Albany's Silver Burger Winner 2018

Welcome back to our 3-part blog series on our Top 3 Burgers of Albany and our 130th blog post!!!  Last week we announced our Bronze Trophy Winner:  First Burger!  I hope you got out last week to show them some love and try their burgers for yourself.

This week we are introducing our Silver Trophy Winner!!!!  As of the publication of this blog, we had not heard back from our #2 restaurant.  If and when we do, we will update our post to include quotes and info from them directly. 

Please keep in mind that this is merely our opinion after tasting burgers for over a year and comparing several aspects.  We did not allow ourselves to include fast food or chain restaurants; we focused on local businesses because we love supporting our community. 

This has been a fun adventure, so we're glad you're sharing in this series with us.  Be sure to come back next week to see who was crowned the #1, Gold Medal Trophy Winner of our Best Burger of Albany!!!!!

So let’s get down to it with our #2 - The Silver Burger of Albany:

FRANKIE’S RESTAURANT!!

What we love about the Frankie’s Burger:

As with our BronzeWinner, grass-fed beef has a special place in our heart.  Frankie’s makes a juicy, pink burger cooked perfectly and they use a Bodhi Bakery bun, baked right here in Albany.  The freshness comes through without a doubt!  And those buns…
definitely our favorite of all the restaurants we visited. While we know that Frankie's is known for their fresh local cuisine, we would guess that most of you have probably not tried their burger!  We're here to tell you:  You should!

The Oregon Royal Burger

Frankie’s also has that hometown family vibe (family owned) along with incredible Albany memorabilia on the walls in the restaurant that you should definitely see. Frankie’s chose North Albany as their home and it’s the perfect location; convenient for North Albany residents who rarely get to go out on their own side of the river. 

The Bistro Burger w/onion

Frankie’s sources their ingredients locally and organically whenever possible and this is one restaurant in town that we trust impeccably when it comes to the quality of their food.  Seasonal means it’s grown fresh and locally…we can respect that!  They support our community both in sports, youth and activities and our local growers and farmers.  We love this chance to send them some love right back!

The Bistro Burger, Assembled

The Oregon Royal, Assembled

Note:  While Jen usually orders a salad with her burger, not fries, it has to be said that Brownifer always includes an order of Pork Belly fries when we get burgers at Frankie’s!  Truffle salt, pork belly, blue cheese….you won’t regret it.

Pork Belly Fries

The Thing Review:

The Brownifer Things chose Frankie’s as their 2nd choice as well!  Yes, our Things essentially flip-flopped our scores.  But they had a blast and their opinion counts!  As we said before, ALL of these burgers are amazing so they may have just been overwhelmed with the deliciousness on their plates!

Thing #5 Did what she does best with her Bistro burger - ordered it plain and added ketchup only.  A true children's burger!!!

We award Frankie’sRestaurant our Silver Burger Statue!  So this week, while you anxiously await the announcement of our #1 Burger in Albany, head into North Albany and try a Frankie’s Burger!!!  Take the family out, or pick up your order (they are surprisingly fast with to-go orders), but don’t forget the pork belly fries!!!!  Grass-fed.  Juicy.  Bodhi Bun.  Hungry yet?

Congratulations, Frankie’s!  We’ll see you soon!

Albany's Bronze Burger Winner 2018

Welcome to our 3-part blog series on our Top 3 Burgers of Albany!!!  This has been a fun, interesting and long journey!  You can’t just eat burgers every day and slap out a declaration of ‘Best Burger in Albany’.  We respect our arteries.  As of the publication of this blog, we had not heard back from our top 3, but if and when we do, we will update our posts to include quotes and info from them directly.

We took our time with this project, carefully rated the burgers, in some cases went back more than once to be sure and, of course, had Things 2, 3, 4, & 5 do a blind taste test of our final three for you.  So yes, you will get the kid’s perspective as well.  This was definitely a family effort!!!! 

We will be sharing one blog with you each week until we reach #1!!!  Take the journey with us each week; visit and enjoy these burgers and the quality put into them!  Please keep in mind that we love ALL of these burgers and we will repeatedly enjoy them all! BUT…  they had to be ranked, so we got down and did it.

So let’s get started with our #3 - The Bronze Burger of Albany:

FIRST BURGER!!!!!

What we love about the First Burger:

The Iron Woman with a 50/50 patty

We just can’t get enough of a burger restaurant that uses grass-fed beef.  The flavor of grass-fed beef is just…amazing.  We love knowing our family is eating healthy meat, that is probably our #1 goal with every meal we make and order while dining out (ideally). There is also nowhere else in town that offers the option for a 50% Beef / 50% Bacon patty or a 100% Buffalo patty!

The Smoke Stack

The local factor is huge for us, we love supporting local businesses!  This restaurant is locally owned, and located in our beloved growing downtown district that is quickly becoming a foodie paradise.  (no complaints here, Albany!)  They also use local ingredients whenever possible.  The produce on the burgers is always so fresh; it’s like eating a burger made at home.  (and we make some mean burgers)  Local growers, bakers…..this restaurant supports our valley, our state, and we support them!

Since First Burger is (obviously) a burger-centric restaurant, their variety is to die for.  Thing #5 loves their milkshakes, I love their fry sauce (dreamy - try it with the onion rings!) and their specials are incredible.  So many burgers to try, so little time!!!!  They know burgers and they know how to play with food…a perfect pair!

The Thing Review:

The Iron Woman, Assembled

The overall consensus among our Things was that First Burger was their FIRST choice!  Yes, friends, these burgers are not only kid-approved, they are kid-preferred!  Keep in mind, they tasted them blindly and went on flavor alone.  So be sure to take the kids with you, because they are going to LOVE these burgers!  Bonus:  we mentioned the grass-fed beef, right?

We award First Burger our Bronze Burger Statue!  So this week, while you wait for the announcement of our #2-rated burger, head downtown and try a First Burger!!!  Take the family, order take-out…whatever works for you,  but throw them some love because they are doing grass-fed burgers RIGHT!

The Fatty Melt - 50/50 patty between
2 grilled cheese sandwiches!

Congratulations, First Burger!  We’ll be back!









The Silver Burger winner has been announced as well, check it out HERE!

Cheesy Stuffed Burgers - Albany, OR (Review)

We've been hearing so much about these burgers - we had to try them!

We don't do fast food unless it's the occasional run through the Burgerville Drive-thru.  We try really hard to stick to healthy, local foods.  So when we saw that Cheesy Stuffed uses grass-fed beef, we hopped in the car and drove into town.

Food trucks have their own niche in the restaurant market and most of us can agree that some of the best munchies come off of food trucks! This was a bit different as we were served in our vehicle; I liked the convenience of just waiting in my warm car!  The staff was very polite and I easily paid with my debit card on their tablet - they made it all very simple and convenient.

We ordered two burgers, an order of fries and I was curious about the lumpia, as we've made these and I used to eat lumpia as a kid in Hawai'i at my Filipino Grandma's house.  So the picture to the left was our neat little bag of goodies that we took home with us :-)

When we got home, we unwrapped our burgers and set out our sides to start trying everything.


The burgers were, in fact, stuffed with cheese.  I wouldn't say impressively so.  As we ate, we compared the burgers to what one would receive at a fast food restaurant and pondered what we thought a grass-fed burger from a food truck would be like. Brownie was a little disappointed with the portion size.  He was definitely expecting a larger burger.  If we went back, he would order two.

We also discussed price.  For $6 - $8 we couldn't really justify buying two burgers at a time.  I reminded him that grass-fed beef is much more expensive than your average ground beef.

In general, we liked the burgers, but I do have to say that just like other fast food burger drive-thrus, ultimately our opinion was that we could make a better burger at home.  Definitely have.

The fries were good, but the lumpia was either a bit overdone or cooked in oil that could have used changing.  I liked the sauce they served with the lumpia though.  We did wait until 15 minutes before closing to pop in, so not sure it's fair to judge at that time of night.  We will try them again earlier in the day sometime and try more of the menu.

Overall, we wouldn't say these burgers are bad by any means, but maybe they just didn't live up to the hype for us.  If you're not incredibly hungry, this is definitely a healthier choice than any of the chains here in town and I hope they become more popular for this reason.  The more people ditching Burger King for small, local and grass-fed - the happier I am!

As for presentation - how do you judge a food truck on how pretty their food is after being wrapped in foil and stuffed in a bag?  It is what it is out of necessity.  We definitely won't bash any food truck for that.

On the Brownifer scale - we give Cheesy Stuffed Burgers 3 1/2 stars.  (out of 5)  Stay tuned, however, this blog can and will be updated upon a second, third, fourth visit :-)  Maybe we'll bring the kids and let them weigh in on the experience!

Any chance to support local food, we support!  Take our comments for what they're worth and try it yourself!

Grilled Steak w/Bleu Cheese Figs

I love to give Brownie cooking challenges!  No, I'm sadistic; I love to watch him create!  Giving him ingredients that seemingly don't go together traditionally and watching what he comes up with ... it's a fascinating process, let me tell you.

He's been wanting to utilize figs since they're in season, so on my way home last night, I bought some gorgeous grass-fed beef steaks and got him some figs!

Yes, it was just as delicious as it looks!!!!  You have to try this one while figs are in season!!!!

When Brownie does cooking challenges, the end result is always a surprise for me, so I didn't get to watch him cook.  When I was finally presented with the final product and took my first bite ... I would have sworn he put chocolate in that sauce!  It was so good!

A few tips:  Figs are best when they feel mushy and 'overripe.'  They are also incredibly sweet on their own - in this recipe, you're adding honey to an already sweet fruit.  Our suggestion is not to be shy with the bleu cheese or the rosemary - both help cut that sweetness!

So if you're feeling ambitious, here's your recipe:

Ingredients:

• 9 or 10 Ripe Figs
• 2 Top Loin New York Strip Steaks (we bought McK Ranch grass-fed steaks that we find at our local Co-op.
• Garlic Powder
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
• Truffle Salt (we find this at Market of Choice up near the cheese section - the sample sizes are amazingly inexpensive and fun to play with)
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper
• Fresh Rosemary Sprigs (we just snip a few from the garden)
• Raw Honey
• 1 Vanilla Bean (our Co-op has these fresh in bulk)
• 1 Bottle Pinot Noir (more about the wine we used later)
• Bleu Cheese crumbles

Directions:

Always drink wine while cooking!

• Marinate steaks w/garlic powder, truffle salt, fresh ground black pepper, EVOO and fresh rosemary sprigs - set aside while they come up to room temperature
• Half 4 of your figs and scoop out the insides into a saucepan with 1 Tablespoon EVOO
• Start reducing over medium heat
• Add 2 tablespoons raw honey, insides of 1 vanilla bean, 1/2 cup pinot noir and 1 rosemary sprig
• Reduce to desired thickness of sauce - remove rosemary sprig
• Half 5 figs and place in baking pan (a pie plate will work)
• Sprinkle figs with bleu cheese crumbles and put in the oven at 375 Degrees until cheese is melted
• Grill steaks to medium rare and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing
• Plate your sliced steak and bleu cheese figs, drizzle sauce over the top
• Optional - garnish with fresh rosemary and fresh bleu cheese crumbles

Now the wine.  Pino Noir is Brownie's wine of choice, and I grabbed a bottle of Fractal Cellars 2011 Pinot Noir on my way out of the store.  In hindsight ... I should have considered the flavors Brownie would be cooking with while I chose the wine.  Whoops!  I'm not the wine palate in this house.

This wine IS delicious, but it didn't pair well with the figs, which was the main flavor in this plate.  Remember that figs are actually an inverted flower! So a wine with less berry flavors and more of a flowery essence would have been a better choice.  Maybe even a white wine?

We still drank the bottle! hahaha  But it wasn't a stellar pairing with our food.  Just a head's up!

Try this recipe at home and share with us!!!!

Keema Aloo

When it comes to food cravings, Indian is probably at the top of my list, dead tie with Mexican food. I have yet to master my favorites, aside from my Indian Chicken. But tonight, I tried Keema Aloo (pictured to the right of the rice in the bowl)and was informed by Brownie that he likes it even MORE than my chicken! I'll get to the recipe, I promise.  But I do want to include the sides we used since...those I did not make myself, but they completed our meal so...

While at the grocery store, wondering what my hungry self wanted for dinner...I came across my favorite cans of Indian Delhi Saag. Pita bread dipped in this is heavenly. I know, canned!? Well, until I find a recipe that comes close to this...yes, these cans.

Same goes for my favorite Amy's soup! *gasp* in a can. I know I'm awesome with soups, but I just can't compete. I'll keep trying. Until then...these two Yummies will continue to accompany my Indian cooking adventures. It also makes things quicker in the kitchen!








So back to my Keema Aloo. I confess that most of the ingredients I used, we had on hand. Also - I use approximations. If you want more potatoes after eyeballing it - put in more. Make it your own!   Other alterations I made, I will note.

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• Minced garlic (at least 4 cloves fresh minced, 2 Tablespoons minced from a jar)
• 2 Tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 Serrano chili pepper, finely chopped (I used a small pepper out of the garden - not sure which one but it wasn’t terribly spicy)
• 2 Heaping Teaspoons dried cilantro (or 2 teaspoons fresh, chopped)
• 1 Tablespoon ground coriander (all I had were seeds,so I wrapped them in kitchen gauze and tied them with cooking string to make a little bundle)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (add more if you like while cooking and tasting)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 Tablespoons curry powder
• 1 14 oz can diced roasted tomatoes
• 1/2 can green pigeon peas (or 1 cup frozen peas, 1 cup chopped green beans...whatever your heart desires or whatever you have on hand)
• 1 1/2 cups peeled, diced potatoes

Directions:

• Chop onion, peel potatoes and chop - set aside on a plate
• Measure garlic, ginger, serrano chile, and cilantro and set aside in a small bowl - 1st set of spices
• Measure coriander, salt, cumin, cayenne pepper, and curry and set aside in a small bowl - 2nd set of spices
• Heat olive oil (I used probably 1/2 cup) and add chopped onion over medium-high heat until softened - 5 minutes or so (if you like your onion sweeter, cook them until they're browned - if any stick to the bottom, put a little water in the pan and stir to loosen the pieces)
• Add ground beef and 1st set of spices to pan and cook until beef is brown
• Reduce heat to medium-low and stir in 2nd set of spices - let cook for 5 minutes and let the flavors mingle
• Stir in tomatoes and potatoes, cover pot and let it simmer until the potatoes are soft (10 -15 minutes)
• Turn heat off and let stand for 5 minutes before serving

As you can see, I like my Indian food to mingle over rice and I plate it as such. But this would be a meal on its own over rice!

As always, if you try this out, we'd love to see your version and hear about what you tried!

The Juicy Jennifer

Before you gasp at the title of this blog, let's remember the original invention of the cheese-stuffed burger patty: The Juicy Lucy.  Food has such a rich history in this country, it's always fun to learn something new!

We just received our order of grass-fed beef last week and I know Brownie has been itching to thaw some of it and get to the grill.  Now, we have an amazing food truck near us called Cheesy Stuffed Burgers that we haven't had a chance to try yet.  Rest assured, we will!  But tonight we decided to dig into that delicious beef and try our own version.

Brownie topped his with pickles, roasted red pepper and mustard and toasted his buns.  The hamburger buns.  I am not a fan of toasted buns, so I kept my Juicy Jennifer's buns soft and used pickles, mustard, horseradish and ketchup.  They were delicious!

I reminded Brownie we couldn't call it a Juicy Lucy because well .... this is something different.  So he told me, "It's my Juicy Jennifer!"  We giggled and laughed and munched on our burgers .... but it's a great name for them!

Linguine Marinara

We used one of our jars of delicious homemade marinara tonight with some grass-fed beef and ate it over linguine - this sauce is just amazing!  The kids liked the high beef-to-sauce ration and it kept them from picking out the tomatoes! :-)  Score 1 for the parents!