Tasty Burger?

In the latest episode of the Roadside Project, we stopped at Ikeda's on a long haul home Sunday in search of the notorious "Tasty Burger."  I use the word notorious specifically, by the way.

The Tasty Burger has a bizarre cult following.  At 1:30 on a Sunday, we waited in line for a good twenty minutes just to order.  We needed those twenty minutes to make a choice, the extensive menu spanning burgers, steak sandwiches, fruit smoothies, Thai rice bowls ... Although I was tempted by the prime rib sandwich, I had to order a Tasty Burger and understand what all the hype was about.  I chose the mushroom swiss burger and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... for my first taste.

One hour later we had finished our grocery shopping next door, finally scored a table with an amazing roadside I-80 view, and had our burgers before us.  Visually I was interested, but the flavors belied the appearance of the sando.  It did not taste like the ground beef in the burger ... like the toasty buttered bun ... or like the (admittedly grayish) mushrooms piled high.  It took me several minutes to identify that it predominantly tasted like peppery oil, the flavor of Ikeda's flat top grill.

Terroir might be desirable in a wine, but not in a roadside burger. 

Next time, I am skipping the meal and loading up on snacks next door.  Safe travels!