Resto may have gotten the top nod from New York Magazine for the best new burger but I can not agree.  Is the burger world so sad as to name their burger the best?  Say it ain't so! 

My friend and I decided a while back when the article came out that we had to go try the burger. 

The restaurant has very minimal decor, which I liked.  No frills and clean.  There is a bar that serves wines and Belgian beers.  I got there early so I sat at the bar and had a Stubber.  It was a decent beer but their beers on tap were served in small glasses and are a bit overpriced.  When my friend arrived she ordered a dark beer on tap that came in a round goblet that was filled mostly with foam. What the %#^&! 

We then look at the menu and I'm pretty shocked at how limited it is.  There are perhaps 7 appetizers and 5 entrees.  I debated for a while whether to get the famed burger or to have the beef cheeks.  I go with the burger... After the first bite I felt like I just received a huge slap on my cheek.  The burger was over cooked, in fact they never asked us how we wanted it cooked.   We ordered two of their special sauces to accompany our burger and fries only to find that both sauces tasted alike.. like nothing.  One was the "cocktail" sauce and the other was a herb aoli or sorts... but neither of them had any distinctive flavor beyond their mayo base.  We were much better off making our own sauce of ketchup and Tabasco sauce.  The beef cheek, hanger steak and fatback burger patty was a huge flavorless disappointment.  The bun was a dry flavorless pepperidge farm like thing.  Nothing like the nice potato bread buns at the Shake Shack. 

The only decent things about the place was he appetizer of the deep fried meatballs with cheese in the center and the attentive manager that took our orders.  The other servers were a bunch of incompetent latin americans that would not stop asking us if were were done with our plates (which were full of fries).  Even after a few times they just didn't seem to back off.  It wasn't like they need the table.  Maybe they didn't understand English. 

I eat by the New York Mag reviews.  Every week I can't wait to read the latest review and most of their opinions haven't lead me this far astray. My next stop is Prune for the runner up burger.  I have more faith in Prune as an establishment as a whole so perhaps their burger will be less dissapointing.  But I think for a pretty decent burger I would still opt for a nice evening outside in Madison Square Park even with the long lines its worth it.  If only the Shack would serve better fries... then it would just be perfect.

Pictures from hiking in a nature preserve in central Taiwan:
 
The Giant Tree that we hiked all the way up to see.

The beach in the southern most tip of Taiwan:  Those are my little cousins.

 
I went with my mom to Hualien which is on the northeast coast:
There are some indiginous peoples reserves and really beautiful mountains.  I felt like I was walking around in a Bob Ross painting.
The mountains there are prodominantly marble stone.  They used to harvest marble from there but now its a protected area. 
        
Then in Taipei the capital I visited the biggest night market.


One of the games I used to love, when I was little, in the night markets was catching goldfish with a  paper net, and fishing for shrimp.

My favorite thing to eat in Taiwan is the shaved ice.  There is one place in Taipei that makes the best mango ice.  Luckily I got to visit twice this trip.  yummm..... the strawberry with mango sorbet was good too.


Then in Tainan where my mom is from we had some shaved ice too... the traditional kind...still good.


I miss shaved ice...  and all the other good food.

I'm finally done with my classes. Looking back I think I could have made more of my time in Taichung where I took my classes but I was so homesick and really unhappy with the hotel I was living in I was just too miserable to get a lot out of the classes and the people I met.  I did have alot of fun the last week and our final project came out well.  We had to make a cake based on drawings made by kids from an orphanage.  Although I didn't decorate the cake that we did... my teammate did since I don't do chinese style cakes. Its totally not my style but the kids really liked it so that's all that matters.  

 

I go to Thailand on Monday. I hope I don't get heat stroke or get sick from the food.