Snack Food: Mini-Burger Cooked to Order? You Got It. (aka the “$3.25 Value” Post)

“Damn, this kicks the shit out of Pop Burger.”

That was my first impression of the delicious mini Chicago burger ($3.25) I snacked on recently at New York Burger Co. in the Flatiron, and I’m sticking to it.

I have major beef with Pop Burger, whose over-priced minis are premade, packaged in two-packs and sit there, cooling off and drying out.

Here, a cheat sheet on what New York Burger Co. does so right:

— All burgers here are made to order, meaning the meat doesn’t hit the grilltop until the order goes through.
— All burgers are cooked to the doneness of your preference, even the minis. It’s hard enough to monitor the doneness of a regular, 6 oz. or 8 oz. burger, which makes cooking the minis even more of an exact science.
— The mini Chicago burger had plenty of goodness on top — cherrywood smoked bacon, melted cheddar cheese and 1,000 island sauce, in addition to lettuce and tomato — but more basic burgers, and fries, benefit from your choice of playful toppings including  chili pepper ketchup, curry mango mustard and horseradish sauce.

Next time …

New York Burger Co., 303 Park Ave. S., btwn. 23rd and 24th streets, 212-254-2727

BLD Minnesota Edition: Impromptu Appetizer Party, Target Superstore-Style

If you live in the heart of New York City, and find yourself in the vicinity of an all-in-one megastore, like the Super Targets that populate the Twin Cities, you will make a pilgrimage there.

And you will marvel at the convenience of being able to buy your milk, freezer waffles, birthday cards, DVDs, toothpaste — as well as a cheap, fashionable handbag from some designer’s collaborative collection — all in the same place. Reverence-worthy indeed.

While I was scouting out travel-sized Dr. Bronner’s liquid soaps, the $4.95 DVD rack and more, my aunt basically sourced the entire impromptu appetizer party, which happened a little later at Grandpa’s house, from Super Target’s grocery section (which legitimately could be a stand-alone, fully-stocked grocery store).

On the Menu:

Pita chips and humus.
Shrimps and cocktail sauce, frozen/thawed.

Meatballs and hot dogs in barbecue sauce, warmed on the stove (could have just as easily been in a Crock-Pot).
Bite-sized vegetables and ranch dip, prepackaged.

No fancy cheeses (although I do love ‘em), no Chinatown-sourced delectables (although I love those, too), no ordering involved (or cooking really, either) — just simple food of the sort that people can gather around and share, along with the latest family news.

Living in New York, you forget how the rest of the country eats. That’s okay, I think, but this is quite alright, too.

Breakast: Bunny Luv (The Case for Bunny Graham Friends Post)

A admit, I bought Annie’s Bunny Graham Friends because of the box; it makes me happy.

The better news is that the contents inside — graham snacks in a cute bunny shape, in the flavors of honey, chocolate and chocolate chip — go really well with a cup of tea and really aren’t bad for you.

A nutrition label snapshot: One serving, or 30 bunny pieces, only has 130 calories, 8 grams of sugar and 20% daily recommended serving of calcium. Those are better stats than your average container of yogurt, where calorie count is greater than 200, sugars creep up into the 23-26 gram range, and calcium is about 15%.

Is it time for a bad rabbit pun? I think so:
So what are you waiting for? Hop to it.

Breakfast: Monday, April 27, 2009

I look this plate of nuts and raisins and apple crisps and the hard-boiled egg, and I think that wow, this really is something I could have found if I had to forage in a forrest — instead of my fridge/the city. 

Now there’s a thought for a Monday morning. We really haven’t come so far, have we? 

COST: minimal
PREP TIME: n/a

Bonus: Thursday, April 2, 2009

Taco sharks attack!

For some reason, “staying in” turned into “going out” with the promise that I would be tucked in by 1 a.m., which is in 0:14 minutes from now. Eventually I left my friends half-asleep on a large sectional couch to come home to Trader Joe’s Mini Chicken Tacos, which, at 190 calories for 5 (FIVE!!) of them, ain’t such a bad late-night snack.

I doctored them up with some lime-green secret sauce from a nearby Peruvian chicken place — I know of those who have been known to have such adoration for the lime-green secret sauce that they purchase it by the pint-sized take-out container — and also with some of my newest favorite store-bought lettuce mix, which I can’t stop raving about: Earthbound Farm‘s heirloom lettuce blend.

Maybe  it was the vaguely fin-shaped lettuce tidbit protruding from the mini taco shell, but suddenly the mini chicken tacos became sharks — taco sharks, to be exact — swarming, circling, on my small plate.

You know what comes next: the Jaws anthem. Duh-duh. Duhhh-duh. Duhhh duh de duh de duh (escalates until giant fish emerges from water with gaping jaws).

So this is where I close, with either a “Chicken of the Sea” Jessica Simpson joke (Newlyweds), or a self-to-Jaws analogy (’cause those tacos are history). Take your pick.

COST: >$5
PREP TIME: 3 minutes
DELIGHT FACTOR: Enormous

Breakfast: Monday, March 30, 2009

Sometimes there’s just no time to eat a full breakfast, let alone make one.

One grab-and-go food that does the trick in a pinch is a Larabar. These tasty, all-natural, no sugar added, raw fruit and nut bars include a whole serving of fruit (get me going toward my daily 5) and a refreshingly short list of immediately-recognizable ingredients. The ingredients for Apple Pie, my favorite, reads like this: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Apples, Walnuts, Raisins, Cinnamon. That’s it.

COST: $1.39 – $1.99 per bar
PREP TIME: N/A

Dinner: Tuesday, March 24, 2009

I call this meal: Lazy American version of “Le Tartine Chaude au Bleu des Causses et Jambon Cru les Bacchantes.” 

Okay, so that’s not quite true. There’s no way I’d remember that many French words in a row for something as simple as a warm, open-faced ham and blue cheese sandwich.

And while Les Bacchantes’ Blue Cheese and Ham Sandwich, the actual — ref. page 14 of Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells — calls for “large slices of country bread,” not pre-sliced multigrain, Roquefort as opposed to my corner deli blue and “thin slices of unsmoked salt-cured ham, such as prosciutto,” not rough-cut Applewood Smoked Cured Ham Steak from Niman Ranch … damn it was good. 

Some raw crudities for good measure. To reach my daily 5. 

COST: >$5 (not incl. wine)
PREP TIME: 5 minutes