Fatburger - the last great hamburger stand!

The first time we visited Vegas, we had a Fat Burger. I think you might remember this picture:

 

ooh what a blondie! 

I’m not sure if any of you remember me going on about these burgers from Fatburger with sizes that went up to 24Oz – yes 24OZ of beef?!

So this time when we headed to Vegas on our route to Vancouver it was on our list of places to visit. We walked all the way up the strip from the Flamingo to be faced with this rather disturbing site:

 

Noooooo!!!! Why God why??!!!

We were terribly upset to say the least. 

After looking on their website to see if there was another Fatburger in Vegas we could visit we realized… Vancouver. 

They have not one, no not even two, but three, yes three in Vancouver.

So what started off as a very saddening revelation of not getting our Vegas treat, we had at least six months of the ability to eat Fatburger when we chose. Hoo bloomin’ ray!

So what makes Fatburger so special. OK apart from the fact that you are able to get a burger that is 24OZ, hamburger people are said to develop a cult-like devotion to Fatburger. 

Well I can tell you it’s true. Devotion. 

Fatburgers are made with real beef burgers made when you order it with FRESH, LEAN BEEF; dressed to your specifications with the best quality condiments.

We were slightly worried that after nearly two years of eating a Fatburger we may have built this amazing taste sensation up in our heads. Especially now as we have had tasted some pretty awesome burgers since living in North America. Would it stand up to what we we remembered it to be?

Dum dum duuuum…

We headed to the Fatburger on West Broadway. It was a lot smaller than what we had expected. But still we shuffled in and ordered.

Dave ordered a Bacon and Cheese and I chose the California burger.

We were given our number, filled up our drink container with root beer (we have both become slightly obsessed with root beer) and we waited. 

Burgers were coming out and we were salivating. Finally our number came.

Well tell me what you think, I think these pictures show their glory…

The California Burger, with lashings of guacamole, maple bacon and cheese.

Dave's bacon and cheese with homestyle fries.

Sorry the lettuce got in the way a bit but Dave wouldn't let me take any more pictures as he needed to bite it.

Ahhh. I don't know why we were worried. Fatburger lived up to what we had remembered. 

Devoted.

Next time though, I will be attempting the 24oz burger (I heard you get a Tshirt).

Next time.

Alexandra Road in Richmond aka Food Street - Cattle Hot Pot.

Our last night in Richmond, and what a better way to celebrate than heading down to the heart of Richmond's Golden Village to Alexandra Road - Vancouver’s "Wai Sek Kai" or "Food Street." In all the guide books and websites I’ve read, Richmond is said to have the best Chinese food outside of China.

Alexandra Road has over 200 Asian restaurants packed into three short blocks, including all different types of Asian cuisine including Cantonese, Szechuan, Shanghainese, Northern Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and more.  

We asked Lui (the guy who’s house we are staying in) which was a good place to eat. His answer was pretty simple. “They’re all good! If they weren’t, they just wouldn’t survive here. It’s all Asian people eating in them and if they suck, they close down.”

So we were pretty excited about the prospect of this “Food Street.”

It was unfortunately pouring with freezing cold rain (not an odd occurrence in Vancouver), so we didn’t take too much time walking around the restaurants. Some apparently don’t even look like restaurants. 

We found one that looked really busy, the Cattle hot pot, which we thought was good stuff for a Tuesday night.

A hot pot or steamboat is where you have a simmering metal pot of stock at the centre of the dining table on a hot plate - usually built into the table).  

The Cattle hot pot offers an ALL-U-Can-Eat menu, where you choose your soup – and then you can have unlimited amounts of thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. 

The menu is a bit like ordering dim sum, where you have a pencil and just tick away.

They bring the hot pot with the soup to your table and the raw ingredients. The hot pot is kept simmering on the table and you cook the ingredients yourself in the hot pot. 

We chose the satay soup. 

We had already had a few hotpots in Thailand so we knew what we needed to do this time!

On this image you can see sliced sirloin steak, marinated beef, chicken.

Fresh kings prawns, lotus root, rice noodles.

Medley of mushrooms.

Feshly made lobster balls, goyoza, wontons.

You also have a metal scoop each and a ladle for the table to scoop out your food when it’s cooked. You are also given extra chili to add to season your dish in your bowl.

In the background is bok choy and spinach.

The trick is to not chuck everything in at once (which is what we did the first time!). Think of what takes a bit longer to cook and add that first. You also just keep adding new bits of food in as you eat so the food is so freshly cooked the way you like it.

The waitresses are constantly coming around topping up your green tea and the soup which is great. You can also keep ordering more food to add to your hot pot.

The food was totally delicious. I was stuffed.

Double thumbs up for Food Street!

Vancouver food crawl... dougieDOG's, WINGS and La Belle Patate Poutine!

As we hadn't quite had enough junk food from Vegas, we thought hey why not have another afternoon of beer and good Canadian fast food?!

Starting off our mini crawl was dougieDOGs. We'd seen this guy on the Canadian version of Dragons Den. He didn't get the money, but his dogs looked and sounded amazing! Dougie had re-invented the hotdog and introduced all-natural dogs, free of hormones, preservatives and chemical additives.

Styled on the European hotdog recipes using only meat and seasoning and married these beautiful wieners with weird and wonderful toppings, like their signature DougieDOG with Italian Pastrami, grey poupon, mustard, horseradish and cheddar cheese – you can check out all their weird and wonderful concoctions here on the menu.

The Coney Island dog was the dog of choice. All natural hotdog slathered in homemade beef chili, chopped onions and mustard.

The first thing you notice when you bite, is the "pop". mmmm just tasted so good, and I didn't have to worry about biting on a piece of something I wasn't sure of - which is generally what puts me off eating that type of meat. The chili in a Coney Dog should be bean-less - just meat and spice, which it was here. Even though I do prefer beans, I was happy Dougie is keeping it real!

Next was WINGS. Yes the actual place is called WINGS, so I'm sure you can guess what their specialty is...

We also hit the jackpot when we arrived as between 3-5 is happy hour for wings, only 35 cents a wing - woohoo!! Not only are they award winning wings, but they also offer 21 flavours ranging from mild to the Bobby Wing where you have to sign a release form to eat them.

OK, so we weren't that brave, but opted for the original Buffalo wings ( I just can't get enough of that flavour) and some Texas Dry Rub. All washed down with a pitcher of Sleeman Honey Brown lager.

I'm sorry this picture doesn't quite do the wings justice, but to be honest the wings were so damn good that I couldn't wait another minute before I shoved them in my mouth. You could tell these wings were not cooked in the fryer as the meat just fell off the bones, and as good as the dry rub was, the Buffalo style sauce is still my favourite.

We had a bit of a break after to watch the Canucks (Vancouver's nhl team) vs the Predators, which they won. I'm starting to really like watching the hockey...

After the game victory and another pitcher of beer, we needed another food high and what better that Canada's own Poutine? We had walked past La Belle Patate a few times who boasted 24 different types of poutine, so we just had to make a stop there. You can get anything from smoked meat poutine to breakfast poutine.

Lots of places have game day deals, where of the Canucks are playing they have awesome deals on food and drink and La Belle Patate was no exception. Two poutines for $8, we slightly considered the "all you can eat for $19.95" but decided you would need to be able to eat a lot of poutine to make that worth while!!

We sat and waited and after about 5 minutes a very red eyed guy came over and said he had forgotten about the fries and burnt them. Hmmm, I think this sort of thing must happen quite often in Vancouver judging by the general green aroma. But we didn't mind at all and he even offered us two larger sized portions to say sorry for the wait.

Now the picture below may or may not tickle your taste buds, but until you have tried poutine... you just don't know what you're missing. I'm totally hooked.

My first Canadian Beaver Tail

So I've eaten Poutine, drank Tim Hortons but I was still yet to try a beaver tail. Don't worry it's not actual beaver tail, they're a type of fried dough in the shape of... a beaver's tail!



You can choose from an array of flavours from maple butter, skor bar, Oreo cookie, rieces pieces, chocolate and banana. We went for a hazlenut chocolate spread.



It was so delicious, I thought it might be too greasy being fried but it was just really crispy and quite light - well the dough not the Nutella!!



I also ended up looking just like this little girl... Mmm beaver tails rock!

Doing Chicago "Doggy Style" at The Wieners Circle and The Dog Joint in Lincoln Park

Before we arrived in Chicago, I carried out a little research into what a real Chicago dog is all about. I wanted to ensure we were up to speed on what we should expect.

From several sources, I discovered that a real Chicago hot dog consists of:

A poppy seed bun

All beef steamed or simmered hot dog

Sweet relish (the green kind)

Mustard

Chopped onions

Pickle spear

Small pickled chillies

Dusted in celery salt

Some have cucumber and some include fresh mint.

But under NO circumstances is there to e ketchup... Oh no no, ketchup is a sin for the dogs of Chicago. (although all the vendors seem to offer it, so I'm sure they don't mind that much).

First place we hit up was the Wieners Circle by Lincoln Park.

The Wieners Circle Chicago

It was a bit like a trailer inside a building and they offered both redhots and char dogs. But the red hots it what we were after, with all the toppings - mustard, relish, onions, pickles, tomato, celery salt, sport peppers.

The Wieners Circle Menu

And this is what we got.

 

Wieners Circle Chicago Hot Dog

Oh momma! It was Gooood with a capital G! So fresh, with all the toppings. I thought I might miss the ketchup, being an avid lover of the red stuff, but I didn't even notice it's absence. I think the secret ingredient is definitely the celery salt.

Delicious Chicago Redhot hot dog

Later on in the day, hunger struck and I still had the faint taste of the celery salt lingring on my tongue, reminding me of how delicious the dog was. So, we had another.

This time, we went to The Dog Joint, not far from the Wieners Circle.

The Dog Joint Chicago

The dog was slightly cheaper than the Wieners Circle, and the main difference was the addition of cucumber. I must say it was a very much welcomed addition and we both preferred this dog, although they were both pretty special. Let's here for the Chicago Redhots!!

The Dog Joint Chicago Hot Dog

Toronto Distillery District – Free Mill Street Brewery Tour

We’d been in TO for nearly six months but we hadn’t both made it to the Distillery District yet.

As on their website “you must experience it for yourself. The Distillery District is an internationally acclaimed village of brick-lined streets and dozens of vibrantly restored Victorian Industrial buildings.”

55 Mill Street is claimed to be one of Ontario’s hottest tourist attractions - home to live theatres, galleries, fashion, design and jewelry boutiques, unique cafes and award-winning restaurants and of course the Mill Street Brewery! The area has a real historic vibe to it, which you don’t really tend to find in many places in TO.

There was even an English bakery which sold proper meat pies, we tried to get a cup of hot chocolate from the chocolate shop, but the queue was ridiculous and filled with staff who acted as if there were only two people in line.

There are also great art instillations around the area which contrast with the old bricks and cobbles.

We made our way over the Mill Street Brew Pub.

We had thought about going to the Steam Whistle brewery tour, but neither of us like Steam Whistle that much (although I was slightly tempted by the ride on the train!) but $25 vs free, we went with free!

The tours are available on weekends at 3pm and 5pm. We congregated in the retail store to the side of the bar at 4.45 and waited for our “tour”. At 5pm we were all walked through the busy bar and restaurant into a tiny microbrewery at the back of the bar. As we all shuffled into the small area we all listened in to a great talk on the history of beer.

How it’s made. The different stages it goes through to create the different types. It was really interesting. I never knew the reason why the Irish drank stout was because dark beer never used to be taxed.

We also found out the Mill Street bar was actually built for a set for the film Chicago! So all in all, it wasn’t really a tour, but more of a talk, but a really great one at that. We then washed our new found insight down with a nice pint of Mill Street Organic. Ahh.

Our Canadian Christmas Cabin Adventure – Part 3 – Boxing Day

Boxing Day is now officially buttermilk pancake day. Fact. I did cheat and bought the mix, but it was so easy and made the best pancakes – although I did opt for the add eggs and milk rather than just water (give me some credit please).  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, streaky bacon (yes the maple kind) and of course… maple syrup. It was almost as good as my favourite International House. Almost. 

After another huge feast of pancakes we took a drive to find Eugenia Falls. We ended up getting the car stuck on the hill down to the car park. Luckily we remembered we were in Canada and people are very helpful and friendly. Within a few minutes of burning the rubber of the tyres trying to reverse, a whole family joined me in pushing the car (including two really cute kids) back up the hill and off the ice. As much as we were embarrassed being the “English couple that got stuck” we weren’t made feel that way at all. I’m sure if that was England, if someone did come to help you, it would have had to end in some smart arse comment I’m sure. After finding a safe, horizontal and non iced surface to park and went for a walk on a side trail of the Bruce Trail along Eugenia Falls. The weather was just perfect.

Our walk had worked up an appetite of cold cuts, home made sausage rolls (I used the left over stuffing for the middle) Bubble and squeak cakes using all the left over vegetable from Christmas lunch and not forgetting yummy Home made coleslaw. Ever since my friend Lizzy made me home made coleslaw, it was so delicious I don’t think I would ever buy it again. You can read my recipe here: Home Made Coleslaw.

Our Canadian Christmas Cabin Adventure – Part 2 - Christmas Day

Christmas morning came. Dave was up and making me coffee and getting the Pillsbury croissants in the oven. I love Christmas! We had bubbles opened our prezzies, called our families and watched the BEST CHRISTMAS FILM EVER – Elf… Saaaantaaaa! I know him.

It was so nice to chat to our families over Skype. It felt really weird to not be with anyone else, just us. After a walk around the lake we had our delicious feast. While I prepared we watched a friends DVD from the video store – it’s amazing how comforting it is to see Friends - especially after not seeing any for a while. I think the last time I saw an episode was in Vang Vien (but that not so comforting – just weird!).

Our Festive Feast (all recipes derived form the good old BBC Food site – thank you beeb!)

For starter Creamy pesto with prosciutto dippers - This was really easy and not too heavy.

Followed by wrapped turkey breast stuffed with cranberries and chestnuts. As there were only two of us I used chicken breast instead, which I think, was actually nicer than turkey. It came out so good, especially with the other stuffing. We had loads left over for cold cuts too.

With the chicken: Spiced red cabbage (I didn’t have all those things so I just used wine, all spice and orange – like mulled wine I guess!), rosemary and garlic roast potatoes, honey glazed carrots and parsnips and or course Devils on horseback and pigs in blankets. What do you think? MMMMM If I do say so myself.

It’s after eating all of that massive dinner you wonder why, oh why did I thin I could eat this and everything else planned?!! Although… we did manage to tuck away a large amount of chocolate and cheese during the day too. Oh and chocolate Yule log. Ha.

You can read Part 3 here

Dangerous Dan’s fulfils my need for beef… on a Sunday – Halleluiah

So we rode on our bikes out to the Toronto beaches and were going to treat ourselves to a Burger’s Priest as we had heard so much about it, but the Priest goes to Church on Sunday – pah! So we were mighty disappointed.

On our ride home we were foaming at the mouths for a burger, but had built up the anticipation so much we didn’t want to just settle fro something sub-par. That’s when we stumbled upon Dangerous Dan’s on the corner of Broadview Avenue and Queen Street East – who claims to have the best burger in Toronto and you can sit in – score!

The place is awesome, old car chair diner seats, signs that insult vegetarians and an open kitchen to tease you with the smell of flame grilling meat mmmm. The menu has everything you can thing of from steak dinners, ribs, wings, breakfast and of course, burgers! There is even a symbol against certain foods: Recommended for Medicinal Cannabis Users (intended as humor only).

You can have a 24 ounce bulls balls burger, or a "McEwan" with 10oz NY steak freshly ground into a hamburger patty, mixed with beer, shitake and oyster mushrooms, camembert and brie cheese along with a 4oz pan fried Lobster Tail drizzled with clarified butter. As much as I really wanted to have a go at one of those amazing challenges, we opted for cheese and bacon burger, fries and onion rings.

We ordered at the counter and waited hesitantly, while playing trivia with the Simpsons character poster next to us. [I really think Dave should choose the Simpsons if he ever were to go on Mastermind]. Out came a desert for someone – deep fried mars bars, they looked amazing. I was so excited.

The burger came. They were pretty busy so the service wasn’t too fast. Long enough to build to the suspense, but not too long I started to eat the ketchup.



Wow. I admired it for a while (and took some pics to share).

Then I dived in. It was all I wanted in a burger. The beef was moist and cooked just right. There was the right amount of crispy bacon and cheese and the bun held together well. Fries were fat and crispy, but would have preferred skin on. The only thing I thought wasn’t up to scratch was the onion rings. They were a bit too greasy.

$5.99 (cheese & peameal burger)

Overall pretty frickn awesome – best burger I have had in Toronto so far.

I want to go back to attempt something off the Double D menu and some chocolate salty balls…

How to make a roast chicken dinner

One of my friends at work is worrying as it’s her husband’s first Christmas without him family this year. She wants to make it special, but seeing as she is Jewish and can’t cook, she is really struggling.

So I wrote this to help her out and learn how to cook a roast chicken dinner, so I thought I would share. It’s actually easier than you think.

The key to a perfect roast dinner is... timing!

An average size chicken will take between 1.5 – 2 hours – check on the packet it should tell you, or ask butcher for the weight. As a general rule, calculate a cooking time of 20 minutes per pound of meat plus an additional 20 minutes at a temperature of 375ºF (190ºC). So a 5 lb chicken will need to be roasting in the oven for at least 1h 50 mins. A 5 lb bird will serve between 4 - 5 people.

Pre-heat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).

Make sure there is nothing inside the chicken – in the UK they sometimes leave the giblets in for people to cook with, but I’m not sure if they do that here or not. I had a friend once who forgot to check and roasted her chicken with a plastic packet of giblets in – how depressing would that be when you went to carve!!

Cut a large carrot (no need to peel) into quarters – i.e. in half long ways and across. Place the quarters flat surface down in the middle of a roasting pan (the metal dish with raised sides).

Cut an onion in half, again no need to peel. Put one half or both – dependent on the size of your bird – into the chicken cavity. Place the chicken on top of the quarters of carrots – these will raise-up the chicken slightly from the bottom of the pan. Drizzle olive oil over the chicken’s skin and rub over with your hands. Grind pepper and if you have some fresh time or tarragon (or both!) break up and sprinkle over the top – it will stick to the oil. Don’t put salt on it yet.

Include a cup of white wine (doesn’t matter what type) and a cup of water into the roasting dish. Break off a large piece of tinfoil to cover the chicken and roasting dish. Place into oven so it is in the middle of the oven – you might need to adjust the shelf. If it’s too high up it might burn.

**Look at the clock and make a note of the time.**

00.00 - The roast clock starts now!

00.30 - After 30 mins, take the chicken out flip back the tinfoil. Spoon (or a baster if you have one) the wine and water over the chicken, do this a few times. If the water looks like it’s disappearing put another half a cup in. Cover back over and put back into the oven.

Now for the roast spuds… some people think it only takes about 30 minutes to roast potatoes. They’re wrong. You want to allow the potatoes a good hour in the oven. Get good potatoes. At home we would use King Edwards or Maris Pipers, I don’t think you have them here so try and find an Idaho Russet.

I’m lazy when I cook, I can’t be bothered to peel and apparently the skin on potatoes is the best bit for you so I leave it on – but it’s personal choice. Once you’ve washed (and peeled if you prefer) your potatoes cut them into quarters and put into a pan for boiling. Boil until the potatoes start to “fall” i.e. they start looking a bit like they’re going to fall apart. If you leave the skin on, you can see the skin starting to fall away from the centre. It should take about 10 minutes, but don’t leave them too long or you’ll have mash! Drain the spuds and leave then in the colander with a teal towel over them.

01.00 – repeat spooning of the chicken – ooh err. Remove tinfoil, keep for later. Drizzle chicken skin with more olive oil and sprinkle with salt – best to use the rough salt. Put back into the oven.

Dependant on the size of the chicken - count backwards 30 minutes from the time you need to take the chicken out of the oven to work out when you need to put your spuds in. (Let’s base this recipe on a 5lb chicken).

I like to do my potatoes in olive oil, but if you want to go all out fancy for Christmas you can buy some goose fat. Either way you want to put the fat or oil (a nice lot to cover the bottom of the pan) into the pan and heat it in the oven for about 5 minutes. While that’s heating, pour the potatoes back into the pan they cooked in drizzle more olive oil over them. Add in some sprigs of Rosemary (preferable fresh) and some bashed garlic clothes – four or five. These again don’t need to be peeled, just bash them with the bottom of the knife or a rolling pin so you break the skin and they look a bit squashed. The secret of great roast spuds is to bash them up a bit. So put the lid on the pan and shake the spuds with the oil, rosemary, garlic and some salt and pepper around so they are coated in oil and the edges are roughed up.

01.20 - Take the pan out of the oven - be very careful as its hot fat. Place on a sturdy service – top of the oven is always good. Pour spuds into the pad – again careful it doesn’t splash. Use some tongs and turn the spuds in the hot oils so they are coated. Put the spuds into the oven

This is a good time to wash up any dishes you’ve accumulated so far so you don’t have such a big job at the end.

Now you can prepare your vegetables. I like carrots and broccoli. Peel and chop the carrots and put into a pan of water and leave with a lid on the stove. Break or cut the broccoli into small florets and put into a bowl on the side.

01.40 – use the tongs and turn the potatoes in the oil or fat. You want to make sure all the sides get crispy. Don’t worry if they haven’t started getting brown yet. If there are any spuds that look like they’re cooking more than others, just swap them over. Put back in the oven.

1.50 – take the chicken out. Push a knife or skewer into the chicken where the bones are i.e. in the joints of the leg and in the main breast. Pull the knife out and push against the chicken. The juice should run clear. If the juice looks slightly pink – don’t worry just pop back in for another 10 mins and repeat until juices run clear. When the chicken is ready to remove, move potatoes to centre of oven if they weren’t already.

Take a pan and tip the juice from the chicken roasting dish into it – you might need some help with this or if you have a baster you could use that. Once you have got all the juice, take the piece of tinfoil you removed earlier and cover the chicken leave on the side to rest. 

Add another cup of wine to the pan with the chicken juice and add a chicken stock cube. Reduce down (keep boiling until it gets thicker). Taste the gravy, add in some herbs or pepper if you think it needs something. Careful with adding salt as stock cubes are already salty. Use a whisk to help thicken. Keep your eye on it. Add a bit more wine if you need to.

2.00 - Check the potatoes. Turn them with the tongs as before.

You’ve got a bit of time to set the table. If you want to put the vegetables in dishes on the table, pop the dishes, gravy boat and your plates on top of the oven by the vent so they warm up.

If you’re having wine, open the bottle now.

2.10 - put the carrots on and ask the man of the house to come and carve the chicken (or leave until you are sat on the table if you want to be like the Griswolds.

2.15 – put the broccoli in the pan on top of the carrots – don’t worry if the water doesn’t cover them as they will steam. Put the gravy into the gravy boat. It’s good for the gravy to cool a little before you serve as it thickens. If it looks like there is a lot of fat from the chicken in the gravy, simply use a spoon or baster to skim the top and remove.

2.20 – check the carrots and stems of broccoli with a knife, it should glide in easily. Drain water and place into bowl. Take out potatoes and put into bowl serve with the bits of garlic as it looks nice.

2.21 – serve and enjoy!!