Rick's Press Room - Meridian ID

Stop the presses! There's something punny going on here!

Via buzzfeed.com

Headlines are what draw your interest to a newspaper and can sometimes make or break an edition. Not that anyone under the age of thirty knows what a newspaper is anymore, or even what news is that doesn't involve a social network link. Rick and Julie over at Rick's Press Room know a little bit about newspapers and headlines; or at least it would appear so to the casual observer in their little restaurant in downtown Meridian. The walls are littered with headlines of dead people and old crap nobody cares about anymore. But don't  judge the place by the decor.

The one thing everyone that comes to Rick's Press room does care about, other than trying to catch a glimpse of Guy Fieri and his trademark Comaro (give it up kids, Guy has left the building!), is the food that has received quite a few raves from some of the locals and international customers, many of which have adorned the walls of Rick's Press Room with their own headlines via Sharpie. So, I decided to follow the crowd and try out this little joint. 

I was in the mood to sniff out a good story and it just so happened that the smoker was spewing its little love puffs right outside the front entrance. Nice marketing! Not sure what was in the smoker, but I'm certain it was worthy of its own story below the fold. Now, I think I know what Rick and Julie (the owners - hence the name "Rick's Press Room" - keep up kids) were going for with the interior of the place; that eclectic, shabby, recycled newspaper design with a feeling of casualness and fun, but it was more reminiscent of my old college dorm room than a restaurant setting you would expect to see based on all of the published raves. But my college dorm room was a lot of fun and as I recall, there may have been a bit of smoking going on in there too. So, maybe it works. 

I asked about the specialties of the house and was told that pretty much everything was good (canned answer. C'mon, grow a pair! This is your chance to push the highest margin dish!). So I decided to go with a bit of seafood and ordered the Crab Melt with a bowl of the Clam Chowder. Say it with me . . . chow-dah! My dining partner had the raved about burger with simple bacon and cheddar (che dah). we also ordered a loaf of their warm sour dough bread with butter to get our taste buds hopping. 

As promised, the bread was warm and also moist in the center with a crispy crust. The accompanying real butter was a nice contrast to the whipped look-a-likes you normally get at restaurants. Not bad.

The chowder was the soup of the day and I found myself wishing for a little more density to the bowl. A bit loose for my taste and a little shy on flavor, but it did have plenty of clams, potatoes and celery and went well with a bit of the sour dough bread. Pretty good, but not great. 

The crab melt was not what I expected. The copious amounts of mayo and Parmesan really overwhelmed the mechanically separated crab meat, that didn't have much flavor to begin with, and it became lost in the struggle for prominence within the sandwich. The crab filling was topped with melted Swiss cheese. Typically, the blending of cheese and seafood is a no-no situation and liable to make chefs and food critics a bit crabby. In this instance, I happen to agree. Even though there was a good amount of crab meat in the filling, the combination of the other heavy handed ingredients really didn't do the sandwich any favors and I would have opted for a smaller portion with an emphasis on the crab than the mayo and cheese. 

The burger was cooked well done (as requested by my dining partner) but still retained its moisture and was tender. A bit of salt would have enhance the meat flavor. The bacon was slightly limp but not bad and the cheddar was typical for the area. The accompaniments seemed fresh and crisp, but the most redeeming quality of the burger was the bun; it was warm, moist and was toasted nicely for a bit more added texture. The fries . . . . frozen! Seriously?! We are in Idaho, people. What does it take to get some good fries around here?! The service we received was outstanding! Prompt, attentive, but not overbearing. Kudos!

Overall, really not a bad meal, no headlines worthy of the National Enquirer, but maybe the Red Bud Gazette might be an option. 

Yard House - Meridian, ID

Didn't your mother ever tell you to go out and play in the yard? Did you go out there with your underwear outside of your pajamas with your Mickey Mouse towel cape and pretend you were a Green Beret, or Bear Grylls, or perhaps Gilligan sneaking a three hour peak at Marianne in a grass skirt? Or was that just me?

So it was just me. I can deal with that. What I can't deal with is ordering a hamburger cooked medium and getting one that is cooked well done! Dry meat in between dry buns is not an ideal situation. Not even in the bedroom. A dry burger patty is a rookie mistake and it's exactly what I got at Yard House.

Surf and Turf Burger

I chose to try the Surf and Turf burger. At about $15, it is topped with Maine lobster sauteed in garlic butter, grilled asparagus and Swiss cheese, all on a bed of raw spinach with a side of tomato Bearnaise and a brioche bun. Great combination. The lobster was tender (shocker) and the tomato Bearnaise was actually quite flavorful but not to the point of being overwhelming to the rest of the flavors in the stack. The meat, although a bit dry since it was overcooked, still held on to a bit of char and flavor which made it quite pleasant. Overall, the burger had good flavor but lacked a bit of moisture internally. I chose to moisten my meal with a traditional flight of brews. At least the beer was wet and offered a nice contrast to the burger. Many beers from which to choose. The accompanying fries and service were nothing to write home, or blog, about, so I won't.

I had a decent experience and I would be tempted to try other dishes and beer flight combinations in the future. So, if you are in the mood for a burger experience that's slightly better than you can belly up to at the counter, try The Yard. It's better than any dangly goat balls Mr. Grylls would likely eat, but not as juicy as you might expect from a three hour tour.

Pebble Score

The Counter - Meridian ID

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to challenge yourself how you think about burgers. At least that's what the folks over at The Counter want you to do. They are about creative construction and feel they make things delicious with what I am convinced must be Monsanto inspired ingredients. Life is about experiences, and if you want to try stuff, learn something or be creative, try your local college dorm. There, you will not only have more fun picking off the scabs you got from your last sexual escapade, but will so intensify your senses from the endless consumption of gourmet frozen-burrito-ramen-noodle-doo, that you will actually enjoy paying high prices for the food at The Counter.

It is without a doubt in my mind that the vast number of toppings available for your creation can only be made possible through the efforts of Nicolas Appert and the magic of butylated hydrocyanisole and hydroxytoluene. How else can they afford to keep that many ingredients in one place? I hope I'm wrong and that their Market Selections are in fact sourced daily and not preserved.

My particular creation started with the hormone and antibiotic free beef, then it was topped with Gouda cheese (a personal favorite), sun-dried tomatoes, roasted green chilies, and the roasted garlic aioli all on a standard brioche bun to preserve the flavor of the ingredients. Along with the Parmesan fries, it all sounded like a delightful and flavorful combination to me! This is what it looked like:

Now, don't let the looks fool you! The burger was in desperate need of salt and was simply not impressive; the bun was dry, the tomatoes had little flavor, the garlic aioli was okay but still lacked garlic and the green chilies tasted like, well, what you might imagine a Leprechaun penis would taste like . . . green with a just a hint of Guinness! The Parmesan fries were dissolving in their own grease and became more limp than the aforementioned Leprechaun.

The only redeeming quality of The Counter was the service! Our server and the rest of the staff were fantastic. Friendly, welcoming and efficient, almost to a fault. A wonderful crew, indeed and I would go back and try a shake just to be served by them one more time.

My personal burger combination at The Counter was not at all what I had built up in my mind and the cost made the whole meal even harder to swallow. With over 312,120 ways to to build your burgers, you could spend a lifetime creating and devouring different combinations! Unfortunately, only one combination was enough to convince me that there were perhaps 312,119 too many. Consider me disappointed.

Pebble Score

A Kuna Machaca (aka El Gallo Giro) - Kuna, ID

When you're a pig, you eat almost anything, but you prefer the good stuff like truffles. You root around hunting for those mysterious little fungal nodes day after day after day and all you ever come up with is slop; somebody else's garbage. Eventually, you tire of looking for something good to eat and you get hungry enough that you eat the aforementioned slop. It's not your first choice but you play the hand that's dealt you. Perhaps that is where the term sloppy seconds comes from. Not sure on that one, but I still wouldn't want to eat it.

If only pigs had jobs with monetary gains, opposable thumbs, the ability to read a menu, and some shorty shorts to cover their tiny little pink corkscrew-shaped wankers so as to not show them off and offend other patrons, thus causing mass hysteria and truly confusing the wine steward, they would simply be able to drive their Volkswagens to Kuna for a better than average Mexican style meal at El Gallo Giro.

Yum!

Some of the reviews of El Gallo Giro would lead you to believe it is the greatest food that our friends to the south could ever hope to produce. Reality would rate the food there at about a 6.5 out of ten. Combine the decent food with great service and excellent prices and you get a nice place for a casual meal.

I chose the machaca and was pleasantly surprised when I was presented with a simple bowl of tortilla soup as an appetizer. The soup had some flavor and was a welcomed start to my meal. The meat in the machaca was quite tender but the dish as a whole lacked salt to enhance the combination of flavors. The rice was a bit firm and the bits of cheese crumbles, which I can only assume were a queso fresco or a substitute of feta, added some much needed saltiness and was a nice touch.

Although Pumba or Maxwell will likely never get an opportunity to eat at El Gallo Giro, most patrons that decide to give this establishment a try will have a pleasant experience, won't get cork-screwed, and will end up going wee, wee, wee all the way home!

"A Kuna Machaca!

What a wonderful phrase

A Kuna Machaca!

Ain't no passing craze."