“I do love the taste of a good burger,” Jules Winnfield (portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction.
There’s something about a good hamburger.
It’s good any time of year, but best enjoyed in the summer sun on a patio with a cold drink.
Thankfully, there are lots of great hamburgers in the Foothills and I’ll be sampling many of them for a weekly column over the next two months.
For the first week, I had to go to Mr. Spuds in Okotoks. I’ve been eating there as long as I’ve been working at the Western Wheel – that’s almost four years.
The make a great, straight up burger – juicy and tender.
My regular – pretty much anywhere, not just at Mr. Spuds – is a bacon cheeseburger.
In fact, I usually don’t look at the menu at Mr. Spuds, whether one’s given to me or not.
So, when I mentioned this column to owners John Yu and Pauline Poon, they suggested I try their cheese and teriyaki burger.
Some eagle eyed reporter I am, four years and not once do I remember seeing this on the menu.
The burger was served with teriyaki sauce, cheese, bacon (by request), lettuce, pickles, and tomatoes and onions (which I promptly remove). No mustard, no ketchup or other sauces.
It’s the first time I tried teriyaki sauce on a burger and I have to say, it’s a good combination. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise though because teriyaki goes well with beef.
There was just enough sauce for flavour, but not enough to overwhelm the burger.
Hamburgers are Mr. Spuds’ specialties and Yu created the Teriyaki burger as just another way to make the restaurant’s selection distinctive.
For Yu, the best hamburger is made fresh by hand, something he does each week.
He said the right ingredients are the key to a good burger and it has to be healthy.
Consistency, both in texture and ingredients, is important, Yu added. Both the ground beef and seasoning as measured out to be perfect.
According to Yu, what makes his hamburgers are good is they are juicy
He uses a mix of regular and lean ground beef. Too much lean meat, and the burger ends up like cardboard and too much regular ground beef and it’s too greasy, he said.
Mr. Spuds burgers also have a distinctive taste, something Yu revealed to be cumin.
“Cumin brings up a lot of flavour,” he said.
Rating
Originality 4
Taste 5
Size 3
