If your motivation for stopping at a fast food place is the value proposition, calories for dollars, one would be hard-pressed to top the Jumbo Deal currently on offer at Jack in the Box.  A Jumbo Jack burger (at least 1/4 pound pre-cooked, in my estimation), two tacos, small fries, and a beverage.  That’s  1200 calories, more if you don’t go with a diet soft drink.   A day’s worth of food for most people, for less than $3.50.  That’s less then most of the premium sandwiches at McDonald’s.  (Big Macs and Quarter Pounders with cheese are 540 and 510 calories, respectively, according to the McDonald’s nutrition info on their website.  A big burger there, essentially three sides, and a drink are going to be more than double in price at McDonald’s then this offering at JITB.

To my taste, this burger patty tops McD’s (even their Angus, which I have previously opined to me tastes exactly like a larger version of the quarter-pounder).   To get a better grip on the patty taste, I ditched the chopped lettuce, tomatoes and mayo.

I like the fact that Jack in the Box offers all of their menu at all hours.  Mostly because that means all of the condiments are out at all times, so whether your taste leans towards dousing your burger with pancake syrup, or putting Buffalo chicken sauce on your eggs, Jack’s is the place to do that.

Like White Castle, I have fond memories of visiting Jack in the Box late nites when I didn’t remember being there the next day, and wouldn’t have, if I hadn’t rolled over in bed to find taco crumbs.

But today I am attracted to their 24 hour menu, and of course their commercials.  I also respect them because some years ago, I wrote them a letter pointing out a question I had about one of their tv commercials, and they replied kindly, and changed the commercial.  While I don’t remember exactly, I suspect there were food coupons in the letter I received from them.  That kind of customer service from a company HQ always endears me to them.

I’ve never paid all that much attention to JITB fries, but they are quite good as well, are obviously real potatoes, and fried nicely in a lighter oil than many establishments use.    My neighborhood Jack is always spotless, and the servers are cordial.

So I’m pumping the Jumbo Deal today, which the poster says “is for a limited time.”  I hope that means “awhile.”

(Photo  below is from Jack in the Box Corporate PR website, used under their restrictions).

Received this recipe in an email from King Arthur’s flour – (recipe here) – for Chicago Deep Dish pizza, and decided to try it out. I followed the recipe ingredients precisely with one notable difference, I used King Arthur’s Perfect Pizza Blend flour in lieu of “All Purpose.”

The recipe says this makes one large pie, but with 4 C of flour, in my experience, that’s more dough that you will need. I ended up with two extra balls of dough (which I freeze, with good results, thawing overnight in the frig before using), enough for another couple of 12″ thin crusts.

Another mistake I made was using a fairly deep springform pan. While it made for easy removal of the pie, I had tried to bring the crust over the top of the pan for shape, and that was a goof on my part, but correctable, tho not aesthetically pleasing, after baking.

I make my dough with the KitchenAid, 7 minutes with the dough hook. This recipe calls for 3 T of corn meal, and Mrs. BDB likes her ‘za to have more than that. After a 90 minute rise, I rolled the dough out with my “Swedish Rolling Pin” (what my mother called it, not sure of the actual name), and I fold the dough in quarters to make placement in the pan easier.

I let it rest in the pan for 15 minutes while pre-heating the oven.  Baked ten minutes while I was preparing the Italian sausage, which I formed and shaped into the same size of the pie, and pre-cooked so that the fat wouldn’t make the crust soggy.

Assembly, in the traditional Chicago deep dish manner, is a) crust, b) sausage, c) sauce, d) chopped tomatoes and a bit more cheese for effect.   Bake for 25 minutes and then let it rest for 15 before attempting to slice.

I was quite pleased with the results, it’s a fairly good clone of Lou Malnati’s or other Chicago outlets.   I used a combination of provolone and mozzarella for the bottom layer of cheese and a sprinkle of Asiago for the top.   The sauce was cheap Contadina pizza sauce in a can, which I favor, and the sausage was Johnsonville Hot Italian links that I removed the casings and flattened out.    Extra garlic, fennel, and basil for me, please!

My only real disappointment was the crust.   While I have had spectacular results with King Arthut’s Pizza Blend for thin crust pizzas, it wasn’t the best choice here, the sides of the pie were cooked far more than the bottom, resulting in a range of crispy to chewy, which probably most people will like.

Even a small (10-12″) will feed three.  So if you aren’t planning on freezing dough, you might halve this recipe.

Pics below show the sausage pre-cooking (drain before putting in the pie), the pie just out of the oven (note the crust is “too high”), and a cross section of a slice.

At dinner the other night at 23Hoyt, my companion was talking up the burgers at Nancy’s Kitchen, so he invited me to try one today. I’ve heard and read about the meat patties from a variety of online sources, so I was more than happy to accept his invitation.

Located in an upscale strip mall (is that an oxymoron?) in the Pearl District in NW Portland, Nancy’s offers French & American cuisine and gets huge raves from reviewers for their amply-sized portion breakfasts.

(Sidebar:) OK, I took the phrase “upscale strip mall” from something else I read. It’s not. It’s the cafe and a hardware store, with another slot vacant. When I first read “upscale strip mall”, I was thinking like a Cartier Boutique.

Anyway, the place wasn’t busy, I thought it would be for weekend breakfast, the menu of which looks very promising. I posted the breakfast menu at Urban Spoon.

We sat down, he’s a regular, the staff recognized him, and asked after his wife. Drink orders taken (me a chocolate malt, HE A DIET COKE), we perused a menu placed in front of us for no reason, we were there for burgers.

“Friend,” I asked, “what’s the special sauce?” He replied that he didn’t know, he used to order the patties without it, but now he doesn’t, for he said it was the sauce that made them stand above the mundane (I believe he cited Carl’s Jr as an example of mundane).

The server asked if we wanted tomato and onion, we both passed on the tomato, accepted the onions, he went with his burger au natural, I went with a slab o’ Tillamook Cheddar. Every day chips come as the side, you can substitute or tater salad or an additional sum. It would seem Nancy’s is sans a deep fryer.

After a very short wait, our burgers came, they were pretty, the buns soft and buttery, and the special sauce (methinks mayo and thousand) did add a nice touch. I’m not usually one for “special sauce,” but in this case, I went with it to judge the burger as the chef intended.

It’s a good burger. Spendy, but a worth addition to BDB’s rounds in PDX Burgerland.

Thanks, Bill.

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Loc

I went to hit some food carts today, and it was too damned cold. I guess my cut-off point, temperature-wise, to dine al fresco atop a garbage can, newspaper stand, or parking meter is about 5drinke2 degrees.

Standing on Third and Washington looking at carts, Huber’s caught my eye. I’ve been meaning to stop by here, after all, it is Portland’s oldest restaurant, and that’s a good enough endorsement for me.

Inside, it’s an old man’s paradise. Dark, wood paneled walls, terrazzo floors, largely untouched, decor wise, for years. They opened in 1879, moved to their present location in 1910, a saloon first, they used to give away turkey sandwiches and their double x secret recipe cole slaw to drinksters. That was common back in the day, and many bars were especially fond of giving out salty snacks, to get you to drink more.

Prohibition could have crushed them, but a group of civic-minded denizens somehow persuaded the restaurantuer to sell the sandwiches he had been giving away, and so he did, eventually adding other roasted meats like ham, steaks, and veal to the menu.

Their specialty is roasted turkey. Which means you can have Thanksgiving dinner every day of the year! Damned nice!

They even have burgers on the menu, including buffalo, but no turkey burgers. (Whot?!) I could have gone for another burger, it had been twelve whole hours.

I was even enjoying the view from my window of folks standing out in front of the food carts, shivering. Not me. Heh heh heh.

Few of you know that next to burgers, dogs, and pizza, there are few things that tickle my taste buds like a good club sandwich. And what better place to try one than at a turkey restaurant.

Screech, back up. I have to say that after my ‘bad service’ experience last nite, the service at Huber’s was OVER THE TOP. From the drink guy to the waitress to the maitre’d to the bartender, everyone was smiling, cordial. It was great.

My sandwich was out in short order, and was accompanied by a side of their special slaw. There are very few slaws I like, but this one goes to the top of the list. Creamy and tart at the same time, with the vegetables diced instead of chopped, so that the salad had a very smooth texture and nice tang to it. Sixteen thumbs up!

What makes a good club for me? The traditional recipe, turkey, bacon, lettuce, mayo, triple-decker on white toast. If the toast is a little coarse and thick, all the better. But the lettuce has to be crisp, mayo deliciously creamy, the turkey real, and roasted, the bacon crisp, and if thick, even better.

As one would expect, or at least hope, Huber’s exceed my expectations. This has to be in the top 3 club sandwiches I have had anywhere on the planet.

My waitress, and the guy serving coffee, had the friendliest attitudes and nicest smiles, made for a great experience.  I over tipped, with great pleasure.

And who can’t love the decor, and the bar? It’s my new man cave, downtown PDX version for sure.

Footnote:  Huber’s “Signature Drink” is Spanish coffee.  They are the largest user of Kahlua in the State, and one of the largest users in the country.  The drink is prepared table-side “with great flair,” according to their puff piece.

Menu online here.

Sorry about the pic.  Not sure what went on with the color.  Too lazy to tweek it!

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Our Atlanta Burger Reporter checks in after a visit to Flip Burger Boutique. Man, this is a menu to die for. Steak Tartare Burger? (swoon). Chicken Fried Steak Burger? (Bigger swoon!). CHORIZO BURGER? (Drool). Nutella and Burnt Marshmellow milkshakes? Feets, don’t fail me now, take me to ATL!

Anyway, although she takes lousy pix, she reported that this burger excited, far and away, the one I had at Vortex in Atlanta last year (oh, come on).

I’ll have to take her word for it, til my next road trip. Thanks for the report!

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Geez, and I was so prepared to have my 2nd visit to this place produce a warm glow for me.   Didn’t.  They filed tonight in a couple areas, squeaked by on another.

As I carp about constantly, why are people in the hospitality business that don’t want to be hospitable?  Our (ok, my) evening started off poorly with a crappy server and a crappy rule.

Him:  “How many?”

Me:    “There is gonna be four.”

Him:  “Are you here for happy hour or dinner?”

Me:  “Both.”

Him:   “Well you can sit at these two (small) tables and push them together if you are here for happy hour, or you can sit at those tables over there if you are here for dinner, but you can’t order from the happy hour menu over there.”

Me (not aloud): (Already silently fuming).  WTF?

I let it pass, as illogical as it sounded, I was out to have a great time with Mrs. BDB and our friends Mr. Portland Deal Maker Attorney Extraordinaire, and Mrs. PDMAE.

We sat at the two small tables, pushed together, directly in line with the front door, which opened on occasionally to let cold air in, and were promptly ignored by the wait staff for the first 20 minutes we were there.    They were all busy attending to a private birthday party in the bar area, for which six tables were reserved, at which four-six people were busy receiving a cornucopia of 23 Hoyt’s appetizer menu.

SIDEBAR:   We like this place because they have a lengthy list of (mostly) great appetizers at very low prices, running between $1-$5.   From 5-7PM, you can graze to your heart’s content, alone, on a date, or with other couples, and it doesn’t hurt all that much moneywise.

We ordered drinks, Mrs PDB with a pomegranate martini, which she had the last time, and cooed about, and I ordered a Stella (”sorry, we’re actually out of Stella”), settling for a Czech Pilsener. The drinks didn’t take very long, but the martini wasn’t the same as our previous visit, this one being heavy on the sweet side.

In the meantime, several other parties had come in, were not given the “happy hour-dinner seating speech” and were promptly seated in the “dinner area” where they just as promptly ordered from the Happy Hour menu. (Me: silently again: WTF?)

After another 15 minutes or so, we decided to plow into the happy hour menu (online here) while waiting for our friends, and started with the”Fried Almonds and Sea Salt”, “Fires and Whole Grain Mustard Aioli”, and the “Tempura Mushrooms & Ponzu”. (Ponzu is a Japanese sauce usually made with rice wine, lemon, and soy sauce.)

The fries were crispy, hot and bountiful.  The mushrooms hot and battered.  The nuts, not so nice as last time, when they arrived hot, slightly oily, with clumps of sea salt, this time they were cold, resembled dry-roasted poured from a can.   But one bad $2 appetizer didn’t spoil my evening, of course, I’m not that curmudgeonly.  (Yet).

(But I still had a hard on about the “dinner area/happy hour area thing”).

Our company arrived,  and we had a grand time and fascinating conversation with them, while the “birthday party” continued to grow until it was SRO in the bar area, and the “rest of us” were definitely being ignored by the wait staff, and the party participants were jostling other diners as they walked by the tables and mingled, and our conversations were being drowned out by the party as well.  (At this point, if I were a server, I would have moved us to another part of the restaurant).  (Better still, I would have originally seated the birthday party on the small upper level, which is slightly off the main part of the restaurant, and would afforded all customers a modicum of space and privacy).

We plowed into a half-dozen more appys, Braised Green Beans, Roasted Beets, Steamed Clams, and a couple of burgers,  the latter served with more fries, raw onion, tomato, lettuce, white cheddar resting on a brioche.

The burger, at $5, is more than OK.   The brioche was a little sweeter than I prefer, but as my counterpart dining companion pointed out, it had a nice little butter char on it.  He professed to liking it that way, as did I.

The tab I can’t complain about:  a half-dozen plus appetizers, cocktails all around, for four people, less than $50.   The waiter got an undeserved 20% tip.  Hopefully 23Hoyt shares tips, so some other, more deserving server than ours benefited.

Will I return?  Sure, when it’s a warm spring day, and Mrs. BDB and I can sit outside, and graze on the appetizers again, taking the good with the bad, but enjoying each other’s or some company’s conversation.

The happy hour is one of the best values in town, and is available nightly 5-7pm, except Fridays and Saturdays, 5-630p.

Well, a good value when you don’t have to factor in a $37 parking ticket, for parking behind the restaurant in a lot where the automated ticket machine didn’t work.  But I’m not really factoring it in.  Like I’d pay a parking ticket issued by a private party.  Right.

So why did I caption this #Fail?  Server attitude and a stupid seating rule, plus the poor planning management did with the birthday party.

But good company and conversation can make any poor restaurant experience a good one! Thanks for coming out to play, B & V!

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Nanner nanner. I just bought two McDoubles (two patties, one slice of cheese) for $1 each, their price all the time. How much is a Quarter Pound w/ Cheese, sandwich only, $3 something?

Well lookee lookee at what the meat and cheese on the two McDoubles weighed in at. Over 7 ounces.

Be still my beating heart! That’s a deal.

When Mrs BDB says “it’s time for a cocktail”, one doesn’t argue – at least I don’t. I know better. I just slam the car into reverse or the nearest parking spot, as the case may be, and out we go. Today it was in beautiful (?) (sic) Beaverton, and the nearest purveyor of potables was a placed called “Ringo’s”, referred to at different places online as “Ringo’s Tavern,” or “Ringo’s Ale House.”

It should be called “Ringo’s Bar, Restaurant, Video Poker, Pool Table, and Wii Emporium,” cause that sums it up.

We were just gonna have a bump and maybe split an appy, but I looked at the menu, and there were interesting things afoot, so I declared “I’m getting a burger,” and Mrs. BDB said “I’m getting a martini.”

And so we did. She also ordered an appetizer sampler, whereby you can choose 3 fried thingies from a list of six and get a side of fries or tots on top. She went with fried shrimp, wings, and (drum roll) fried dill pickles, plus the side of tots for me.

The plate came with a side of ranch and a dollop of cocktail sauce, and we both pronounced the appetizers pretty darned ok. As you can see, one of the tots was so eager to swim in the Ranch, it jumped right in as soon as the plate was put in front of us.

I went with the “Everything But the Pool Table” burger, 1/3 pound of (fresh, never frozen) from local Fulton Meat.  The buns across the street from Beaverton Bakery.  Very nice buns.    The toppings on the Everything burger were bacon, ham, swiss and american cheese, lettuce, tomato, and special sauce.  I skipped the salad and the special sauce, and asked for mine with pickles and raw onion, yellow mustard on the side.

The pour condiments were “House” brand (Sysco) but good enough.   The burger was more than OK, as well, I disassembled, as per usual, and ate it in pieces.  I didn’t ask where the pickles were from, and should have.  Nice crunch, nice dill, pickle chips (as opposed to the fried pickles, which were spears) (and yes fried pickles are nice, especially with the Ranch).

It’s not at all a spendy place, and they have a nice variety on the menu, typical American fare.  Other patrons crowed about the broasted chicken.

Oh, what’s with the salad next to the burger you ask? Choice of sides was fries, tots, or salad. Since the app platter came w/ tots, i chose the salad so Mrs BDB could enjoy some rabbit food.

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This happened to be next door to the Scandinavian restaurant I hit the other day, so I thought I’d take Mrs. BDB out on the town and try it out.

I had perused the menu the other day while waiting for my lunch partner, and I was really excited that they had one of my favorites, poutine, which I have written about here before.   For the few of you that haven’t heard, poutine is pretty much the national dish of Canada, consisting of french fries, covered in brown gravy, and topped with cheese curds.  The menu has a distinctly “Wisconsin” feel to it, and only in Portland could you find a Wisconsin-specific restaurant.

The inside is shiny and techy, with an open kitchen and metal trim.   There are separate seating arrangements in the bar area, and in the open kitchen part.   We chose the latter, a table for two by the window, sat down, perused the menu, and the daily specials.  Each day, the Savoy features a special cocktail, salad, soup, burger, and dessert.

Today’s burger was the BB King, a monster with BBQ sauce and other trimmings.   They offer a number of interesting appetizer plates, and a heavily-discounted happy hour menu from opening (5pm) until 7pm.

I was curious that some of the offering and table treatments were very similar to Broder, next door, and wondered if it was common management, but didn’t ask.

We started with a smoked trout appetizer, which came with large pieces of rye crisp, a horseradish sauce nearly (if not) identical to Broder’s, a few gherkins, and some pickled onions.

Mrs. BDB went with the pork chop, greens of the day (sauteed escarole – very tasty) (escarole is a green, a type o endive)  and “deviled’ mushrooms, sauteed with some nice herbs and spices.

I went for the Cheesehead burger, which was so new, the waiter had to check the menu to see if I was saying it right.   I knew when I saw it on the menu that I would skip the poutine tonight, even tho people on line praise it, for the Cheesehead burger was like having poutine on a bun, so it was a slam dunk choice for me.  A third pound Cascade beef burger, brown gravy, cheese curds, house-cured pickles, on a lightly grilled sesame brioche.   Fries, rings, or salad came with it, I chose the rings.

The burger was fabulous.  So fabulous, I ate it disassembled, as if it was a multi-course meal, eating the curds, gravy laden burger, and bun separately.   For me, the pickles were over the top, nicely dilled, great crunch.   The curds didn’t disappoint, and the meat patty itself reminiscent of  a fine chopped steak.