Cold Nights on an Iron HIll

Greetings, Readers!

This week I am back in the frigid northeast city of Philadelphia. Not even 24 hours after I arrived, I was subjected to eight inches of snow, and 48 hours after that I was again subjected to about 6 more inches.

Your humble author is not built for these conditions anymore. Luckily though ,there are plenty of great sandwiches and beer to keep me motoring through the winter months here.

Only a few hours removed from my cross-country flight, I headed to one of the Iron Hill Brewery locations in Maple Shade, NJ. Their beer selection from in-house brews is impressive, but in the end I started with the Bourbon barrel-aged Old Quadfather. It's a thick, creamy dark Belgian beer with a strong bourbon flavor up front and great malt flavors on the back end. Definitely enjoyable, and at nearly 12%, you really only need one.

I went back and forth with the selection on food here since there were so many great options on the table. In the end though, I settled on the Blue Burger: an all-beef patty topped with gorgonzola cheese, bacon, cracked black pepper, lettuce and tomato. I had the patty cooked medium-rare so there was a warm pink center 

The burger was cooked well enough and had some good flavor, the problem was that it was too thin. Not Burger King or McDonald's thin, but when I head into a brewpub, I usually expect to have a hand-crafted patty of some thickness. It wasn't a bad base patty, but could have been better.

The gorgonzola added a bit of tangy, smooth flavor on top of the burger, and the bacon was strong in flavor and crispy, but not too crispy either. A delicious middle ground of bacon.

The black pepper crust added some bite to the burger and the lettuce and tomato rounded out the flavors with contrasting lightness and crispness. The bun though was nothing special really. It did its job of holding the sandwich together, but that was about it.

Overall, the visit to Iron Hill Brewery was a good one. the beer was excellent (I even bought a full bottle of their Russian Imperial Stout for later) and their food was great, even with the burger being a bit of a let down. I wouldn't let that keep me from coming back again though and trying something else on their extensive menu, I'm sure there are many things of note there.

Until next week, Readers...



Blue Burger
*** 1/2 Stars
Iron Hill Brewery
Multiple Locations
www.ironhillbrewery.com

Regrets, I've Had A Few

Greetings, Readers!

I hope this past week finds you sandwiching well. I've been taking quite a bit of time in working on my novel for National Novel Writing Month and haven't had as much time to do sandwiching on my own, but all is well.

Or is it?

The problem is that, even had I actually gotten out to have another sandwich, one recent stop left such a sour taste in my mouth that I thought I would give it a quick mention in regards of what most sandwich places should really try to avoid.

Frozen burger patties. Flat, lifeless burger patties. And even worse, the combination of both.

Having stopped between drinks at The Bruery, I was reminded again that the combination of the two is horrific. If you're going to be an established restaurant, and you're not trying to be McDonalds or other fast food chains, don't use this atrocity of meat (if it really is even meat). If you're trying to be a restaurant that is a local, family owned hot spot, please go the extra mile and make a standout burger. The change in the patty on my melt could have made a huge difference.

As you can see in the photo above, even one slice of the bread is thicker than the patty itself.

While this visit (which will remain nameless, unless you ask) might have disappointed and really only served to act as a buffer for more Bruery beer, it did have one positive outcome in that it reminded me of places to avoid.

Until next week, Readers!

The Day I Caught A Unicorn

Welcome back dear readers of DANGER!

Have you had enough time to digest last week's offering?

Because this week we will tackle a cult favorite sandwich, and a personal favorite of mine: The McRib.

Ah, the McRib.

For the longest time, the mythical sandwich was only offered for short periods of time, and sometimes only in select markets. But after the last appearance, McDonalds has decided to make it a full fledged, official member of its menu.

But, you've seen this before right? A wild and crazy sandwich offered by a fast food chain (The Double D-A-M-N 5/26/2010) that has some sort of cult following, whether real or imaginary. But the question again becomes: is it any good?

I've been one of the people on the McRib sandwich since I first tasted it back in the early 2000s. I'd quickly jump out ot a McDonalds to get one whenever it was released (it was college, okay?). And my love for it, and it's limited availablity led me to giving this pork-hybrid patty the nickname 'Unicorn Meat".

Probably also because I didn't really want to know what it was made of, and Unicorn meat was surprisingly less disgusting than what it was more than likely made of.

But is the McRib something that I would still enjoy?

For those of you who have never seen the actual sandwich, the patty has been molded into a rib rack shape, deep fried, and covered in BBQ sauce.

It honestly looks like something that should not exist.

And yet it does.

I have seen all of the new commercials, advertising a tangy BBQ experience with fresh onions and pickles. It got me excited because the one fast food sandwich I always remember enjoying had returned, and this time for good.

Sadly, the sandwich no longer lived up to my astronomical expectations, for a number of reasons.

One, the patty was bland. One of the most bland things I have ever tasted. No tangy BBQ flavor, no flavor at all actually.

I mean, how do you fry something and not have at least a "fried" flavor?

Secondly, the onions were raw and chopped, as if they should have been grilled, but someone forgot to do that part (which may in fact be the case).

The roll was the only positive thing here, and even that was a stretch. Light and fluffy, it may be the only thing that even offered a semblance of flavor.

So what happened between my last McRib experience and my last one? Had my taste buds changed for the better? Had it never tasted good to begin with? Or had McDonalds simply dropped the ball and offered a less than sub-par experience.

Either way, this is a sandwich you can skip without worry.


McRib Sandwich
* Star
If I have to tell you where to get this, there is something wrong.