It is a wonderful thing when a person gets to re-visit their childhood through the palette.  Just such an occasion presented itself to me and my somber yet enthusiastic partner in all things culinary last weekend. He decided that we would go to the Fidalgo Drive In for our second tasting, as the building used to house an A&W drive in and we both had nice memories of going to such places in our youth. 

The drive-in itself was pretty cool. Drive up menus outside under an awning just like the olden days. We elected to go inside, however, in order to get the real flavor of the place. Get it? Flavor? I love food humor.

Anyway, the place was very old school with wood paneling, beat up old comfy booths, and old fashioned ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles on every table.  In order to get fries, they had to be ordered as a side. My deluxe cheese burger came with lettuce, tomato, pickle, and mayo. Lots of mayo. Kurt, the lucky bastard, ordered a turkey burger, which actually tasted fantastic and was seasoned perfectly. Unfortunately the fries were crinkle-cut. Neither one of us cotton much to crinkle-cut fries.

As for the burger, did I mention it had tons of mayo on it? Well, it did. In fact, after Kurt bit into it, his beard and cheeks were splattered with thick mayo as he chewed. It kinda grossed me out, actually. But the burger was a perfect representation of a drive-in-style burger in every way; a mound of crispy iceburg lettuce, wonderfully traditional sliced pickles, and the bun was exactly what you would expect at a drive-in. 

The teenagers working behind the counter didn't know where the meat came from, but when the one we asked came back from a fact finding mission, she let us know that her manager said it came from Oregon. Kurt assumed it was Oregon Country Beef. I was skeptical.

In essence, this burger is representative of a place and time, and was perfect given the context of its surroundings. 

To quote my eloquent but minimalist partner in culinary adventure:
                            "It's a good burger, dawg."

• Critic's Scores:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Kurt:             Sara:
  • Flavor of patty:     6                 7
  • Juiciness:             4                 4
  • Source of meat:  6                  8
  • Vegetables:         9                  8
  • Bun:                       7                 6
  • Synergy:             7.5                8
  • Price/value:        6.5                7            
  AVERAGE:                    6.5                7

How we love The Train Wreck. Nestled hazardously close to the train tracks that run through Burlington, WA, this little gem never disappoints, from its simple but charming decor to its vivacious wait staff, this place is an adventure almost every time we go.

Being the first outing on our more than fifty burger journey, we were hopeful. We had seen the burgers before, but neither one of us had ever tried one. I made the mistake of ordering the burger without really looking at the menu, which stated that the burger came with "red onion sauce" which turned out to be a small pile of diced pickled-ish red onion on the top of my burger. Unfortunately it resulted in a lower synergy score than it might have if it had come with actual pickles and fresh red onion, but these are the cards we were dealt. To not play them would have been unjust.

The bun was beautifully toasted and the veggies were very fresh and crispy. The burger was juicy and cooked medium-well, evidently this is just the way they cook them at The Train Wreck. Which is fine. Unless you would rather have it cooked medium. When we asked where the meat was from, our server believed it to be local, as the owner, she told us, is very careful to source as many local products as possible, but she came back from a fact finding mission to the Train Wreck kitchen empty-handed. 

Kurt was not forgiving of this, as you can see below.

The issue with this cheeseburger is that the flavor of meat was lost to us. Everything else was quite nicely done, but due to a lack of seasoning, the burger vanished. It was even more apparent because Kurt ordered the Elk burger, which was in comparison much more flavorful.

We both saw the price as reasonable or average, it is a $13 dollar burger and the quality of the ingredients reflect that. 

To quote my partner in exploratory carnivorous endeavors:
                                                         "In general, it was satisfying, but not exceptional."

                                  Kurt:             Sara:

• Flavor of patty:     6                  6
• Juiciness:             7                  7
• Source of meat:  4                   8
• Vegetables:         7                   8
• Bun:                       7                  7
• Synergy:               6                  6
• Price/value:          6                  5            

AVERAGE:                      6          6.5