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!

Simply Ramen - Albany, OR (Review)

Never heard of this restaurant?  We hadn't either! Simply Ramen seems to have opened their doors quietly and sneaked onto the restaurant scene in our town!

Of course the minute we heard about it, we had to try it!

Just South of the Queen & Geary intersection at 1800 Geary Street SE, there it is!  It's quaint and unassuming, but don't let its size fool you:  this little noodle restaurant packs a punch!

They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 to 3:00 for lunch, then again from 4:30 to 8:30 for dinner.

We arrived during the dinner rush and were surprised that it was so busy.  It's been open less than a month and we had only just heard of it.  We couldn't find a website or a Facebook page, just a few Yelp! reviews.

We were seated promptly, brought our menus and drinks.  While the menu is a single laminated card, the plethora of choices you'll find there will amaze you.  Don't assume you'll be making a decision about what to order quickly.  Yes, Ramen seems to be their specialty, but other Asian favorites are available as well.  Things you probably consider to be favorites, such as Chow Mein, Potstickers, Pad Thai, Fried Rice, Chicken Teriyaki.  But mix in some things Albanyites don't see in our town often, like Seaweed Salad, Korean Short Ribs, KimChi Fried Rice, Singaporean Noodles....Miso Soup!  There hasn't been a decent Miso Soup in Albany for .... has there ever?

Miso Soup

Which brings me to the food we ordered.  Yes, we started with Miso Soup!  Miso Soup is something I've always loved and outside of Portland and Eugene....I haven't experienced a great one.  Until now. Ladies and Gentleman!  Albany has finally brought us Miso Soup! Luscious seaweed pieces, abundant tofu, savory broth....Alright, I'll shut up about it but if I can go on and on about my appetizer choice ... imagine the Entrees....

Brownie ordered the House Signature Pad Thai with chicken.  The color was beautiful and for the rest of the meal I wished I could enjoy peanuts with pasta.  The noodles were light and silky and the peanuts were crushed, which gives this dish a nice

Pad Thai w/Chicken

balance in texture.

I chose to try the Singaporean Noodles with beef.  These are stir-fried, curry-flavored rice noodles with just enough heat to tickle your senses. They did get a bit sticky as they sat and cooled, but I hardly cared as flavor is always my priority and that was on point.

Singaporean Noodles w/Beef

We had to try the Ramen as well since the restaurant's name suggests this is their specialty.  And that assumption would be correct!  I tried the Signature Ramen with Chashu Pork (as in:  Pork Belly.  as in:  BACON!)  The noodles were perfect ramen, the pork was flavorful, my egg was
delicious and the broth....oh dear sweet baby whoever-your-chosen-savior-is!  There could not have been more umami flooding my mouth; rich, succulent, buttery... my taste buds were dancing like fools.  If you can't decide on what to order, this would be my suggestion.

Signature Ramen w/Chashu Pork

Brownie's ramen choice was the Blend Chili Spicy Ramen with Chashu Pork and Shrimp Tempura.  Do I have to choose which one I liked better? Because in a spicy mood, this is utter perfection.  Not spicy enough to burn your mouth or make you sweat, but the perfect amount to keep you excited while the underlying richness of the broth soothes your palate.  I would have left the pork out and just got the shrimp with this, it was a perfect pairing.  But ... choose your proteins as you wish!

Blend Chili Spicy Ramen w/Shrimp
Tempura & Chashu Pork

The service in the restaurant is efficient, the staff is very friendly and helpful with the menu, clearing your table...as we watched other patrons leave, the staff was right behind them, cleaning the tables and ready to seat the next customer.

The portions here are large, so be ready to take home leftovers!  But in our opinion, there is no such portion as 'too much.'  Come hungry!  They boxed up our leftover food for us and even let us take home our extra broth and soup; we were thankful, because that stuff is liquid gold!

The space has obviously been remodeled and is clean and fresh, including the bathrooms.  What!?  We have to check those for you too!  The kitchen is open, so you can see them cooking the food and there is nothing to hide. The atmosphere is that of a bustling noodle joint designed to efficiently serve delectable food to as many people in a day as possible.  I appreciate the focus on the food and the casual atmosphere.  I leaned over to my neighbor's tables more than once to ogle their food and ask what it was they were trying.

Overall, we think this restaurant is a breath of fresh air for Albany!  It's been so long since we got any new flavor in this town and we're so happy it's authentic and good quality Asian-inspired!  We need to branch out and bring more food culture!  We love the path this is leading us down, bring us more!

Okay, now the rating.  The part we dislike the most.  We think this restaurant is exactly what it's trying to be and nothing more or less.  Clean, efficient, customer-oriented, excellent food, terrible parking....it has everything a good restaurant should have!  We give Simply Ramen 5 stars on the Brownifer Scale.  You saw that right.  Five.  Nothing wins us over like umami.

If you haven't tried our new favorite Albany dinner stop, then you will soon because everyone will be raving about this little place in no time.  Go enjoy some noodles done right and be sure to tell us how much you loved it.  Because you will!

Welcome to Albany, Simply Ramen!

Homemade Spicy Laab (with recipe)

So, Laab (also known as Laap, Larp, Lahp, Lahb) is a family favorite around here!  It's a spicy minced meat salad that is usually eaten with/on greens.  Normally we use a Laab spice packet we buy at the Asian food store and eat it on Romaine leaves.  But last night, Brownie didn't find the packet in time and we proceeded to make our own while researching recipes online.  So this is our version!  It turned out great and I love that we can control the heat!  Laab is notoriously spicy; VERY spicy.

Never fear that this recipe calls for no salt or garlic....you won't be lacking flavor!  We had a beautiful organic head of cabbage, so we attempted to use it with our Laab, but....while the flavor was amazing, it just didn't work.  We were wishing we had our trusty Romaine leaves, so that's what we're going to list in the recipe.

If you're intimidated by Asian cooking, try this!  It's a simple process and it will impress anyone who tries it!  You'll be a hit!

Ingredients:

• 2 Lbs Ground Pork
• 1 Large Red Bell Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Fresh Cilantro
• 1 Large Shallot - very thinly sliced
• 2 Green Onion - chopped
• 5 Tablespoons Lime Juice
• 6 Tablespoons Fish Sauce (we found a wonderful MSG-free one at a local Asian food store)
• 1 Tablespoon Cayenne (adjust if you want more or less spice)
• Whole Romaine Leaves, rinsed
• Chopped Green Onion (for garnish)
• Sweet Chili Sauce (for garnish - we found some at Market of Choice in the ethnic aisle)

Directions:

• Heat oil in a large skillet
• Brown pork in oil over medium heat until nearly cooked through
• Add shallot, green onion, bell pepper, cilantro, fish sauce and lime juice and cayenne to pan and mix with meat
• Simmer on Med/High uncovered until liquid is evaporated. (You'll still have a bid of oil in the bottom of the pan, that's fine)

NOTE:  Yes, Fish Sauce has a foul smell that will make you think of vile things.  Just go with it.  It will cook down and taste delicious!  Trust us.

Serve Laab scooped into Romaine leaves (like a taco) or over rice with chopped cabbage, top with chopped green onion and sweet chili sauce.

I'm not a fan of sweet chili sauce, but it's one of Brownie's favorites.  The regular cabbage was a total fail, but it was perfect chopped up with the Laab over rice!  SO good!  We made some bowls of this for our lunches today .... yes, it's delightful leftover too!

Enjoy!

Spicy Autumn Soup

It's that time of year!  Soup!  I love making soups, but I can never create the same one twice, so I've decided to start writing down what I did so I can remember some of these amazing creations.

Of course this time of year is full of pumpkin this, squash that.... it's dizzying.  But Trader Joe's had
a few spectacular things on the shelves that inspired this soup for me.  Photos help, so I'm including those.

I also cooked by candlelight (Brownie thinks I'm insane for doing this) so I didn't have a chance to take many photos during the process, which is why you get to admire this lovely shot of my leftover soup in tupperware.  You're welcome. I promise it's just as scrumptious leftover!  Noodles a little softer, but still good!

This has a kick to it, so be ready to clear those sinuses!  It's also incredibly filling, so small portions go a long way.

Here Goes:

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• 1 Cup Chopped Onion
• 1 Cup Chopped Celery
• 1 Cup Chopped Carrot
• 6-10 Garlic Cloves - Minced (however much or little you prefer)
• 1 Stick Salted Butter
• 3 small zucchini, sliced or chopped as you wish
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Bell Pepper
• Truffle Oil (totally optional but they have a tiny bottle of this amazingness at Market of Choice if you want to use it)
• 1 Package Trader Joe's Cheese & Garlic Croutons
  
  
  
• 1 Package Trader Joe's Fall Zucchette Pasta
• 1 Jar Trader Joe's Autumnal Harvest Creamy Pasta Sauce
• 1-2 Cups cooked or leftover meat of any kind that you may have on hand or need to use, chopped
• 1/2 Cup Chopped fresh Sage
• 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (The sauce has a bite to it, so if you're sensitive to spicy, leave this out)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 2 Teaspoons Cumin
• 1-2 Tablespoons fresh Thyme (1/2-1 Tablespoon dried)
• 2 Teaspoons fresh, chopped Oregano (1 Teaspoon dried)
• Dash of Cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon Paprika

Directions:

• Boil water with 1 Tablespoon olive oil and get noodles cooking in a separate pot for now.  
• Saute garlic, onion, celery and carrot with 1/2 the stick of butter and a few sprinkles of salt in a soup pot until butter is melted and onions are a bit soft
• Add water, about 8-10 cups and turn the heat up to bring to boil
• While the water is heating up for soup, add the cayenne, salt & pepper, cumin, thyme, oregano, cinnamon and paprika.  Stir.
• When water comes to a boil, turn the heat down to a simmer until the pasta is ready.
• Drain pasta, leave in the collander
• In pasta pot, put the remaining 1/2 stick of butter with chopped fresh sage - on medium heat, melt butter and cook sage until it's a bit crispy
• Turn soup back up to a boil, add jar of sauce, zucchini and bell pepper and let boil while you do the final step with the pasta.
• When the sage is ready, put pasta back into the pot and toss it with sage and butter, sprinkling with salt and truffle oil until you like the flavor
• Let Pasta sizzle in pan on medium heat, stirring often for about 5 minutes
• Add chopped meat to the pot, stirring in to let it heat up and flavor the soup a bit - 5 minutes while the pasta sizzles
• Taste the broth, making sure the flavors are where you want them, adjust as you wish.  If you didn't use enough garlic, sprinkle in some garlic powder for a quick fix :-)
• Stir pasta into the soup
• Serve soup with cheesy garlic croutons and enjoy!

This soup is very filling and this recipe will feed 6-8 people.

Summer Bruschetta (with recipe)

We love summer!  Fresh fruits and vegetables are available everywhere you look and organic produce is so easy to come by locally!

If you've never made bruschetta ... it's sort of like the Italian version of chips and salsa!  So of course, Jen is a huge fan.  Chips and salsa is a must-have staple in the Brownifer household!

We're still working on using up leftovers from our Cuban Sandwiches so instead of using pita chips for a quick and easy bruschetta fix, we toasted some of our leftover Cuban Hoagies to make this one.  Normal we'll buy a baguette and slice it, but we work with what we've got!  Whatever bread you have, I guarantee it will work.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Heirloom tomatoes - the more colors, the more fun!
• 2/3 Cup chopped fresh basil
• 2/3 Cup chopped onion (as fine as you like)
• 5-6 cloves garlic, minced (however much you like - we go crazy with garlic)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Sliced bread for toasting
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder

Directions:

• Mix tomatoes, onion, basil, garlic in a bowl and salt/pepper to taste
• Let mixture sit for 30 minutes or so for flavors to combine, stirring periodically
• Slice bread and place on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder
• Put bread in the broiler or oven until crisp and browned to your liking
• Spoon tomato mixture onto bread and serve!

Brownie likes to sprinkle his bruschetta with romano or parmesan cheese - I prefer it light and fresh.  You can vary this recipe in so many ways, its a fun one to play with and a simple side to so many summer dishes! 

The Brownifer Cuban Sandwich

We were inspired by our visit to Stick a Pork In It to create our own version of the Cuban Sandwich. We hit the Internet Super Highway and did some research on the history of this tradition.

I won't bore you with the research, you can look all of that up yourself.  But we decided to stay authentic, leave off the salami and give it our own flair with Brownie's smoked, pulled pork.

In researching this sandwich, I found that Cubans are very adamant that you use Cuban Bread for this, so I did some reading on that as well. My adventure perfecting Cuban Hoagies finally came together in batch #3, they were delicious! You should definitely give them a try - not sure this would have turned out the same if we hadn't used them!

Now, pulled pork takes quite a few hours to do and you can't really time it. It's done when it's done. So we decided to make a Cuban Night of it and invited friends over for Mojitos and a Cuban-themed meal.  This also gave us a chance to get more opinions on our creation, which we love.

I'll shut up now, here's what we did:

Ingredients:

Pulled Pork (smoked on your own BBQ grill if possible)
Ham slices (we had the deli slice ours so the thickness was where we wanted it and uniform)
Brick of Swiss Cheese, thinly sliced
Sandwich Slicer Pickles (we even found organic ones with no artificial dye!)
Mustard - lots of mustard!
Cuban Hoagies (substitute any hoagies or bread - you know what you like)

Directions:

• Slice Hoagies sandwich-style
• Put mustard on both bread slices. A lot of mustard - and don't be shy - use that mustard!!!!!
• Lay top and bottom on broiler tray and liberally add a layer of sliced Swiss Cheese to each and put under the broiler on low until the cheese is melted
• Lay down your ham slices on the bottom slice of your sandwich (our bread used two slices)
• Lay down a layer of pickles - thick as you like (we used four to cover the bread)
• Top with pulled pork and put the top on your sandwich, pressing down so that cheese can do its job and hold everything together
• Slice sandwich at the diagonal

We served our Cubans with some traditional sides that I found recipes for here.  They turned out really well!  There were two of us in our dinner party who are not fans of sweet potatoes - and we loved the potatoes!  So even if it's not your thing, give it a try!  And the beans were so flavorful but a word to the wise, (learn from my Mojito-fueled mistake) measure your salt!  I always under-salt things and Brownie is always adding more salt to my recipes so ... in my mind I needed to add more than it called for.  Don't.  They tasted fabulous, but I used way too much salt.

These sandwiches were the talk of our Memorial Day weekend!  All of our guests loved them, but only one could finish the whole thing!  They're large.  We finished the night off with Mojitos, spiced rum and cigars by the fire .... all of us too full to eat anything else.

Try these out and let us know what variations you used and how they turned out!

¡Que aproveche amigos!

Death By Donutz

Our Things always hear about us reviewing restaurants and they really want to be part of this blog!  So they are working on a restaurant review of their own, stay tuned!

While visiting a restaurant they were interested in trying, we came by Death By Donutz in Corvallis and I mentioned that it was one of the places I had been wanting to try with the kiddos.

So when we were done eating our lunch, we headed in to check things out!

The kids were overwhelmed with their choices, so ordering just one doughnut probably wasn't ever going to be realistic.  We got a dozen and everyone set in trying them out.


They do have most of your favorite classic doughnuts, but they also have some signature names that you really must try!

Thing #5 was in love with her Banana Split doughnut, she said it was 'so good!' Be careful - one bite and the whipped cream will smear your nose!  Totally worth it.

Cookie Dough

Banana Split

Brownie and Thing #4 both had Cookie Dough and I chose the Nutella, topped with a wee little Filbert (we live in Oregon - they're Filberts, not Hazelnuts)  Both of those were very good as well.

Nutella

Beaver Tail

That big bar lined with chocolate stripes there?  Orange cream frosting.....Beaver Tail I believe.  Thing #5 was protecting it with her life so no one would eat it.













Now Thing #3 chose to be really adventurous and try the PB&J doughnut.  We were all a bit skeptical.  His review?  'Probably the best doughnut I've ever eaten in my life.'  His advice - order a milk to drink with this because it's rich and that peanut butter will stick to the roof of your mouth.  It's filled with jelly too - but it won't change the fact that you need milk!

Peanut Butter & Jelly

If Brownie and I had to recommend one doughnut to try here, it would have to be the Raspberry Fritter.  You heard us right!  And it's just as amazing as it sounds!

Raspberry Fritter

The novelty of this little place is indeed its attraction, the kids even got logo stickers to take home with them.  But you're guaranteed to find something you love here and fill out your dozen with some classics with which you can't go wrong.

Visit them and let us know what you tried!