Working My Way Through The Works: (Ten Burgers in) SK8R Boy

A popular gimmick for food blogs is to eat and review every item on a restaurant's menu. This blog is no exception. These are the observations I've had while eating my way through the burger menu of The Works, a Canadian burger restaurant with locations across Ottawa and Ontario.

May 12, 2020
Burger Description: "Peanut butter, jack cheese & bacon"
($18.28)

The original plan for this review was supposed to be completely different. I was going to celebrate hitting a double-digit number of these entries by eating at a different Works than the two locations I normally go to, but COVID-19 changed that for the foreseeable future. I couldn't eat the burger I wanted to review as the "Living on the Vedge" has been removed from the menu. So I'm going with a burger I've eaten back in the days before I blogged about food while seeing what all the fuss food delivery services are about after being a longtime holdout.  I had planned to do a pick up at the Orleans location, but The Works' website doesn't offer that service to its Ottawa area locations. Skip The Dishes, Don Draper's favourite service when he pretends to be Canadian is the default delivery option for all the local Works restaurants, but depending on the location, DoorDash and UberEats are also available.  Downloading the app to my phone was easy, and placing the order was straightforward. The app said my food would arrive ASAP, and 31 minutes later, the doorbell rang, and my food was there on the doorstep as I had instructed them to do. What arrived was the Avril Lavigne themed SK8R Boy - remember when people pretended to be appalled that she didn't know who David Bowie was back when she was the next big thing? My hamburger came with a healthy amount of peanut butter, so much I couldn't taste the jack cheese. Not tasting the cheese defeats the purpose of ordering a cheeseburger. The ghetto peanut sauce worked well with the bacon, and it gave the burger the expected nutty flavour, but it needed the kick that makes peanut sauce what it is. The peanut butter stuck to the roof of my mouth, which was a feeling I don't normally associate with hamburgers. Maybe that was why it was as filling and oddly addictive as it was. The onion rings were crunchy, flavourful, and in my opinion, very underrated as a side order. This is a burger that you need to be in the mood. It was interesting to eat, but I wouldn't order one again. To paraphrase the song it's named after, I say see you later boy, this burger wasn't good enough for me.

2.5 out of 5 stars - You'll get a well-cooked burger, but your enjoyment depends on your love of nut butter.

Streamline Your Supermarket Shopping

Grocery shopping in 2020 has become an ordeal.  New opening and closing hours; keeping two meters away from other shoppers; following the new one-way directions in the aisles - it's become a real pain in the ass. Now more than ever, we need to get in and out of the supermarket as efficiently as possible, with enough items bought to make it worth our while. Stocking your pantry with basic supplies makes it possible to have enough food for some decent meals while limiting your future runs to the store to buying perishable items and restocking. By purchasing the items below, you will help cut down on the number of times you have to endure waiting in line to get in and out of your favourite big box, warehouse, or grocery store - I can't think of a better way to flatten the curve.

Necessities

• apples
• baking soda (buy two boxes, one for baking, one for cleaning)
• baking powder
• bread
• butter/margarine
• carrots
• canned beans
• canned tomatoes (whole and crushed)
• canned tuna (chunk packed in water is good for sandwiches; white albacore is best for salads)
• chicken breasts
• coffee/tea
• canola oil
• cereal
• cheese 
• cornstarch
• cucumber
• dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme)
• eggs
• extra virgin olive oil
• flour (if you see some, grab it, it's been flying off the shelves like toilet paper recently)
• frozen vegetables (corn, peas, spinach)
• garlic
• ground beef
• jam/jelly
• ketchup
• lettuce
• mayonnaise
• mustard (yellow and Dijon)
• onions
• oranges
• pasta
• pork chops/steak (the same number of pieces of meat as household members per pack) 
• peanut butter
• potatoes
• rice
• salt
• spices (cinnamon, chili powder cumin, curry powder, nutmeg)
• sugar
• soy sauce
• stock cubes (beef, chicken, vegetable)
• vinegar

Extras (always good to have on hand)

• canned broth
• canned soups (a can of cream of mushroom and/or cream of celery, you got a key ingredient in a bunch of casseroles)
• canned vegetables
• celery
• chicken broth
• chocolate chips
• cocoa
• cottage or ricotta cheese
• cornmeal
• dried herbs (sage, tarragon, marjoram)
• evaporated milk
• frozen shrimp
• honey
• lemons
• nuts (chopped or whole)
• orange (or some other fruit) juice
• peppers (red, green, something spicier)
• plain yogurt
• popcorn
• raisins
• salsa
• seasonal fruit
• sour cream
• spices (allspice, cardamom, cinnamon sticks, cloves, coriander, star anise)
• Tabasco sauce (or another type of hot sauce)
• tortillas (corn and flour)
• tomato paste
• Worcestershire sauce

Splurges (you got to treat yo' self every now and then)

• Arborio rice 
• Basmati rice
• Ben and Jerry's ice cream (I'm loving the new Netflix & Chilll'd flavour)
• brownie mix
• coconut milk
• dried mushrooms (shiitake or porcini)
• fresh herbs (basil, cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, rosemary, sage)
• fresh pasta (specifically fresh ravioli or tortellini)
• marshmallows
• miso paste
• olives (not the ones in jars on the shelf, the ones from the deli or gourmet shop)
• pesto
• pine nuts
• sesame oil (remember, a little dab will do ya when using it on food)
• seasonal berries
• spices (Chinese 5-spice powder, garam masala, saffron)

Note: You know your food likes and dislikes better than I do, use some common sense when buying any of the above items. If you're allergic to something or have certain dietary restrictions, don't buy it.

Note: Information used on this blog came from "Cook Your Meals: The Easy Way", by Sharon Bowers, Macmillian Publishing

Double Frying Your Fries

French fries have nothing to do with France. What we now know as French fries can be traced back to late 1600 Belgium, where poor villagers were forced to use potatoes when the fish they usually fried was unavailable to them during the winter. American soldiers stationed in Belgium during WWI discovered their fried potatoes, and because the Belgian army spoke French, the Americans called them “French fries.", and the rest is history. Currently, there are over 90 million kilograms of Canadian French fry potatoes stuck in storage due to the diminished demand from restaurants because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Canadian producers are pleading for the public to consume more French fries, and because we're all in this together, I'm willing to do my part to help Canadian farmers out. If I'm going to be forced to eat more French fries, I may as well make them the best way possible - crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. As I don't own an air fryer, I will have to use the double fry method. This will take longer to make, but luckily, 2020 has given some of us all the time we need to live our best French fry life.

Ingredients

• Russet potatoes - they're denser and they have the least amount of moisture in them; avoid red and new potatoes as they contain so much water that they will actually hollow out when you fry them when the water evaporates
• canola or peanut oil - oils with a high smoke count will break down slower leading to crispier fries
• lemon juice

1. Fill a large bowl with cold water and add to it 15 mL of lemon juice. Set the bowl aside.
2. Peel some potatoes and remove any eyes from them. Slice the potatoes into French fries and put them into the bowl of cold water as you go. Potatoes start to darken if they're exposed to oxygen for too long, including the oxygen in the water - the acid from the lemon juice helps keep the potatoes white.
3. When you have enough fries, rinse them under cold water in the bowl until the water turns clear to rinse off any excess starch. Add another 15 mL of lemon juice and a few cups of ice to chill the water thoroughly. Move the bowl to the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.
4. Heat the cooking oil you're using in either a deep fryer or in a Dutch oven to 163℃
5. Remove the French fries from the ice bath and pat them dry with paper towels.
6. When the oil reaches temperature, carefully add the fries to it. Cook them for 6-8 minutes, or until they're soft and are slightly golden in colour. While the fries are cooking, put some paper towels at the bottom of a bowl large enough to hold all the fries and set it aside.
7. Carefully take the fries from the oil and put them in the paper-lined bowl to drain.  Let them stand at room temperature for 15 minutes, or place the bowl in the refrigerator them again until you're ready to use them. Remember to turn off the heat under the oil during this time.
8. Reheat the oil to 190℃, and carefully return the fries to the oil to cook for another 2 to 3 minutes or until they're golden brown and crispy. Allow them the drain again, then salt generously, and serve immediately.