Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Uncrowned Royal Burger

I had my cholesterol tested for the very first time.  I got up super early to be at the lab when it opened, so that there wouldn’t be a line but more importantly so that I wouldn’t have to extend my 10 hour fast to the time while I was actually awake.  The doctor recommended that I have it tested not because she thought that there was a problem, just because it was time to have it tested.  Seems to be a trend, I guess.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with precaution and why not be precautionary when the test is so simple: fast for 10 hours, have a bit of blood drawn, and be on your way.  Now I wait for the results.

While waiting, I decided to try something new, something so completely high in cholesterol that my doctor’s eyes would probably pop out of her head if she knew about it.  I ordered the Royal Red Robin Burger at where else but…… Red Robin.  Upon ordering, the waiter said “Mmmmm…the Royal” as if he were really speaking about royalty.  Was this burger going to be served with a crown of jewels on the top of it?  And should I only speak in hushed tones when gazing upon it?

Unlike me, the husband is trying to make healthy choices and ordered a chicken sandwich – not just any chicken sandwich; it was drenched in barbeque sauce and covered in fried onions, so I’m not sure how we’re measuring healthy choices these days.  Instead of the waiter that took our order, the manager brought our food to us.    He asked, “Who has the Royal?” as he tried to set it in front of my husband.  When I said that it was mine, he looked taken aback.  Who knew someone could look taken aback over a hamburger!?  But then it is the royalty of hamburgers, so maybe I should be so surprised at this reaction. “Oh!  Usually it is the opposite,” he paused and looked at me, “Usually the…” he looked at me again “orders the chicken,” awkward pause, “Good for you!” he smiled jovially and walked away.  I immediately said to the husband, “It looks like I’m the pig in this relationship!” and then we dug in happy to be eating and happy to not really think about cholesterol or healthy choices, just good tasting food.

The Royal Burger is like having breakfast on a hamburger.  It consists of a hamburger patty, American cheese, and is topped off with bacon and an egg.  I normally like food completely cooked, so I ordered the burger with “no pink” and requested that the egg be cooked over easy rather than sunny side up.

The taste of the burger was definitely not worth hushed tones and certainly didn’t make me want to bow down to it.  It was just a burger with an egg on it, a breakfast hamburger.  I’m glad that I ordered the egg over easy because it was still runny and a bit messy.  I must admit that I tend to turn into Sally from the movie “When Harry met Sally” in restaurants.  I don’t actually order everything on the side, but I tend to disassemble my food when it arrives so that everything is eventually on the side.  This way I can reassemble however I want. 

Upon delivery, I immediately removed the bun, so that probably contributed to the mess the egg made.  Once the yolk was consumed (most of it had stuck to the bread) I was left with the egg white, which tasted fine maybe a bit bland except for the added salt and pepper. It added a strange, rubbery texture to the familiar hamburger patty though.  I added lettuce and tomato and the juiciness of the tomato helped meld the flavors.  However, it was the cheese that surprisingly stood out in this burger.  I normally don’t care for cheese that much, but this was delicious.  Maybe I am a fan of the cheese burger after all!

While I wouldn't crown this burger or award it any titles of royalty, it was definitely worth trying before I know whether or not I should be eating hamburgers at all.  In the future, if hamburgers are indeed in my future, I will stick with the guacamole bacon burger instead.  We will not even consider a future without bacon.


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