The alleged 100% sirloin
Tonight, to finish the sad trifecta of oversized mass-market burgers, I took on Jack In The Box's 100% Sirloin Burger. It's clearly set up to compete directly with The Six Dollar Burger at Carl's Jr. and the 2/3 Pound Angus Burger at McDonald's. In fact, it really looks like there's a shared marketing panel between these three that agreed it was time to dress up some fast food into something more like meatloaf, with big picnic toppings and specially designed packaging.
Right off the bat, Jack In The Box tells us they're playing for keeps: their box is hexagonal. Bang! Kind of looks like the big pod where Darth Vader spends his down time, but it's got a remarkable factor to it. Like the others, the burger has the SoCal handwrap on it, and it weighs like a shot put. The pickles were cut long-wise and laid across like bacon, which gets style points. No sesame seeds on the bun. I must say, the 100% Sirloin Burger was the first I physically had trouble taking a bite of. I sort of had to circle it for a few minutes, plan my attack. Even then, it's size resisted consumption. From there, it clearly stood above and beyond Carl's and McDonald's.
Jack's burger has one distinctive advantage in the taste of the meat. Whereas Carl's and McDonald's went for the Angus, which is a breed, Jack just went for sirloin, which is ostensibly steak. Honestly, I could taste the difference. It was kind of like I was eating, ironically, a salisbury steak, which is hamburger made to look like a steak, but either way, there was a distinctive flavor of the beef that sets the 100% Sirloin Burger apart from the others. And if I'm going to bother with fancified fast food, I don't want it to be more of their usual burger. I want a robust bouquet with high notes of citrus and sandalwood.
So hopefully from here on out I'll be eating burgers that you can't eat all across America. Because while burgers are America's best contribution to world cuisine, the best aren't made by international corporations. They're made by people. People: it's what's for dinner.
Right off the bat, Jack In The Box tells us they're playing for keeps: their box is hexagonal. Bang! Kind of looks like the big pod where Darth Vader spends his down time, but it's got a remarkable factor to it. Like the others, the burger has the SoCal handwrap on it, and it weighs like a shot put. The pickles were cut long-wise and laid across like bacon, which gets style points. No sesame seeds on the bun. I must say, the 100% Sirloin Burger was the first I physically had trouble taking a bite of. I sort of had to circle it for a few minutes, plan my attack. Even then, it's size resisted consumption. From there, it clearly stood above and beyond Carl's and McDonald's.
Jack's burger has one distinctive advantage in the taste of the meat. Whereas Carl's and McDonald's went for the Angus, which is a breed, Jack just went for sirloin, which is ostensibly steak. Honestly, I could taste the difference. It was kind of like I was eating, ironically, a salisbury steak, which is hamburger made to look like a steak, but either way, there was a distinctive flavor of the beef that sets the 100% Sirloin Burger apart from the others. And if I'm going to bother with fancified fast food, I don't want it to be more of their usual burger. I want a robust bouquet with high notes of citrus and sandalwood.
So hopefully from here on out I'll be eating burgers that you can't eat all across America. Because while burgers are America's best contribution to world cuisine, the best aren't made by international corporations. They're made by people. People: it's what's for dinner.
2 comments:
I enjoyed your post. Some of my favorite burgers in LA reside at The Nook, Ford's Filling Station and Father's Office.
www.burgerfiles.com
Thanks Josh, good to see you've got a whole site dedicated to the culinary pursuit of a good burger. I'll have to try out the ones you mentioned.
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