Rich and Strange Aeons

Today I had a Habit Charburger. It has good reviews online. My experience, sadly, was as disappointing as a year ago. No taste of char, even nibbling on the patty itself (without condiments and a small salad's worth of lettuce.) Not juicy. Probably grilled at a non-high temperature but if you told me it was steamed I wouldn't doubt you. Not something I would make a habit of, yuk yuk.

In the interest of an experiment, hardly blind or controlled but at least against fresh sensory memory, I then went to McDonald's and had a quarter pounder with cheese, plus onions and nothing else, with an idea of letting the burger's qualities shine through more. Verdict: better. _Also_ not juicy on its own, it does benefit from cheese and condiments, but actually had a noticeable char/smoky flavor to it. Also salt. (The order kiosk lets you control the salt level, I was surprised to find, though I didn't touch it.) While it's not great, and as I said it would benefit from the full works, and would probably be a bit grim with no cheese, it was still a more interesting burger patty and I'd be more likely to repeat it. (Was also cheaper and faster.)

(And now I'm _stuffed_.)

I grew up not eating fast food; it just wasn't done in my family, like drinking soft drinks (as my parents called soda/pop). Even in college, while I took to Asian fast food like Taipan, Yoshinoya, or Panda Express, I barely did American fast food. Never have much, apart from Greyhound rest stops, or a period in grad school when I would turn to student center Burger King between classes.

But I've been watching a bunch of food videos, and reading posts about "best burgers", and got interested in trying them again. So today I went to McDonald's and had a double quarter pounder with cheese (actually with extra cheese, due to miscommunication with the kiosk, so 3 slices total.)

And it was good! Not the best burger ever by far (that would be a medium rare burger at a Bloomington cafe), but it was a gustatory experience I enjoyed and would choose to repeat, at least ignoring price/health/ecology. Meaty and juicy (though between meat, cheese, ketchup, and mustard, I'm not sure _which_ juices.) Far better than the cheap Burger King cheeseburger I tried a few months ago, which did not arise above "this is technically food".

(Where did I eat my burger? Outside on the grass. And that stretch of San Pablo is especially stroad for the area. Fast food with parking lots and driveways on one side, auto dealerships on the other.)

Speaking of which, I've learned that the standard McDonald's patty is a mere 1.6 oz before cooking. I'd figured they'd be at least 2 oz. I think this may have always been the case, not modern shrinkflation. The Quarter Pounder ones are 4.25 oz, up from 4, and supposedly never frozen.

Moving on from food for a bit, I afterwards walked west along Harrison, an area I haven't been to. There are a lot of homeless people in the SFBA. There have not been many homeless people around where I'm staying. There were a lot at 7th and Harrison, which (I checked) is in Berkeley, not Albany. I wonder if the Albany police are less tolerant, or Albany is too small and far from services.

Later and back home, I tried my first roast cabbage. Cut up a giant head of red cabbage into, well, pieces; recipes suggested quarter wedges, but my serrated knife was not big or sharp enough to pull that off. Pieces on tray, bit of olive oil, salt, curry powder, garlic powder. 30 minutes at 450 F, 20 at 400 F. The pieces at the front of the tray came out pretty well. The pieces further back are decent, but also have some overly crisped leaves, which I guess tells me something about temperature distribution in the oven.

I am frankly suspicious of the oven, but my new CO detector has not budged, except the one time I deliberately challenged it.

I have mostly moved on in life from instant ramen, despite the blandishments of Yuru Camp's cup noodles, but Safeway has had big sales on Cup Noodles, $1 instead of $2.29, and I have given in to temptation. Certainly tasty. Odd flavors like Terikyaki Beef and Yellow Curry. Protein-enriched with tofu, and green onions except I forgot I have those.

Finally! When I buy hummus, I check the ingredients for what kind of oil it uses. At the foofy store today, I found Haigs "rich and creamy" hummus, which doesn't list _any_ oil. After tasting it, I believe it, though not the "rich and creamy" claim. A good place to add my own olive oil...

As a child, one culinary treat was going to a "Lebanese" (my father said "probably Palestinian in disguise") food shop and getting a plate of hummus, with a pool of olive oil in the middle, sprinkled with paprika, and of course warm pita. Tonight I had carrots not pita, and didn't use a plate, but seeing oil in hummus, and mixing it around, with a bit of kick, gives lots of nostalgia.

(That food shop also had open faced meat pies of a kind I've never seen since. Still miss them.)