The Vitals: the burger: cheddar and oaxacan cheeseburger with fries the bucks: $135 pesos($9.21 at current exchange rate) the coordinates: san jose del cabo, mexico
Food is a pretty big damn deal down in Old Mexico. It's a huge reason why I have traveled there 7 times in the last 8 years. Take in the fact that this is a country of 31 states(32 if you count Mexico City) and you've only just begun to crack the textbook on understanding the foodscape of our great neighbor to the south. And then you have to consider that Mexico City is as global a metropolis as they get; meaning they can rep major cuisines from all over the world and all over Mexico. Despite how much we might misunderstand and misinterpret America's #1 ethnic cuisine, they sure do get us; which is why in tourists havens like Cabo San Lucas, burgers abound. But there are still cardinal eating rules that I follow and as I'm sure you know if you frequent Bang for your Burger Buck, not all burger are created equal. Typically when I'm traveling in foreign lands I try my best to eat as the locals do. Down in Baja that means eating as much seafood as I can get my hands on, from taco stands that cab drivers frequent like Taqueria Rossy, hitting up a random seafood shack for the highly acclaimed live chocolate clam, or venturing down a dirt road that dead ends into a beach to buy a fresh catch of baby yellowfin tuna. But Baja can pull off more than just seafood, case in point: Teo Bar and Grill, where the organic beef being cooked over smoldering mesquite will have you drooling about burgers as much as one of those bowls of stunningly fresh seabass ceviche. (more…)
The Vitals: the burger: double medium with mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onions, relish, and mustard the bucks: $7.63 the coordinates: tested in Los Angeles, CA (with locations across the country and globe)
Welcome to Bang for your Burger Buck: The Fatburger Edition. Long cherished in Los Angeles, thanks in no small part to Ice Cube's "Today was a Good Day", Fatburger sometimes falls in the shadows of some formidable burger competition like the ever affordable In N Out, or the top shelf concept burger empire, Umami. It's never easy being the middle child I guess, just ask Jan Brady, but believe me when I tell you that there is Bang for your Burger Buck to be had at this middle of the road burger temple. You will have to chart a careful course through a menu riddled with costly add ons like that black vat of tepid chili that seems to be lingering for the late night drunk crowd, confusing size options like XXXL that bring to mind memories of Ice Cube's stint as an Action star more so than the weight of a burger patty, and then there are those legitimately tempting milkshakes. But rest assured, my friends, for I have plotted the perfect course around these tragic topping obstacles and sadly, you will have to get one of those tempting milkshakes on another visit. But it's gonna be ok, because the double medium burger with every house topping delivers real deal Bang for your Burger Buck.
The Vitals: the burger: griddled triple cheeseburger with bacon, lettuce and tomato the bucks: $6.80 the coordinates: St. Louis, MO
To dine at Carl's Drive In is as fundamental an American dining experience as having a Nathan's Dog on Coney island, or parking yourself at a roadside stand in Mississippi for some BBQ. The parking lot is studded with soccer moms who have, perhaps under mild duress from their cargo of adolescent athletes, made a pit stop after practice. The customers are as well seasoned as the griddle that churns out the burgers. To sit on one of those ten treasured bar stools in this tiny restaurant is as much an American rite of passage as was passing through Ellis Island in the beginning of the 20th Century. If ever there was a burger stand whose humble and compact interior could draw parallels to Sukiyobashi Jiro, then it truly must be Carl's Drive In, nestled in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. Yup, I really do love this place and so far all I have brought up is the freakin ambiance.
(more…)
