Recently we started going to the Healthy Haven to buy groceries; cannot afford to get all of our food there, but it is so much better than at the grocery stores. One of their proprietors is the Healthy Butcher, providing organically and locally raised meats.

On our trip there last Sunday I noticed that their burger patties looked really good, so I got myself their standard beef burger, and a maple duck burger. I enjoyed them so much, that we went there again today, so I could get some more and write a review.

T will join in for the veggie burger section.

Preparation

Of course you cannot forget your drinks: Today’s gourmet theme calls for something more sophisticated, so we chose a nice Lebanese red, the 2000 Heritage Grand Vin Bourgeois. It is the 2000 version of the second wine on this page.

On the sound track side we were lazy: The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die happened to be in the CD player.

To facilitate quick assembly we prepared our other ingredients before throwing things on the BBQ. The sauces today were Heinz organic tomato ketchup, chilli mustard from the Monschauer Senf Mühle, Willie’s Zucchini Relish (made by Strub’s) and Hellmann’s olive oil based mayonnaise. At the last minute we upgraded the mayonnaise to Pesto Mayo, by adding some leftover homemade Pesto and fresh ground pepper.

The locally grown organic tomatoes were cut and the organic lettuce washed. We nearly forgot to cut the thin whole grain buns.

While the BBQ was heating, the veggie burgers, Money’s Gardenburger (in the original variant), were rubbed with oil, and we un-wrapped the real burgers. This time I had gotten a slightly different variant of beef burger and an intriguing veal burger.

Cooking was a short lived chore: When the BBQ was at 300F, we threw the patties on. Four minutes per side for the veggie burgers, so I did the same to my meat burgers. The buns got to be on the heating rack for the last two minutes. One of the things that I always notice is that when you get high-end burgers they do not shrink very much during the process. Yay!

Assembly time called for quick processing to make sure the patties stayed warm. See the Construction Plan section for details.

Construction Plan

I find that the way you layer your burger can have some impact on what it tastes like. I generally prefer the following style of setup:

1. ½ Bun – bottom
2. Ketchup and mustard spread on bottom bun
3. Burger – veggie or meat
4. Relish spread on burger
5. Tomato slices (2 for the small veggie burgers and 3 for the real ones)
6. Lettuce
7. Pesto mayo spread on top bun
8. ½ Bun – top

T’s Tasting Notes

In my long experience as a vegetarian Money’s Gardenburgers have stood out as superiorly yummy and full of flavour, I prefer them over all the rest. Their veggie burgers are a balanced mix of veggies and grains, and they do not try to pretend to be something they are not. The condiments today were a perfect combination. The Pesto Mayo and the chilli mustard were a wonderful addition and mixed well in with the rest. I love L’s Pesto Mayo. The flavour combo was awesome, and the chilli mustard added a nice little kick afterwards. I enjoyed the thin buns as they hold the burger together well and they are the right amount of bread. Willie’s Zucchini Relish is my new favourite and a must on all burgers. This was a delicious, healthy alternative for the Sunday BBQ.

L’s Tasting Notes

First some general notes on the current burger variations:
I was very pleased with the buns; even though they are very thin, they provide excellent support and enough flavour to frame the burger’s taste. The distinct flavours of both the Pesto Mayo and the chilli mustard were present in the taste spectrum. I have also immediately grown fond of Willie’s Zucchini Relish; it is just so much more than a standard relish. Even though the thin buns did a very good job of holding the burger’s structure together, the third tomato slice tried to get away in both of my burgers. From a flavour standpoint of view, it was a necessity though to be able to balance the intense flavours of the meat. Sadly the amount of lettuce I provided did not actually seem to sway the sum flavour.

My faux pas of the day: I am not sure anymore which of the patties went into which one of my burgers, so I am at a loss to figure out the reason for the flavour difference between my two building blocks of modern cuisine. I would like to believe that the second patty was the veal patty, and will go with that assumption. So, the beef patty in my first burger provided a well balanced burger experience. All of the ingredients seemed very well balanced, and I really enjoyed that burger. Then I tried the second one!

The second burger, which I believe was the veal burger, was a whole different experience. Yes, the supporting flavours of the other ingredients were present, and I believe they provided a good balance, but the meat provided so much more flavour! It provided the right meatiness, with an extra taste of black pepper. It totally made my day!

The Players

T – Vegetarian, and first time burger reviewer. Kind enough to provide photographic support.

L – Omnivore, and veteran burger reviewer.

Disclaimer

This review was developed under the influence of above mentioned wine, DJ Food – A Recipe For Disaster and The Herbaliser – Blow Your Headphones.

God appeared to me in a dream last night and spoke your name in my ear. He gave me the winning lottery numbers, too, though, so you can understand where my priorities lay when I raced to grab a notebook and pen. Man, 37, living on hope and the next seven weeks’ bonus balls seeks woman whose first name begins with S, or maybe F, and rhymes with chicken, and has a surname that’s either a place in Shropshire or the title of a 1979 Earth, Wind and Fire track. Shicken Boogiewonderland, I know you’re reading this. Write now to box no. 5729.

Bloody brilliant.

Where will PopCap Games’ megahit puzzle game Bejeweled pop up next? Would you believe … World of Warcraft?

A version of the match-three game is set to launch next Thursday within the World of Warcraft MMO (massively multiplayer online), letting players kill time with puzzles during raids and long stints farming rare items.

The added level of addiction will no doubt entertain many World of Warcraft fans, but the real story here is how the game went from a student’s pet project to solid evidence that PopCap doesn’t subscribe to traditional ideas of corporate hegemony.

The World of Warcraft version of Bejeweled began life as one hobbyist’s personal mod.

Michael Fromwiller, a student at San Jose State University in California, used his love of PopCap’s puzzler to combat a typical, if paradoxical, WoW problem: The addictive game is often boring.

It times like these that I think to myself that I quit playing WoW in favour of leading a real life.

Science Proves Exotic Cars Turn Women On
I totally think I need an insurer called Hiscox, or something similar.

The Wine Trials recommends 100 wines under $15 that outscored $50-$150 wines in brown-bag blind tastings. More than 500 wine experts and everyday wine drinkers tasted more than 6,000 glasses of wine. Results were compiled, analyzed, and reviewed by a team of scientists including statisticians, neuroscientists, and economists. Two-thirds of tasters preferred a $12 Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut, a Washington State sparkling wine, to a $150 Dom Pérignon Champagne.

Finding wine that’s both excellent and inexpensive is always exciting. My only concern with this book is how applicable it’ll be for folks living in Canada; you can’t always get the same wines in Canada that you can in the US, and if you can they’re often far more expensive.

There’s always Billy’s Best Bottles (every wine listed is available at the LCBO) though.

Check out lots of other fabulous knit toys on artoo1121’s Flickr stream.