one is "impossible" to grill, or at least I have been told so, and we ended up going with burgers.  But they were turkey burgers, so they will have to be excluded from the search.

On the other hand, ground turkey with a little Italian seasoning and ground red peppers makes a pretty sweet burger.  Throw a little cheese on there with a couple slices of red onions and you've got a hell of a burger.  Or 2, since I really like eating burgers.

After turkey burgers, it was probably time for a full-on meat burger.  And this chance presented itself tonight during a trip to eastern Mass for dropping off a car (mine, specifically).  The plan is to watch the Sox tomorrow and then get a little crazy, but that is really not part of the story.

Back on track.  I got to Alex's first, so after battling with the door lock for about 7 minutes, I made it in and waited for Catherine's triumphant return to the United States.  After a few minutes of level grinding in FFIII, the Michel Clan of Alex, Catherine, Mrs. M and Tania (who is not technically a Michel based on her last name being something else) arrived, followed later by Mr. M and we all headed to  R.F. O'Sullivan.  This was apparently a popular decision for the evening, because we had to wait quite a bit for a table, although we did actually get a table this time, which is in stark contrast to previous trips where we ended up both table-less and burger-less.

I went for the Paddy-O-Melt, which was super great and only had the downside of being inferior to Alex's ridiculously delicious Blackjack burger.  At least now I know what to get next time.  I also made a good decision to not get tap beer because that place, despite having fantastic burgers, has not cleaned their tap lines in probably 8 years.  They do have Red Stripe though, so I had about 3 of those after the Magic Hat variety festival at Alex's apartment.  I would say, despite not contributing to the Sam Adams Summer Ale Challenge II, the night was a success.

-Jon

In Which I Am Told a Terrible Lie

In my current state of moving, I have been using those cardboard boxes that reams of paper come in, so that it currently looks like I am not really moving from one apartment to another, but rather that I am a lawyer moving offices.  And the source of those boxes has been Jen, whose school apparently is overrun with said boxes.  This led to me stopping by her house today to obtain more boxes (I'm up to around 10) and us going to Uno's with Melissa.

At this point, I don't even really need the menu at Uno's, because I am getting the Bring Home the Bacon Burger with spicy cheddar cheese if I'm hungry.  If not, then it'll probably be the buffalo chicken quesadilla, but since that's not a burger there's really no point in discussing it further.  In and of itself, the burger is not particularly noteworthy, because it's always awesome.  However, today was filled with tragedy.

There's really no reason to go to Uno's and not drink a few beers, so we decided to get beer.  When Melissa asked if they had Spring Ale on tap (an admittedly foolish question, as Spring Ale blows), the waitress told us they had switched to Summer Ale.  I, of course, was immediately overcome with emotion for two reasons:  the first being that Summer Ale coming out is like the best moment of the beer drinking calendar, and the second being embarrassed that I was surprised by it coming out so early.  Needless to say, we ordered a round.  Sadly, no matter what that waitress said, that was definitely NOT Summer Ale, and I have had a few (hundred) so I know what I'm saying here.  I don't know if it was Spring Ale in a Summer Ale keg, or just a mistake on the waitress's part, but the official start of drinking season is yet to come.  On the plus side, I did have a bunch of #9's, so the beer drinking was not a total loss.

-Jon