what goes moo...

cows. i like them animals because they give us beef and cheese. needless to say, when it comes to food that is a combination of the two, i am a hopeless fan. for them, i am willing to travel. in fact, i did.
some months ago, a few like-minded friends and i took a short day trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home to the renowned Wharton business school. it was convenient to use visiting upenn as a pretense for our true purpose. but i must admit that the school's architecture was really quite pretty and the business school stood out for being lavish, with wood being the most obvious styling point of the modern interior design. names of very recognizable alumni donors tiled one of the main corridors in Wharton. school visit - checked.

Pat's Philly Cheesesteaks

what we really came for was the Philly Cheesesteaks. legend has it that in the 1930's, two hotdog sellers had a brainwave and decided to serve up something different for lunch. one of them bought some thinly sliced steak from the market, and proceeded to chop up the beef and some onions for grilling. the sizzling product was served on hotdog buns. it was not until 20 something years later did they drizzle the steak sandwiches with cheese wiz. the Philly Cheesesteak was thus born.

due to time constraints, we could only try the two most famous names in town- Pat's (inventor of the sandwich), and Jim's. Pat's beef came in slices that was a tad overcooked, but it was well seasoned and the generous drenching of wiz provided the cheese-lover in me the extra oomph. Jim's beef was minced, moist and very tender, though lacking in salt. i suspect i should have ordered it with extra wiz. Jim's hoagie was also very much more flavorful and had a more robust bite than Pat's. in my opinion, Jim's cheesesteak much surpassed the founder's.

Pre-sliced beef and onions at Jim's

Very juicy cheesesteak at Jim's

although the sandwiches were good, they didn't give me the satisfaction i was looking for. well, i guess only burgers can satiate a burger fan's bovine desires. for the past semester, i'd been on the lookout for The Burger. that meant trawling food blogs, food forums and professional food critiques. i've sampled some of the more popular ones, like Burger Joint, Island Burger, and 5 Guys. in all honesty, they were good, but never great. however, i did have a near-great experience at Shake Shack, Madison Square Park during late fall.

Alfresco dining at Shake Shack, when New York was much warmer

the Shack Burger was simple - a thin patty cooked medium and accompanied by a slice of American cheese, fresh lettuce and two tomato slices, drizzled with the Shack sauce, all sandwiched between two lightly buttered and fried potato buns. it was moist, fresh, beefy, and bursting with flavor. oh yes, it was awesome. the chocolate milkshake was so rich it was like drinking ice cream - just the way i enjoy my shake.

in the hope to relive that experience, i went down to the recently-opened joint at upper west. this time, i ordered the Double Stack instead, which is the Shack Burger stuffed with a 'Shroom patty. the 'Shroom is essentially an inch-think portobello and melted cheese patty that's lightly breaded and fried.

Narrowed vision of a hungry man

From top to bottom: bun, lettuce, tomato, 'Shroom, cheese, beef, bun

the Double Stack had a lot of potential, but it crashed like the Dow because people got greedy. i thought the burger was trying to achieve too much. this was an enormous burger that will have many people finding trouble taking a full bite off it - which i think totally defeats the purpose. to me, a good burger should be sized for a mouthful just big enough to get a little of everything; this one was just a little too tall. because the 'Shroom was twice as thick as the beef - which to me should be the star of the show - it completely overwhelmed the poor dead animal. all i tasted was mushroom and cheese. not that it didn't taste good, but for me it took the meat out of the burger which lowers it to the rank of a sandwich, really. just like how some highly-acclaimed movies can leave you with a twang of disappointment because you expected much more, i suffered the same fate because Shake Shack did the unthinkable - my beef patty came well done.