The following piece was published at “Old Ones Dream” October 23, 2013, and as piece of the book “Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork” published April 14, 2022.
A reader asked what made the Alamo Springs Cafe hamburger better than all the rest. That comment will inform my future writing about food. It caused me to realize that I had not, in all cases, done more than to say “just take my word for it”. This post will combine my reply to reader Bill with my “rules of travel” for food — and some future plans for “The Best I Ever Had”.
When I wrote about Charlene’s Seafood Chowder there was no room for doubt as to why it was better than any other I had eaten, but I missed that mark when writing about the Alamo Springs hamburger. Hamburgers are a little different because, more than other foods, I think they tend to be much the same. Here we are talking about so-called gourmet hamburgers and that lets the fast food joints out, although Fuddruckers probably considers theirs to be a gourmet hamburger – the couple of times I tried them I thought them to be just giant hamburgers. But I am not a big fan of hamburgers and don’t order them unless I have a compelling reason based on reported excellence, or there is nothing else on the menu that is as attractive. When I was still a teen farm boy I had the hamburger at Stan Musial and Biggie’s Restaurant because I couldn’t afford anything else and not even that. It was very good and certainly a memorable experience but I never felt the slightest urge to go back and do it again. In Brevard I have had decent Black Angus burgers at Big Mike’s and at Dugan’s Irish Pub, and The Falls Landing has an honest gourmet Black Angus burger (prepared by a chef) that is the best I have had in the Carolinas and possibly the best I’ve had outside of Texas but I don’t have an urge to pop in and have one.
The reasons that the Alamo Springs Café burger is the best I ever had are as follows:
Fresh high quality ingredients including the bun, lettuce, tomato, onions, slaw; and the hot just-made on the premises potato chips were also the best I ever had.
The large course grind beef burger was done to luscious perfection. It was still pink but the juices were clear so it was not cooked a moment past “top dead center”.
All of the above was hot and delicious, well ordered and presented with a flair. Psycho-Logical factors do contribute to the enjoyment of all things and those factors are abundant at Alamo Springs, but if their meal was served to me at Burger King in Brevard, it would still be the best I ever had.
Travel adventure adrenaline heightens awareness, among other things, and would have had my taste buds operating at their best.
And, like a real estate appraiser, I had a number of good “comps” to support my appraisal.
I have had the Alamo Springs Café hamburger once in 2011 and again in 2012 and I would not hesitate to drive 150 miles out of my way to pop in and have one again. For whatever it’s worth it is the best I ever had, and I might see Hillary Swank.
I have written “The Best I Ever Had” eight times and in each case I have eaten a large sample of the featured “dish” over the years. There are others for which my experience is not wide enough to declare a winner, or the results for any one finalist have not been uniform enough to declare. In those cases the research (eating that requires travel) continues. My next research projects are 1) Chicken Fried Steak,
and 2) the cuisine of the Upper Rio Grande Valley.
Rancho de Chimayo Restaurante on the old Santa Fe - Taos high road, Chimayo, New Mexico
If any of you have a nominee or suggestions for the future projects please “Comment”.
So what did you have at the Chimaya restaurant that you photographed? I'm pretty sure my group ate there on the mission trip I took to Espanola in 2019 with St. Paul's
A fine description of what made your Alamo Springs burger the best. I’m looking forward to finding your best ‘chicken fried steak’ since it is my impression that almost no one cooks them anymore. I don’t know of a single place that does. Maybe in Texas.