One Man’s Burger Odyssey, Pt. III — the Skinny Girls Burger

13 Sep 2011 1 Comment

by scolgin in Observations, Video, World's Best Sandwiches Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

So here I am back in the Skinny Girls kitchen — my “burger lab.” Eating so many different burgers, thinking and writing about burgers, got me wondering what I’d learned in my odyssey — besides where to go for a good burger, which I mostly already knew. How would what I had discovered, exposited on, praised the virtues of or extolled upon the deficiencies of ultimately affect my own approach to burger making? Had there been an “aha” moment?

The Skinny Girl Burger

Curiously, the two biggest takeaways came from thinking about Umami Burger, which was one of my least favorite of the places I wrote about (less because of their burgers than my reflexive aversion to anything trendy). More

Pa Amb Tomàquet

07 Apr 2011 1 Comment

by scolgin in Recipes, Video Tags: , , , , ,

Every so often, just because I’m a giver, I give you one of my very best secret recipes. (“Secret” unless you live in northern Spain, where it’s about as secret as Pablo Picasso.) It’s called pa am tomàquet, which is not quite as intimidating as it looks. Say it like this: “pom too-maket”. You can call it “Spanish toast with tomato and olive oil,” if you prefer. (Though that will be less impressive to your friends.)

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Responding to the Avant Garde

22 Feb 2011 5 Comments

by scolgin in Observations, On the Road Tags: , , , , , , ,

Ferran Adria & staff on the beach at Cala Montjoi

I once exchanged emails with el Bulli. If you’re one of the increasingly few people on Earth who have not heard of el Bulli, it’s a restaurant on an isolated bay called Cala Montjoi on Spain’s Costa Brava, a couple hours north of Barcelona. And even if you’ve not heard of it, you’ve been eating its influence whether you recognized it or not for years. More