Gourmet Burgers

Little Richie and I met up for dinner on the 4th of July, my last night in Atlanta before leaving for San Francisco. He was smart enough to suggest celebrating the most American of holidays with the most American of foods - hamburgers. But we couldn't have any hamburgers on this nation's birthday, so we went to Flip Burger. I was really happy with the suggestion because I had wanted to try this place for a long time. It's owned by a former Top Chef contestant. I don't watch this show, but I know it's a big deal to even be selected to be on it.

While perusing the menu, I couldn't decide between two of the options: the local burger (traditional burger), and the raw tuna tartare burger. The solution was Little Richie getting the traditional burger and me getting the tuna burger. Not trying a real burger at Flip would have been like going to Rome and not seeing the Pope, as the saying goes. As expected, the burger was juicy and delicious. Plus, you knew it was a well crafted burger because all ingredients were well sized to fit on the bun. You could eat the burger without the patty or tomato or something else sliding out and the whole thing disintegrating. Little things like that make some burger places stand out. Well, creativity also helps. For example, the sweet potato tots that Little Richie got on the side seem like such an obvious thing to have at many places, but I don't think I've seen them anywhere else.

Being satisfied with the quality of traditional burgers at Flip, I can now talk about my tuna tartare creation. It contained four things I really love: tuna tartare, mango (in the form of mango spheres), avocado (as puree), and sesame (as sesame crispies). The whole thing was amazing. It was so fresh-tasting, I wouldn't have guessed I was eating at burger if I wasn't holding it. The tuna was really good, and Flip wasn't skimping on the amount they put on each burger. One minor complaint I have is that the tuna taste was overpowering the other ingredients, so I didn't even detect a hint of the mango or sesame crispies.

We ended dinner with another typically American food item - a milkshake. We shared the Nutella and burned marshmallows milkshake. It was sooo decadent and delicious. At one point I though there were real hazelnuts in the shake because the Nutella taste was so pronounced.

Well, that was a great way to say goodbye to Atlanta. Now I'm already in San Francisco, and will try to explore the food scene here. My little adventure today included more burgers. I walked 3.5 miles just to have In-N-Out burger. It was my first time there, so I couldn't wait to see what the hype was all about. I ordered a cheeseburger with onions and fries on the side (not pictured). I did love the burger, but my favorite things about it were the tomatoes and onions. The patty was delicious, but rather small, especially when compared to the amount of meat we got at Flip. Despite this, each bite that contained bun, veggies, and patty was amazing. It was really obvious that the veggies were fresh and that the burgers were assembled after ordering, which makes a huge difference. The fries were good as well, but nowhere as crispy as McDonald's fries. On the good side, they weren't as salty as McDonald's fries :)