Spies at Wimpy

As you may know, I am currently reading William Boyd's Gabriel's Moon. It's a spy thriller set in the sixties. And there is a little detail that may seem trivial, but that I find quite interesting: Gabriel Dax, the main character of the novel, has a girlfriend who works at... Wimpy. I know Wimpy. I have been to Wimpy repeatedly. I love Wimpy, maybe my favourite gentrified fast food chain. And I find it interesting that in a genre that is still associated heavily with glamour and exotism, there is in this spy novel a protagonist who also has a burger restaurants chain as part of his reality. And a girlfriend who smells of smells of burgers and chips when she gets home. It makes the whole world of Gabriel's Moon more relatable. Moral of the story: Next time I go to Wimpy, I will take a good look at the staff and the customers. You never know...

Le Royal Cheeze d'Aux Vivres

 J'ai appris via la page Facebook d'Aux Vivres (le restaurant vegan préféré de ma femme) qu'ils ont fait un "Cheeze Royal", un presque cheeseburger, donc un hamburger au "fauxmage". Mettons que je me sens loin de Montréal quand je vois ça. Nous sommes fans d'Aux Vivres, parce que je n'ai jamais l'impression de manquer de la viande quand je mange chez eux. Les portions sont aussi très copieuses. Et ce burger a vraiment l'air bon. J'espère qu'il sera au menu lors de notre prochaine visite.

Two guys and a gal

You may remember, a month ago or so I blogged about Five Guys. I have been curious about the one we have nearby and last time we went to the cinema we pondered about going there for lunch. In the end we didn't, mostly because there is little if anything that is vegetarian, so my wife cannot really eat anything there. Not that she like fastfood all that much to begin with. But Wolfie was quite curious about it. My wife explained the conundrum in these terms: "The problem with Five Guys and us is that this family is made of two guys and a gal and the gal is vegetarian." Which I found very funny and deserving to be a new great unknown line. Wolfie and I share a lot of things, but he got his wits from his mother's side.

Five Guys?

 We went to the cinema recently and found out that there is a Five Guys next to it. Now I have never been to a Five Guys restaurant, but I'm a sucker for a good hamburger and chips, especially the gentrified takes on McDonald's. And I have heard good things about it. So anyway, we did not really have the time to go there and we are trying to detox from all the rich holiday food anyway, but I think we might make a trip there at some point to spoil ourselves. I was wondering if any of my readers have been to a Five Guys and what they think of the food and the experience.

Burger Pizza?

Friday last week, Wolfie and I had a boy's night in, his mummy having decided to go on a meal out with friends. When it happens, we make it a special night: I order pizza and we stuff ourselves watching telly. It's a sort of family tradition we started last year. Well, a tradition, I say this and it only happened twice so far, but we might do it more often. So Wolfie always goes for pepperoni, it's his go-to pizza, but I try to be adventurous for mine. So last week, I ordered from Domino's and got myself a Cheeseburger Pizza. It has mince meat, pickles and burger sauce. Does it taste weird? Yes it does. Is it wrong, maybe even blasphemous and philistine, to mix two fast food classics into one? Probably. All the same, I really enjoyed it.

Wimpy lunch

 A few weeks ago, we went to have lunch at Wimpy, the posh fast food chain that is just a tad fancier than its more famous competitors. We were not planning to go there specifically, but when Wolfie saw the restaurant, he wanted to go there. I love their generous portion of chipsand their burger's special sauce is kinda nice too. It was just what the doctor ordered.

McDLT

I found this picture on social media, an old advert from McDonald's, it triggered some old memories. Anybody remembers the McDLT? Or McD.L.T. as it said on the box. Back when I was a child and my parents were buying us McDonald's as a semi-regular weekend treat, they were quite fond of McDLTs. It was their go-to burger. I never understood the appeal: what was the point of paying for a burger you had to assemble yourself? Beside, when you add cheese on a burger, you want it to melt, not stay cool like the tomato and lettuce. And who found so important to keep lettuce and tomato cool on a burger anyway? No wonder it got discontinued. If any of you remember the McDLT, tell me if you tried it and if you enjoyed it. For the record, at the time I was a McNuggets eater, until I switched to a Quarter Pounder with Cheese. But that high-tech burger thing? Sheesh!

Premier burger sur barbecue

Nous sommes allés au May Fayre hier et ce fut pour moi l'occasion de manger pour le lunch un burger sur barbecue. Le premier de l'année, si je ne trompe pas. C'est une tradition pour moi lors des foires: je mange un hamburger. En fait un cheeseburger avec oignons frits en veux-tu, en voilà, moutarde "américaine", et sauce barbecue. Des fois il faut savoir se faire plaisir. J'ai mangé de meilleurs burgers, mais juste le fait qu'il soit sur barbecue, ça le rend spécial.

Wimpy

Yesterday, for the first time in years, we went to Wimpy, the fast food restaurant chain which is like a fancier, posher McDonald's. You may remember that the local Wimpy had shut down back in 2017, which saddened me quite a lot. But a new one opened in a nearby town, so we went there forlunch, the first time in years and the first time since Wolfie was born. I had a double cheeseburger and chips,with lots of ketchup and I regret nothing. Even though I'm no longer used to such portions.

Le dernier burger

Bon, tout d'abord, je dois faire une confession: même si j'aime beaucoup le nom de la Microbrasserie Archibald, j'ai trouvé leurs bières pas mal insipides. Cela dit, je n'ai rien à dire contre leurs burgers, en fait j'ai vraiment aimé celui que j'ai mangé lors de mon tout dernier repas en sol québécois, lors de notre passage à l'Aéroport de Dorval (que je refuse d'appeler Trudeau). Pour un repas d'aéroport, c'était fort honnête. La coleslaw était vraiment bonne également. Ce fut aussi le dernier hamburger viandeux que j'ai mangé dans l'année. Ces temps-ci, ils commencent à me manquer.

Autumn barbecue

This is a new post for my autumn chronicle. Our hosts during our stay in Derbyshire decided to do a barbecue one evening. It was a cold evening, as it often is the case this time of year in this region of England. You can see on the picture what we had: burgers, hot dogs, jacket potatoes, grilled corn on the cob(mostly burned sadly). There was also salad, wine, it was a great meal and especially a great time to enjoy it. And we all did, even though by the time we started eating it, it was pretty cold outside. As I explained to our hosts (and like I mentioned in a post back in 2016), my grandfather loved to eat outside at almost any time of year, until the first snow at least. So eating out in autumn is something that runs in the family.

Un burger pour PS

Je ne voulais pas bloguer sur de la nourriture aussi tôt, encore moins sur un hamburger, vu mon dernier billet sur le sujet, mais je n'ai comme pas le choix: le Prof Solitaire me force avec ce billet récent qui fait dans la food porn. Alors voilà, j'ai pris cette photo dans un pub de York. C'était gras, c'était bon.

The local Wimpy

Here is a bit of bad news which I learned yesterday: the local Wimpy is closing soon. This made us really sad, my wife and I. We haven't gone there since little Wolfie was born, but it was one of these places we liked. Granted, it was not great gastronomy, but for fast food chain it was honest food and a posh, fancier McDonald's. And it was nice to have something different locally, a chain but not a big chain. I blogged about it back in April 2016 (where I used this very picture) and why I love it. I hope we can find time to go have one last meal there (cholesterol be damned!) before it closes down for good.

Travel food from LEON

One of the fun things about going to job interviews in far away places and having to take a long train journey is to treat yourself to a yummy lunch on the way back. This is what I do anyway and this is what I did a month ago or so when I went to that job interview. I did not get the job, but when I was waiting for my transfer at a train station I discovered LEON, a "natural" fast food chain. I had their chicken burger, with fries and Coca Cola. I did not get the job (but it's ok because I have another one), but at least I enjoyed that meal.

Comme une envie de hamburgers

Photo prise dans un pub local en... Octobre! Et je ne crois pas me tromper en disant que c'est sans doute le dernier hamburger haut de gamme que j'ai mangé, sans compter ceux des fast foods et des foires. Avec des frites, de la coleslaw pis toute, c'est pas mal le repas idéal. Et bon, depuis qu'il fait plus chaud, ces temps-ci, il y a des odeurs de barbecue partout, du midi jusqu'au soir lorsqu'on est dehors. Alors j'ai comme une envie de manger des hamburgers. Mais des vrais hamburgers. Pas des hamburgers cheapos d'un fast food. Après les hot dogs et seulement un tantinet moins que les hot dogs, les burgers sont pour moi le repas de l'été.

About Wimpy

Sometimes you want to make fresh food and eat healthy. And some other times you just want to treat yourself with some junk food because even though you know it's bad... It feels good. Bottom line: I love a good burger and chips,  sometimes I even love a cheap burger and chips, with a cola from a fast food chain. No, I do not mean McDonald's, I am referring to Wimpy. Which is not a poor man's McDonald's, it is rather a slightly fancier, more posh, a little bit more upmarket (but only very slightly) fast food chain. There is one Wimpy in the little town where I live, it is where my wife and I had one of our first Friday meals here and since then it remains one of our favourite places when we feel lazy and hungry... Or simply when we want to enjoy a true guilty pleasure. It is Friday, like that very first time I ate there, as it is a tradition on this blog I plug a menu or a meal from a restaurant on Friday, so tonight it is Wimpy's turn. It's not fancy at all. It's just good in a bad (very bad) way.

Le Hambourgeois

Lors de mon dernier séjour à Montréal, j'ai visité une de ses instutions de fast food haut-de-gamme que je n'avais pas visitée depuis un bail: je parle de Frite Alors!. C'était à l'initiative de mon frère Andrew. Le défunt Eurosnack, l'Anecdote, les autres chaînes et restaurants spécialisés dans le fast food embourgeoisé ont toutes finalement emprunté la formule et le menu de Frite Alors. Et il n'y a pas plus embourgeoisé qu'un burger rebaptisé hambourgeois. Avec fromage suisse, mayo, moutarde de Dijon et une olive pour coiffer le burger. Les frites sont accompagnées de mayonnaise au curry. Quand je dis embourgeoisé, c'est ce que je veux dire. Tout est comme plus luxueux, rehaussé, de plus haute qualité, gentrifié... Et c'est bon.

Un burger au portobello?

Photo prise au Old Post Office, le pub gastro donc dans les faits le restaurant qui est aussi un ancien bureau de poste à Wallingford. C'est un hamburger au champignon portobello, le portobello remplaçant la boulette de viande. Ma femme est végétarienne, voyez-vous. Il y avait du fromage halloumi avec. J'ai appris à apprécier les burgers végés comme j'ai appris à apprécier les champignons, mais ça c'est un mélange que je n'ai jamais pu supporter. Le portobello est un champignon trop gros pour moi, trop caoutchouteux, au goût comme à la texture, qui me donne la nausée. Je sais que mon frère PJ aime bien, ma femme aussi évidemment, moi je ne comprends pas l'engouement et comment ça peut être utilisé comme un substitut de la viande.

The Green Panther Experience

I have only been twice to The Green Panther, the vegan restaurant chain in Montreal. Twice it was at their restaurant on Mont-Royal Avenue, at two very different moments. Their mascot caught my eye, so I went there out of curiosity. The restaurant was virtually empty, I ordered what they claim is the best falafel of Montreal. After tasting it, I have to say that they are right. You can read more about the falafel here. I was hooked and I decided to come back as soon as I could.

I don't know if it was because it was in the evening instead of afternoon, or because The Green Panther had gained a reputation since my first time, but the second time I went there with my wife it was jam packed. A sign not only of the popularity of the restaurant, but of vegan eating in general. It is the new craze in Montreal, especially on the Plateau Mont-Royal, which always had its share of hippies and eco-friendly dwellers. Instead of being all quiet, it was loud. There were many Quebeckers, but also a few French (I find this strange as France is not a nation of vegetarians, let alone vegans) and the usual Anglos. This is less of a surprise as Anglo-Saxons are often more into vegetarianism and veganism. There was two of them, chatting very loudly, which was irritating my wife to no end. Mentioning it to me later, I said to tease her (I am mean like that sometimes): "Well, of course they were rude, they are English speakers like you." My wife replied (she is used to this kind of teasing from me): "I only share a language with them, you share their nationality." Touché. However cruel, she still said a great unknown line. I guess a nice place does not necessarily bring a nice clientèle. The staff was nice though, warm and friendly. And the food the second time round? We both had burgers, I don't remember which ones exactly. I think she had a VégéBurger and I had a VégéPanthère. Absolutely delicious, and I did not miss meat even once. And more strangely, I actually enjoyed the food more than my wife, even though she is vegetarian. So that was The Green Panther Experience.

11,50€

C'est le prix que m'a coûté ce hamburger. C'était dans un restaurant parisien, enfin un café, en mai, lors de la conférence où je suis allé dans le cadre de mon travail. Mon premier repas parisien en six ans. Quand j'ai montré la facture à mon manager, il n'en revenait pas à quel point j'avais mangé pour pas cher. Pourtant, ce n'était pas un souper frugal: pleins de frites et de salade, sans compter le burger. Mais c'était assez médiocre côté saveurs. Ca goûtait ce que ça valait, et vice versa. Et je regarde cette et je me dis que je n'ai pas particulièrement hâte d'y retourner.