Skip to main content

Ultimate Burger

I've traveled far and wide but I've finally found my Ultimate Burger.


Yes, the All-American meal of burger and fries, it's something I don't promote, but lets face it, we all eat it!  Right?!  And I was craving it after a week of eating fish and seafood.  I'm in Kona, Hawaii right now, soaking up the rays, sunshine, the constant smell of flowers and listening to all the tropical birds fluttering around, paradise for sure.  And the delicious food... We've been here 6 days now and I've ordered seafood for every meal that we've eaten out except breakfast.  I did have Portuguese sausage for breakfast instead of bacon which is delicious.  Not to mention the Oatmeal Brulee...


We have all our favorite places since we've been coming here for 30 years, in fact, we are here for our 30th wedding anniversary.  We honeymooned here 30 years ago.  That's hard to image but it's true.  It's changed in 30 years, of course, but we don't think it's changed that much.  We've kept up with all the new places and things to do but a lot our favorite things are still here like the Fair Wind II catamaran (it was the Fair Wind I 30 years ago...) that takes you to Kealakekua Bay for the best snorkeling around.  We’ve been on cruises in the Caribbean and Mexico and haven't experienced snorkeling as good as around here.


The Fair Wind II leaving Keauhou Bay for one of their many snorkeling trips.


So, after a week of eating seafood, we felt like a big, juicy piece of red meat last night. We saw this guy holding up a sign.


The thing that caught my eye was the "locally grown" part.  So, I looked them up on the internet when we got back to the condo and sure enough, they use all local products from Kailua-Kona and organic when possible.  The meat is organic, grass-fed beef from the Big Island here on Hawaii.  I was impressed!  So, we headed down to Ultimate Burger.  And it did not disappoint.  It reminded us of "Dick's Drive-In" in Seattle or "In-N- Out Burger".  They had a very simple menu of basic burgers, then you could add various toppings on it for extra charge, like avocado, locally grown (grilled) pineapple,  caramelized onions,  jalapenos, etc.


The buns tasted homemade from a local bakery and even the fries were extraordinary - cut fresh daily with delicious seasoning and "fry sauce" with lots of garlic!  (Not the same"fry sauce" we get at home...)


Of course, our beverage of choice was an ice cold Kona Brewing Co. local brew (another favorite.) They had Longboard Island Lager on tap so that's what we ordered.  I'd already had my favorite Pipeline Porter from a previous evening eating at the Kona Brewery.  We will be back there another night for a second meal since it's one of the best.


What can I say...it's good to be back.  Aloha!





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of  meatloaf .  This must be meatloaf season.  It was surprisingly similar to the  Pioneer Woman's version  who was also recently on.   I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book,  Food Matters .  His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese!  I must be doing something wrong.  The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life.    If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health.  He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free.  But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one.  My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations  and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends.  We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop.  She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots.  We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.)   The views are always quite lovely, too.  Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception.  I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...

Waking Up in Vegas

and just like that...we were Waking Up in Vegas.   Just like the Katy Perry song. We went to her 78th performance which was her second-to-last Las Vegas residency show entitled "Play".  That was perfect for us because we went to Vegas simply to play.  Her concert was a great finale for us because it was high energy and full of silliness, just the way Katy Perry is.  And we were feeling it after three nights in Las Vegas. "Get up, and shake the gutter off your clothes now, That's what you get for waking up in Vegas".    Here's what she said about her show: "I created this show after the birth of my daughter, Daisy Dove. When I met her, it was like all the love I was ever searching for finally showed up. This show is for everyone’s inner child and for the hope that maybe if we could all see life through the eyes of a child, we would be free. Because never forget, love is and will always be the key,” she said. We went to Vegas spur of the moment because Br...