Midtown Lunch

With all the ruckus over Grill Em All’s “Great Food Truck Race” victory over the Nom Nom Truck a few months ago, it’s easy to forget that earlier in the year Grill Em All was actually bested by Baby’s Badass Burger Truck on Travel Channel’s “Food Wars”.  It’s hard to beat Grill Em All’s seared fennel smoked sausage gravy and maple syrup topped burger (aka The Molly Hatchet) but when it comes to just the burger itself, Baby’s is surprisingly awesome- provided you order it medium rare. So, when I spotted this special posted on the Baby’s Badass Burger Truck, how could I resist?

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If given the choice between “authenticity” (whatever the hell that means) and “fusion” I will choose the former every time.  Ethnic food that’s been watered down, or muddled, by the inclusion of some other cuisine is not my idea of a good time, and yet every once in awhile something “fusion-y” comes along that is too perfect to be mad at (and for some reason it seems to often involve Korean food.)  Korean fried chicken is possibly the greatest invention of all time, Kogi started a food truck revolution, and now there is this: the newly opened Kalbi Burger, in Koreatown (which I first read about on LA Taco.)

Korean burgers are not exactly a new idea.  Kogi serves Korean sliders on their truck, there’s a Bulgogi Whopper available overseas, and hell- even this fat white guy thought to throw some bulgogi marinade into his burgers for a Superbowl Party in 2001 (a no-brainer combo that was probably tried long before, and has been tried many times since.)  But there’s something about Kalbi Burger that got me all excited.  Maybe it was the Umami Burger looking orange and black sign.  Or the fact that it’s not from a truck (there is something to be said about the permanence of a brick and mortar restaurant.)  But either way, I was intrigued enough to head over there yesterday and eat my through most of the menu.

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Yesterday it was reported on the Midtown NYC section of Midtown Lunch that The Counter would be expanding to Times Square this October. The Counter’s “build your own burger”  craziness is old hat here in L.A., and some New Yorkers with connections to the West Coast were pretty excited by the news.  But most people in NYC are unfamiliar- so yesterday, at the request of a few lunchers, I headed over to Santa Monica to scarf down a burger and fries at The Counter… you know, for my old friends in Midtown.

See the sacrifices I make for you people?

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I’ve been craving a burger since the day I got here (this city has some good burgers) and I thought long and hard about what I wanted my first burger in L.A. to be. Would I go old school at the Apple Pan, or new school at the Oinkster.  Would I splurge on Umami Burger, or go cheap at Capitol Burgers. And then of course there’s In N Out Burger, but I ruled that one out pretty quickly.  If an In N Out opened up in Manhattan it would be the greatest, most exciting day in Midtown Lunch’ing history… but here in L.A., a new In N Out Burger is like a new Starbucks (and therefore not a Midtown Lunch.)

It was a tough choice, and in the end I went for… none of the above!  I know it’s terrible, but if there’s one thing I like more than burgers it’s food trucks… so when I randomly found myself outside of Baby’s Badass Burgers the other day, I couldn’t resist trying it out.

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