The Counter – Make Your Own Burger If You Dare

Made famous by Oprah (of course), The Counter has become a nationwide chain dishing out gourmet burgers made to order. No, literally.

What makes this place exceptional is its daring list of ingredients you can add to your burger to make it, truly, your own.

Things like hardboiled eggs, horseradish cheddar, peanut sauce, or grilled pineapple. Unlike Carl’s Jr., this is a $9 burger. But you get a big bang for your buck.

You pick your meat, the size of your meat, your bread, a choice of cheese, 4 toppings (more for an additional $1 each), and a sauce (more for more $). It’s really quite a good deal.

Me? I went for the unusual, the not-going-to-find-this-in-a-drive-thru kind of burger. The unforgettable, must take your picture kind of handheld heaven. The kind that makes the wait staff excited and mean it earnestly when they drop your plate off and smile, “Enjoy your burger.” If you devise something edgy and the waiter returns to ask you how it was, he’s really asking — tell him the cranberries balanced the spice of the chilis perfectly.

Officially, the Tasha Burger is 1/3 pound beef burger with ortega chiles, tillamook cheddar, lettuce, tomato, dried cranberries, and a fried egg nestled sweetly between an extra large English muffin with a side of roasted garlic aioli. The experience was messy, with cranberries flipping out all over the place, and egg drooling down my pinkies. But if you look around — everyone’s eating like that, so don’t be ashamed (just don’t speak of it ever again after you leave).

Add a side of cheese fries and ranch dressing dip and you have yourself over 2,000 calories on your plate. 2,000 calories of perfect deliciousness. Yes, you’ll feel disgusting afterwards. Yes, you’ll wish you and 24-Hour Fitness were attached at the hip. But it will be one of the best burgers and fries pair you’ll have all year, guaranteed. And the best part is, you can say you made it yourself…sort of.

To lighten up…go somewhere else. If that’s not a choice, try a turkey burger (Honestly, the Tasha Burger is converting to a turkey paddy next time; the beef plus all the other thousands of calories makes this meal uneccessarily heavy; I think turkey burgers have a great flavor and don’t take away from the experience at all). Try a wheat bun. And stick to toppings that aren’t creamy and are full of vitamins — the full list of veggie toppings should make this easy, and delectable.

The Counter is burgeoning all over the place, but check out its current locations here: http://www.thecounterburger.com/locations/

And check out their MENU at: http://www.thecounterburger.com/menu/

Adoro Mexican Grill – Los Angeles, CA

Adoro Mexican Grille, 7th + Fig

Wandering around the L.A. Convention Center during Siggraph, we decided to try 7th + Fig. Metro ads plastered about claimed it was the shopping and eating capital of downtown. Well, if it meant that Adoro, one of its few actual restaurants (they have a food court) was expensive, they were right about that.

Looking at the menu, it looked amazing. But $16 for a burrito just seemed irreligious. But CPK across the veranda was jam-packed with crazies willing to wait an hour for a pizza. So we sucked it up.

The menu is actually quite wonderful. It promises gourmet burritos and tacos and delivers. I can’t tell you much about the atmosphere inside, as we sat on the patio, but the seats were comfy, the table didn’t wobble, and the wait staff was friendly and knowledgable –albeit a bit absent at the end when a large group came in. (It took us 20 minutes to get our check, after asking for it twice. And the guys next to us never got their side of cheese or salt.)

I ordered the Burrito Fajita. A whole wheat tortilla stuffed with cheese, sauteed onions, peppers, tomatoes and guacamole. My mom ordered the carnitas.

They bring out delicious homemade chips with a trio of dipping salsas. One had a barbecue flavor to it, delicious and sweet and spicy. A green tomatillo sauce which was spicy hot. And, of course, the spicy pickled carrots and onions. They were all incredibly flavorful.

Once the food was brought out –and service was fast– it was to-die-for delicious. The guacamole was fresh, the vegetables tasted fresh, the ranchera salsa was excellent. Just so yum. In fact, I completely forgot to take a picture of it until it was halfway eaten. Sorry!

Burrito Fajita, Adoro Mexican Grille (half-eaten, oops)

My mom’s carnitas were also good. The meat looked very moist.

We also had a Kahlua cheesecake with orange-flavored whipped cream. Also very very good and full of delicious flavor. I’m not sure, though, if it was made in-house.

In the end, it was quite pricey. Nearly $20 for each of us (we got the dessert free with a coupon). I’m not used to spending that kind of money on Mexican food, but it was almost worth it this time around. A few dollars cheaper would’ve made more sense though.

PEOPLE: ***

FOOD: ****

PLACE: ****

OVERALL: ****

Check out their site at http://www.adorogrille.com/

The Cottage Restaurant in Laguna Beach, CA

The Cottage Restaurant (minus the patio)

I always think this restaurant is going to be better than it is.

After this picture was taken, they added an outdoor patio on the right-hand side. Great on wonderful SoCal days, but bad when they put flowers that attract bees on the table.

Waitstaff is friendly and professional.

Food? Overpriced. But, they give you a lot of it. And while it is nothing to write home about (unless you’re blogging home about it), the omelets and french toast and pancakes are average. Stay away from the homefries. I ordered a side with my pancakes ($6 for 2), and they were just boiled to mush with overcooked veggies and their moisture and grease eeked out on the plate. Just stay away from the potatoes altogether. Their cottage fries are crispy fingers of tastelessness.

I have yet to find a really good Laguna Beach breakfast haunt. My guess is they’re further away from the beach and off the beaten path, as most good things are.

PEOPLE: ****

PLACE: ***

FOOD: **

OVERALL: ***

Diva Lounge in Davis Square, Boston

Diva Lounge, Davis Square's "Hot" Spot

We came here to smoke hookas, which has always seemed like something that should be illegal but isn’t, but the hot Chinese waitress informed us that we could only smoke the hookas if we ordered food from the Diva Indian Bistro next door. As we had already eaten, we decided nay but sat down in the lounge anyway. There was a giant round couch with inviting cushions in the corner, so our group of 9 plopped down.

The cocktails were mostly creative. There was a pumpkin puree martini on the menu, which when I ordered –because heck, that sounded pretty damn weird– the waitress told us it was no longer on the menu, “Because it wasn’t very good.” Well, at least they’re willing to experiment here!

So instead I ordered a martini with blackberries on the bottom, which with the juice and liquers, got to be syrupy and thick. Yum. But two cost me $20, which I wasn’t too happy about.

Maybe they make you pay for the setting, which is pretty awesome. The bar’s ceiling and walls are lined with large square multi-colored lights and the benches of cushions have a very welcoming and exotic appeal to them.

The patrons were slightly skanky, as were a couple of the wait staff. Me thinks there were a couple of Chinese prostitutes at the bar, which made for a bit of an uncomfortable and unseemly atmosphere at points when they flashed too much skin or draped themselves over the redheaded nerd they were sitting with. Oddly enough, one of the waitresses joined in the draping over the redheaded nerd, which made me wonder about the type of staff the Diva Lounge was willing to hire. A bit sketchy. Though the service, as it were, was good.

We went on a weekday, but the weekends are probably packed with similar types and my guess is it’s a meat market of sexy-types. A great place to meet people if you’re into that, though.

PEOPLE: **

SETTING: ****

DRINKS: ****

OVERALL: ***

Getting Stir-Fried Rice Just Right

If you’re like me, you have a very white boyfriend who likes all things Asian, except not really. I’m only half-Asian and his favorite Asian dish is Orange Chicken. (Not that I can make fun with a straight face – I love it too, and grew up on Lemon Chicken from the local Golden Wok.)

In short, if you’re like me, you’ve spent some time trying to get just the right combination of veggies and meat into a healthy combination of stir-fried goodness.

This is what I came up with.

My model for this dish (Rainbow Fried Rice, Cookinglight)

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1/4 cup egg beaters
3/4 cup bok choy, chopped
2 cups chicken, chopped into edible pieces
4 cups cooked brown rice
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 cups shredded Chinese cabbage
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup minced green onions
1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

PREPARATION

Heat olive oil and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Once aromatic, add chicken pieces. Cook until done, about 2-4 minutes per side.

Add the vegetables, cook 1-2 minutes. Add the rice and soy sauce, mix thoroughly. Make a well in the center of the rice, and pour the egg beaters. Let cook slightly until a bit settled, then mix in with the rice.

After rice is warmed through, add sesame oil and green onions. Yum!

“Gordon Ramsay” on Jamie Oliver

Brits are so weird.

That Looks Nothing Like the Picture!

Obviously, the best cookbooks are ones with lots of great pictures. I’ll pretty much only make a recipe if I can see what it looks like as a final product. My reason is that I’m inexperienced, so I like the added confidence that I really can make the dish if it just ends up looking like that. Easy peasy.

But what I can never quite get a handle on is that MY final product never looks like the picture. Maybe it’s my greenness, or maybe it’s false advertising.

Exhibit A: Pad Thai from Cookinglight Magazine

Tofu Pad Thai

Now, this looks easy enough. Just a conglomerate of veggies and tofu –for which I fully-planned on substituting chicken. No prob.

Original Recipe:

4 oz uncooked wide rice sticks (rice-flour noodles)
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon red curry paste
3 garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups chopped reduced-fat firm tofu (about 8 oz.)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped broccoli
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/4 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Place noodles in a large bowl. Add boiling water to cover; let stand 10 minutes or until tender. Drain.

Combine vinegar and next 5 ingredients (vinegar through garlic) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Sprinkle tofu with salt, red pepper, and black pepper. Add tofu to pan; saute 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan. Add onion, broccoli, and carrot to pan; saute 4 minutes or until tender. Remove from pan. Add egg to pan; stir-fry 20 seconds or until soft-scrambled, stirring constantly.

Return tofu and onion mixture to pan. Stir in noodles and vinegar mixture; cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in juice, sprinkle with peanuts.

But then, I discovered I didn’t have rice noodles at home. Just whole wheat angel hair or spaghetti. Angel hair’s smaller, more like rice noodles, so in the pot they went.

I didn’t have cider vinegar to make the sauce, so I used rice vinegar instead.

I neither had tofu nor chicken. Vegetarian night it is!

I didn’t have broccoli or carrots, so I used the leftover veggies from a frozen bag medley of peas, lima beans, carrot squares, and broccoli. I also added a stalk or two of leftover bok choy, ‘cuz if I could put bok choy in everything, I would.

I had an egg, but since we’re going veggie, might as well be entirely healthy. I used a serving of egg beaters that equated 2 large eggs.

I neither used lime juice or peanuts; the first because I forgot, the latter because I don’t have any.

Instead of regular brown sugar, I used Splenda brown sugar because I have a bunch leftover from when I was on the South Beach Diet. You’re supposed to use less of the Splenda per tablespoon of brown sugar, but I used the full amount — because it worked really well in some brownies I’d once made, so why the hell not?

So, in the end, this is what MY version of the recipe looked like:

My Recipe:

4 oz. whole wheat angel hair pasta
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons Splenda brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon red curry paste
3 garlic cloves, minced
Cooking spray
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup frozen veggie medley
1 cup bok choy
4 oz. egg beaters

Place noodles in a large pot of water. Bring to a boil until tender.

Combine vinegar and next 5 ingredients (vinegar through garlic) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk, or in my case, a chopstick. [Use 2 tablespoons of Splenda brown sugar here, instead of the 3 mentioned above. Otherwise, it's too sweet. My bad.]

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onions, veggie medley, and bok choy to the pan. Saute 4 minutes or until tender. Make a hole in the center of the veggies, and pour in the egg beaters. Let sit until it stiffens slightly, then scramble with the stir-fry.

Stir in noodles and vinegar mixture. Cook 1 minute or until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and serve.

My version turned out two sweet, and a little watery. This could be because I used frozen veggies, but it was probably also due to the fact that whole wheat pasta does not soak up sauce as well as rice noodles. But it still tasted pretty darn good, and much better than the recipes I’ve tried before.

So the moral of the story?

I always improvise, so I should stop whining that my meals never look as pretty as the picture. On the other hand, improvising is the only way I learn things in the kitchen, and for that reason I’ll probably never get a picture-perfect meal at home.

Crepes

One of my favorite memories from college is going to Rockridge and hanging out with Gourmandette T at a place called the Crepevine. There, they served some of the best salads I’ve ever eaten and a orange concoction made from a blend of carrot, orange, and other juices. They didn’t skimp on portions either- salads could easily feed two, or just one of me. The crepes weren’t bad either. This is my tribute to fun times at the Crepevine. I love Nutella on crepes and sometimes I spread Nutella and raspberry preserves all over them. It becomes more like a dessert with the Nutella and preserves, but sometimes I need some motivation to get me out of bed in the mornings and a sweet breakfast perks me right up. That and some coffee. This recipe comes from the Food Network’s Alton Brown. Sometimes I halve the recipe, but you can also layer prepared crepes between pieces of wax paper and store them in the freezer.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 c. all-purpose flour

3 T. melted butter, cooled

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. water (or you could use all milk)

Possible additions: 2-1/2 T. sugar (definitely do this if you want sweet crepes), 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 T. liquer to the batter (or to taste)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender, pulse 10 seconds (or whisk everything in a bowl). Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Heat a small non-stick pan on medium heat. Add butter to coat. Pour half of a 1/4 c. measuring cup with the batter in the pan, swirl. Cook about 30 seconds and flip. Cook another 10 seconds, remove from pan. Continue with rest. Enjoy!

Red Lobster Biscuits

The thing I remember most about going to Red Lobster is not the seafood, oddly enough, but the biscuits that the waitress put on the table as soon as we sat down. Normally, I would inhale two of them minimum before my meal arrived. Even though I don’t eat there anymore, I enjoy this biscuits. If this isn’t the same recipe that the restaurant uses, it’s pretty darn close. They come out nice and flaky and buttery.

Ingredients:

2-1/2 c. Bisquick baking mix

4 T. (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter

1 heaping c. grated cheddar cheese

3/4 c. cold whole milk

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Topping for biscuits:

2 T. butter, melted

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. dried parsley flakes (optional)

pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine Bisquick with cold butter in a medium bowl using a pastry cutter or a large fork. You don’t want to mix too thoroughly. There should be small chunks of butter in there that are about the size of peas. Add cheddar cheese, milk and 1/4 tsp. garlic powder. Mix by hand until combined, but don’t over mix.

Drop approximately 1/4 c. portions of the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet using an ice cream scoop or measuring cup. Bake 15 to 17 minutes, or until the tops of the biscuits begin to turn light brown.

When you take the biscuits out of the oven, melt the 2 T. of butter (for topping) in a small bowl in the microwave. Stir in 1/2 tsp. garlic powder and the dried parsley flakes. Use a brush to spread garlic butter over the tops of all the biscuits.

Tomato Corn Salsa

This recipe comes from Sara Moulton’s cookbook Sara Moulton Cooks at Home.  It’s actually the topping for a turkey burger recipes, but I loved the salsa so much on it’s own that I usually just make the salsa.  Serve with chips.  You don’t have to strain the cherry tomatoes- my mom doesn’t and objects when I do whenever I make it for her.

Ingredients:

12 cherry tomatoes, finely chopped

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. corn kernels (cooked fresh, thawed frozen, or, my preference, raw kernels)

1 T. lime juice

1 garlic clove, minced

1 T. chopped fresh cilantro (still good if you don’t have any)

2 tsp. olive oil

Additional salt and pepper to taste.

Directions:

Toss tomatoes with salt and drain in a colander for 15 minutes.

Combine tomatoes, corn, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, and olive oil in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Toss well and enjoy!