burgoo (main st)

I love comfort food. I was brought up in the Philippines where food is love. It didn't matter how rich or poor you were, as long as you have food on the table for the family - you've got love. Now the Philippines being a particularly poor country, long simmering braises, stews and soups are king. How that juxtaposes with the tropical weather - I never quite figured out - but along for the ride were every single part of that fabled creature, the pig, were usually thrown into the cauldron. Wiki "dinuguan" if you dare.

Burgoo is a small local chain (3 locations strong) that specializes in all manners of stews and soups from around the world. They go out of their way to create a comforting atmosphere - the Main Street location is essentially a log cabin in the middle of student/boheme town. It's quite amusing really. They also have blankets handy for those especially chilly evenings, and the West 10th location has a fireplace. It helps to come by during off-times, but it's very very easy to end up hanging out for an afternoon, nursing a hot drink, and a steaming plate of ratatouille for hours.

The traditional burgoo comes from the great state of Kentucky where "wild" meat usually took the place of beef and pork. I won't go into details, but think Cletus the slack-jawed yokel from The Simpsons and you'll get the rough idea. Now Burgoo does serve a version of burgoo, but nothing quite so provincial. They also have a lamb tagine, butter chicken, beef bourguignon, among many other selections.

I've been to Burgoo enough times to have tried just about every single soup and stew on their menu, and a few sandwiches as well. Unfortunately I can't say necessarily say I've been blown away by anything on the menu. Some of the stews and braises could use a longer simmer to create a thicker, and more flavourful sauce. A lot of the soups are competent, but generally one-note. Not quite out of the can, but for the prices, I do expect more flavour. A lot of them are just too sweet (tomato soup, butternut squash, pea soup...) and could just a tone down. The biscuits are a huge disappointment - more like scones in their thickness and texture, than the crumbly buttery-ness I expect from biscuits.

Now what does keep me coming back - the aforementioned ratatouille is a bowl of steaming vegetables roasted in a rich thick tomato sauce. A great dish to share among friends (a bit too much for 1 person to ingest that much tomato IMHO). It's a great complement to a lot of their stews and mixed in with the weaker sauces, take them to the level where they should be.

The big hot mama on the menu though is their grilled cheese sandwiches. For $12, you get 2 sandwiches cut from a filone loaf, filled with 4 flavourful cheeses (mozza, gruyere, emmenthal, white cheddar), then practically dunked in butter, and grilled. There are moments in your life where you remember every single moment of a food-gasm, and the first time I had the grilled cheese was one of them. I remember every bite, every buttery gush, and I savoured the living f*ck out of it. How vivid is this memory? The first time I had them was over 3 years ago... and I have NEVER ordered them again. The memory of that first bite has kept with me ever since.

How happy was I at that moment? Every single table within 6 feet of me ordered the grilled cheese after watching me pretty much make love to that sandwich. No joke. I have since brought many other people to have this cholesto-nightmare to their absolute joy. It is that f*cking awesome. I have never had another grilled cheese sandwich since, and I doubt I will have another one in a long long time.

So go get your friends, SO, parents, whomever, and get to one of the Burgoo locations this week while it's perfect comfort food weather. I'm done.