The Search Begins March 30, 2009

This past weekend I went to Ray’s Hell Burger. This is part of my search to find out what makes a good burger so I can make the perfect burger. Let me explain a little. When you go out to get a burger you can choose the toppings and that is pretty much it. No imagine if you could choose the cuts of meat that are in the burger. The fully customizable burger is the wave of the future.

                The first thing I noticed about Ray’s Hell Burger was the sign that said, “Cash Only.” Living in the year 2009 this came as a shock and caused me to have to walk across the street to a gas station to get cash from an ATM. This is a big strike against any restaurant located in an area as big as the DC metropolitan area. It is almost a deal breaker because it adds an extra step in traveling to a restaurant.

                Once back inside armed with cash at the ready I looked over the menu and noticed the vast array of ways in which my burger could be customized. The list of cheese alone was quite extensive. Some of the toppings I had never seen offered in a burger place before. They had everything from the standard lettuce to grilled fois gras. This is all well and good, but a burger isn’t about the toppings and in order to compare apples to apples I ordered my standard bacon, lettuce, tomato, and onions.

                One plus that Ray’s offers is that they bring your food to you. You order at the counter and then take a little number to be displayed at your table. When the burger arrived, not too long after ordering, the first thing I noted was its thickness. It was a good thick burger that looked like it would be absolutely delicious. I bit in and noted the purely amazing taste of the bacon and the juiciness of the tomatoes, but then I noticed something was missing. That good strong beefy taste of a good burger just wasn’t there. The burger itself was just bland and tasteless.

                As I have discovered in my own experiments is that the somewhat finer cuts of meats can be rather tasteless when made into a burger patty. The first custom burger I made was short rib and sirloin, and the lean nature of the sirloin just wiped out any flavor added by the short rib. Like sausage burgers aren’t meant to be made of finer cuts. The flavor comes from the uniqueness found in the lower cuts of beef. I will keep my findings to myself but I know the cuts needed for the perfect burger and it isn’t rib eye or tenderloin.

                My official opinion on Ray’s Hell Burger is that it is a gourmet burger place that focuses a little too much on the gourmet and not enough on the burger. A truly good burger should be able to be enjoyed with burger and bun alone. The toppings are added purely to enhance the flavor of the meat, not to outshine it. I give Ray’s a + for bringing the burger to me but they get a – for only taking cash and another – for not having fries as a side item. I rate the burger a 7/10 and give Ray’s a 6/10 due to the two deductions to one plus. I was going to deduct a point for the burger not filling me up, but I figured this was a little unfair since I eat more than most.

                This weekend I try Big Buns in Arlington and possibly Elevation Burger in Falls Church as well as letting my friends taste my meat combinations at Wrestlemania. 

If it wasn’t for a Bloody Sock March 24, 2009

The only reason that people are even debating the Hall of Fame candidacy of Curt Schilling right now is because of the bloody sock. If the Red Sox didn’t win that World Series or if Schilling never returned from injury and they won anyway then no one would care about him. He was a great pitcher with the Diamondbacks and a good pitcher with the Phillies, but he was never the most consistent pitcher.

                Schilling only really had four great seasons. Only three times did he have an ERA under 3.00 and one of those was an injury shortened season. He won twenty games in three different seasons, but wins aren’t a stat that stands alone due to the reliance on teammates. Schilling had an impressive WHIP for most of his career hovering around 1.0 during his prime. But when you put all the stats together and look at his career as a whole it just doesn’t stand up to even other fringe Hall of Famers from his era.

                Mike Mussina is a pitcher that is shot down as being in the Hall of Fame the second anyone mentions his name, but he is more deserving than Curt Schilling. Mussina never had a bloody sock, he doesn’t have a blog, and no one is quite sure where he stands politically. He is a quite humble man from a small Pennsylvania town.

                Not counting the strike shortened 1994 season and his rookie season Mussina pitched under 200 innings only five times in his career and most of those were within 30 innings of 200. The strikeout is the homerun of pitching and when it comes to strikeouts Schilling dominates Mussina. Mussina was a much more calculating pitcher who used change of speeds and breaking pitches to get guys out. He understood that a slow roller on a 0-1 count would allow him to go deeper into a game than trying to get a batter to swing and miss deep in the count.

                Mussina is a more deserving player when it comes to fringe Hall of Famers. I don’t think he will get in just because he doesn’t have the reputation that Schilling has. Schillings reputation as a good post-season pitcher has more to do with the team around him. If he wasn’t on a good team he would have never gotten to the post-season. Mussina pitched on a lot of bad teams when he was with the Orioles and still had good seasons. A lot of a pitchers career has to do with luck and Schilling while a good pitcher just happened to end up in the right circumstances. Mussina wasn’t as lucky and ended up pitching well during bad situations.

                When looking at a pitcher for the Hall of Fame the entire career needs to play a roll, and Schilling put together a few great seasons, but he also put together a lot of mediocre ones. Mussina on the other hand had far more great seasons than he did bad seasons. His only truly bad seasons came at the end of his career, and even then it wasn’t many. Mussina might not have been as flashy a character or pitcher as Schilling, but that calm, steady nature is why he is more deserving to be a Hall of Famer.