East Coast vs. West Coast

last week i was in North Carolina, sadly for the funeral of my future mother-in-law.
although we were down there for family duties, we still had a chance to hang around and eat some food. while being mallrats one day, we decided to split a burger and fries from this place in the food court called 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. we ordered their simple cheeseburger and fries and it did NOT disappoint!

let me just start by saying that this was clearly the east coast's answer to In-N-Out burgers! now i've heard people rave about White Castle, but those tiny square burgers don't have anything on 5 Guys. this cheeseburger was actually a double, with 2 hand-formed, all beef patties with a slice of good ol' american cheese sandwiched between them. the accoutrements were simple, mayo, ketchup, mustard, grilled onions, lettuce and tomato. biting into this burger brought you back to backyard bbq's in the summertime, while some kind soul was dutifully grilling burgers all afternoon and presenting you with a beautifully charred piece of beef that was warm and heavenly and melt in your mouth delicious! it looked, tasted and smelled like a backyard bbq burger and unlike any other burger you've ever had at a fast food place. what really made this burger so special and distinct was the freshness of their beef that you could taste. fresh beef is just that much more savory and can make even something as simple as a burger into a sublime experience.

the burger was served with typical french fries, with little bottles of vinegar handy to pour onto your potatoes. be advised that once you place your order, there is a bit of a wait while they grill your burger. but trust me, it is DEFINITELY worth the wait! so much so that i had wished i had ordered a burger for myself rather than splitting it with my fiancee.

i checked out their website and 5 Guys has various locations on the east coast, but have begun branching out westward. but east coast people rejoice, you have your own burger jewel (Zagat rated, no less!) that rivals our west coast jewel in In-N -Out.

http://www.fiveguys.com/

Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese

while running an errand to the WaMu in Larchmont Village (aka, Larchmont du Village!), we stopped in at the wine and cheese shop. mostly because i had a ravenous craving for some black truffle patè, and was hoping to find some here. i usually go all the way out to the Cheese Shop on Robertson, but who wants to deal with all the traffic and papparazzo?

anyhow, we pull in to a parking spot and my fiancèe exclaims that they have wonderful sandwiches here, so we get in line at the deli counter to place our orders. the lady at the counter was kind enough to let me have a sample of their black truffle patè, and handed it over to me, slathered generously on a sliver of bread taken from what they normally make sandwiches for all the hungry lunch goers. i took one bite of it and was immediately transported back to the time we toured the Cheese Shop on Robertson during my garde mangèr class in cooking school. at that shop i had tasted this wonderful patè and was pleased to find out that they carried the same type! it was smooth and delicious, with hints of dark specks here and there, creating a wonderfully aromatic mosaic of black truffles that were just as tantalizing to taste as smell.

after exclaiming it to be exquisite, i called out, "quarter pound of that, please!"

my fiancee had the sorpresata salmai sandwich, that he graciously shared with me. we also purchased a tub of cornichons, or as i like to call them, "little gherkins" to take along. the sandwich also did not disappoint and was layered with thin slices of sorpresata and mozzarella that was not salty, but delicate and flavorful. there was one problem with the sandwich, as that they were rather generous with the spread on the bread and the delicious sorpresata kept sliding around and out of the sandwich! this is something i must learn to tackle sometime in the future and find the best way to make a sandwich and not have the deli meat slide out.

we also walked around the store for a bit and perused their extensive selection of wines. they had many good things in there, lots of imports and fancy stuff that beats any supermarket. we could have spent the entire afternoon inspecting wine bottles alone, but alas, an empty stomach called out to us to delight with sorpresata. the only disappointing thing about our trip to the Larchmonth Village Wine and Cheese Shop was the cornichons we got that were overly soaked in vinegar and therefore difficult to enjoy for fear of heartburn!

so, come for the patè, sandwiches, and extensive wine selection sure to pique anyone's interest, but pass on the gherkins!

yelp.com link: http://www.yelp.com/biz/larchmont-village-wine-spirits-and-cheese-los-angeles