Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
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Monday, September 12
Dia de los Carne
PART ONE (THE BURGER)
The time had come, after reading multiple poetic reviews of this place and feeling practically chastised that I had not YET BEEN to the #12 burger joint in the country despite its presence a mere 50 miles from my house.... I made it to Bobcat Bite.
After a morning business meeting, we set out to find the notorious shack around noon on a Wednesday. Luckily as we would find out later, they are only open Wednesdays thru Saturdays, so our timing was correct. Unluckily, like many pilgrimage eateries, this one carried a wait for a table of about 30 minutes. As our stomach linings rumbled and finally started consuming themselves either for sustenance or just out of pure boredom, we wandered the grounds and observed the crowd: a strange-but-not-unusual-for-Santa-Fe mix of construction workers, coffee klatch groups, office employees, and foodies like us.
Seated at our sunny patio table, we ordered in record time - mine with grilled onions and his a 'standard' green chile cheeseburger - and inhaled the aroma of grilled meat, beefy and rich. As were the burgers themselves, with nary an additional flavor component to obscure the pure sensation that you are eating a 10oz slab of cow flesh. Bloody cow flesh, in my case (see photo above for the gore, including the red-stained lower half of the bun). This was my only slight quibble - I ordered mine medium which should have given me a solidly pink burger with no hemorraging, but I received it medium-rare. In general I like blood with my red meat, so this was not a huge problem.
I've already (sort of) described the burger's taste: beefy. Really, really beefy. No spices added to the patty, no textural or structural embellishments like ground mushrooms or egg.... just beef, all the way. It made for an amazing 6 ounces or so of burger heaven, and then it got a little overpowering.
My suggestion for this legendary spot, if such a thing is not a mortal culinary sin? A slightly smaller burger option, and make a "medium" a "medium".
Other than that - wow, what a burger.
PART TWO (THE STEAK)
After arriving home and at some point realizing that I had a key dilemma on my hands, I had to make steak for dinner. The dilemma? A nice thawed-out sirloin from Keller's in the fridge which had been there for about 2 days, and I was about to leave town for another 3 days. Back into the freezer for the $13/lb slab? No way!
After being trimmed, warmed to room temperature, slathered in pepper & salt, the cuts were laid onto a red hot (electric) grill to begin denaturing. 15 minutes later (give or take for the two desired degrees of done: med-well and med-rare), they are rested, sliced thinly and plated with sauteed green beans and sliced avocado then drizzled with mustardy pan sauce from the veg. Overall, a good but not great steak; I've made better. While thawing the steak I should have been marinating it in an acid to help with tenderization and flavor - next time will rectify that.
After eating this hunk of flesh, I was actually relieved to be escaping into the clutches of being a houseguest with two dear friends who are wholeheartedly vegetarian. Getting over feeling clogged up took at least a day of eating steamed greens, rice and lentils - who knows how long it would have took if I continued to eat normally for those days....
Now I feel all better, balanced, and right with the world. And no way will I become vegetarian. Meat has its place, but in my philosophy it lives alongside lots of veggies, spices, and whole grains. When my GI functions well, I am happy.
Time posted: 11:57 [permalink]
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CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
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