Five Guys vs. In-N-Out

Interesting discussion over at PJ Media about Five Guys versus In-N-Out. Allow me to chime in.

Here in Brentwood we have a Five Guys and an In-N-Out. Before we got our Five Guys, my wife made me drive all the way to Stockton just to try it because she'd heard how good it was. And it was. Five Guys makes a genuinely good burger. But is it better than In-N-Out? It is bigger and Five Guys offers the customer a wide range of toppings. But bigger is not necessarily better.

It is, however, more expensive. A hamburger, regular fries, and regular drink at the Brentwood FiveGuys will run you $11.18. Cut that amount in half and you have enough for the #1 combo at In-N-Out: a double-double, fries and a drink. And the burger you get at In-N-Out is easily as good, if not better, than what you get at Five Guys, even without all the optional toppings.

A word about fries. The fact that “Five Guys treats its fries like some sort of rare earth mineral," as Preston points out, raises expectations in the customer that the fries will actually be good. They are not. Yes, they are fresh, but that’s all they have going for them. A fry should be crisp. Five Guys fries are consistently soggy, like they’ve been steaming in those large drink cups in which they’re served. In-N-Out fries are also fresh, and occasionally offer the right texture. But they are not addictive, as a true fry should be: crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with just the right amount of salt. My mouth is watering just thinking about it; my mouth never waters thinking about Five Guys or In-N-Out fries. Still, I would have to give the edge to In-N-Out.

Frankly, I wouldn’t call either burger the best in America. But ‘best’ is such a subjective term. Sometimes your body craves food that would never make it on a “best of” list. There is one burger, for example, that no trip to LA is complete without. Tommy’s.

Alcachofas con jamón

I decided that today was the day to harvest my first artichoke of the season and do something special with it: alcachofas con jamón. I discovered this dish long ago while dining at the Museo del Jamón in Madrid. As the name of the dish indicates (not to mention the restaurant where I first ate it), this dish is supposed to contain jamón serrano. And as the name of my blog indicates, jamón serrano is very important to me. Unfortunately today I had no ham, but I did have an artichoke that was just crying out to be cooked. So I used bacon. I used a couple recipes I found online (here and here) as references and came up with this, adapted to one large artichoke.´

1 large globe artichoke

lemon juice

2 slices of bacon, diced, cooked, and drained

¼ small onion, minced

1 garlic clove, sliced thin

½ small carrot, peeled and minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine

2 tablespoons water (you may want to use cooking water from the artichokes)

Kosher salt, to taste

Trim the sharp ends off the artichoke and remove tough outer leaves. Cut artichoke into eighths. Place in a pot of boiling water, with a dash of lemon juice, and cook for 10 minutes. Chokes should still be firm but verging on al dente. Drain and set aside.

In a frying pan over medium high heat, saute the onion, carrot and garlic in the olive oil until tender. Add the bacon, stir for a moment, then add a scant teaspoon of flour, salt, wine and water and bring to a boil. Add the artichokes, stir until well coated with sauce, cover and simmer until tender (about 10-15 minutes). Check for salt and serve hot.

Chicken and Shellfish Paella

Yesterday I made paella in the park. Turned out pretty well, considering all the mistakes I made. The pan never got as hot as it should, which meant that every time I added any cold ingredient it cooled way down and took forever heating up again. I'm posting the video anyway (here's the link, since I'm having trouble embedding it). Why? Because despite my mistakes it still turned out all right. I used the same recipe that I posted here.

By the way, you'd be surprised at the number of people who have never even heard of paella. Disturbing.

Chicken in Charmoula

Charmoula is a cilantro/parsley mixture that we first tried over broiled white fish. The tart, garlicky melange brought something so wonderful to the fish that we immediately decided to try it on chicken. Once the meat has been marinated, you can grill it or bake it -- either way it turns out great. Tonight we grilled the chicken (45 minutes to 1 hour over charcoal) and served it with Spinach Garbanzos.

3/4 cup cilantro

1/3 cup parsley

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup lemon juice

3 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 chicken, cut up for grilling

Grind together cilantro, parsley and garlic in food processor, then add all the other ingredients except the chicken and blend until as smooth as possible.

Combine charmoula with chicken in a bowl, cover and chill in refrigerator several hours or

overnight before baking or grilling.

Moroccan-ish Spinach Garbanzos

Let me say, for the record, that I despise the usage "chickpea." Sure, it may be slightly closer to the Latin name (from Cicer arietinum -- which, incidentally, is also where the Roman orator Cicero got his name, but I digress), but the Spanish "garbanzo" sounds more robust, more healthy.

All that aside, spinach and garbanzos go together like Laurel and Hardy; like Don Quixote and Sancho. Sure, you can imagine one without the other, but together they are something special.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 15 oz can garbanzos, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons bread crumbs

1/3 cup tomato sauce

2 medium cloves garlic, minced

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

dash of cayenne

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

kosher salt

black pepper

Over medium high heat, saute bread crumbs in oil until brown. Add the garlic, cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. Saute about 1 minute. Stir in vinegar, then add tomato sauce and garbanzos. Reduce heat and cook for a few minutes, then stir in the spinach. Heat through and season with salt and pepper.

Caldo Tlalpeño

The Summer of Mexican continues, and what better way to celebrate a hotter-than-the-weatherman-predicted summer evening than with a killer soup? Recipes from the Mexico the Beautiful cookbook have been sort of hit and miss for me, but this one was a home run. A beautiful soup, light and flavorful. I ended up changing it slightly, but my only regret was that I didn't have a ripe tomato in the garden and had to make do with one from the store. We served this with homemade French bread from a recipe Erika found here. I was a little concerned that the recipe called for twice the amount of yeast you normally use for that amount of flour, and the dough was a little goopier than I was expecting, but the bread turned out pretty good.

Soup

12 oz cooked and shredded chicken*

6 cups low sodium chicken stock

1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans (about 1 cup)

2 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon oil

2/3 cup chopped carrots

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, seeded and cut into strips

1 tsp. salt

Condiments

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and cubed

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)

lime slices

1 ripe tomato, chopped

2 serrano chilies, finely chopped

1 cup cooked rice

Heat the oil in heavy bottomed pot and saute the carrot, onions and garlic until onions are transluscent, about 3 minutes. Add garbanzos, chicken stock, chiles and salt. Cook, covered, for 30 minutes over low heat then adjust seasoning. Add the chicken to the pot to warm it.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with condiments to taste. Serves 6-8.

* I used a mixture of white and dark meat from a chicken I roasted in advance.

Pinchos morunos and tortilla española

I love Spanish bar food and these are two of my favorites. Pinchos morunos are grilled pork skewers, marinated with olive oil, garlic, paprika and a hint of red pepper. I've blogged about them before, here. Tortilla is one of those things that are easy to make, but not always easy to get perfectly right. Enjoy.