Bakun Burger Tour (BBT)

At the end of 2009, Adam was telling me about how one of his dreams in life is to try all the $20 burgers in Boston featured in this one magazine article in 2010. Fortunately, Adam's modest dreams in life were well within reach and could be funded by one hundred dollar bill. DONE! He did enjoy a few of the burgers, but wasn't disciplined enough to really follow through with all of them. He did spend a lot of time last year pitching our friends on the Bakun Burger Tour, a monthly get together of burger lovers who try different gourmet burgers. Here are a few of Adam's rules if you're interested in joining in.

1. The BBT only visits restaurants with delicious burgers. It doesn't go for "gimmicks" like enormous burgers or five pound burgers held together with skewers that are not as delicious. You might wonder who the taste maker who gets to decide which burger is worthy, that would ultimately be Adam who named the tour after himself.

2. On the BBT, everyone has to order the burger. Don't think about going off script by ordering a turkey or veggie burger. You need to order the signature burger.

As much as I make fun of Adam for his BBT, I think it's a pretty fun idea which is why this year I got him an official BBT "flag" to encourage his culinary adventures. I found this awesome tea towel at a local craft fair with a diagram of a cheeseburger and I had it embroidered with BBT. I was kind enough to actually use Adam's official name rather than sneaking in the name I was originally advocating for, the "triple B" or "BBBB" or the "Boston Bakun Burger Bonanza." To top it off, I got him a set of fabric markers so he can write the name and date of all his burger accomplishments on the towel. Let the tour begin.

Illustrated tea towel from Girl Can Tell.

Five Guys Burger

We did a lot of driving while in Florida, actually Adam's dad did a lot of driving, Adam navigated with his Droid while the rest of us took naps and enjoyed the scenery. I was on occasion "helpful" around meal times when I would look out the window for a good place to eat. My "good eye" proved indispensable when were stuck in traffic on the highway out of Miami. We were all hungry and on our way to becoming "hangry" [hunger induced angry]. We had been on the wrong end of the four lane highway to turn into a restaurant whenever they appeared and I had no idea when we would be able to eat. Fortunately I spotted a Five Guys on my side and was able to get Adam's dad to make a quick U-ie. While I was impressed with my "good eye" and kept self congratulating my "good eye," I'm not sure my family really appreciated my "good eye." I did get to enjoy Five Guys for lunch and that pretty much made my day.

As for the origins of my love for Five Guys. A few years ago, I discovered Five Guys Burger at DC's Reagan National Airport. I was waiting to fly back to Boston on a business trip when I noticed a plain looking sign for a "Five Guys Burger." The signage was so basic, I was intrigued. I figured it had to be either super awesome like In-N-Out or just nondescript and I had to find out. It turned out to be super awesome so I ordered a burger and fries even though it wasn't time to eat. Their fries are fried in peanut oil and the burgers are topped with all the toppings you want. The burgers are hand formed and I actually think the food is better than In-N-Out. I don't love the fries at In-N-Out and Five Guys has amazing fries and they're generous with them to boot.

Happy New Year 2011

I actually made some resolutions this year.

• Lose weight [Boring]
• Blog more

When I started blogging regularly in 2003, I was a couple of life stages back. I was working in a small office where I hung out daily with hilarious friends like Steve and Wheezy who provided lots of blogworthy material and my best bud MGDub was still living in Boston. Life is still good in 2011, but it certainly has transitioned quite a bit and I've pretty much been off the blog mania routine the last few years. The deal is I really have missed blogging regularly so I'm going to try making it a priority in 2011 for my own enjoyment.

Enough introspection! We had the last day of 2010 off so Adam and I went downtown for lunch at the Back Bay Social Club for lunch. We tried their $21 burger and their pastrami sandwich/tomato basil soup combo. The burger was very good, wonderful beef that was half aged and half prime. A lot of fancy burgers feature brioche buns, but this one was a really great white roll with a crusty exterior...a refreshing change. The fries were pretty good, but I kinda expect excellent fries for $21. The soup/sandwich combo I thought was a really good deal at $10 and it even came with fries so I would recommend checking it out for a delicious and well priced lunch if you're downtown shopping. While the burger was delicious, but not worth $21 so it doesn't make the cut in terms of our price/quality ratio efficient frontier. The burger still to beat in terms of the quality for the price remains Garden at the Cellar in Cambridge.