Burgers, Beers, Sushi (not all at once)

A good buddy from college came to visit for two days, and eating, or more accurately overeating, promptly ensued.  Now this buddy currently goes to grad school in Cali, so he has at his disposal In-n-Out Burger.[FN1]  I decided we needed to pit that west coast power against the beast of the east, Shake Shack.[FN2] We each had Shack Burgers, fries, and chocolate shakes.  The burgers are so fresh and the meat is so good.  If you let yourself, you could eat the burger in three quick and large bites.  It takes every ounce of self control not to.  The shakes are rich and thick, and the fries are clean tasting (not too greasy).  After dining and discussion (and a second trip to the Shack two days later), we concluded that the burgers are better at the Shack, but the sauce on the burgers is better at In-n-Out.  Plain fries go to Shack (but if we are dressing them up, then In-n-Out's animal style wins hands down). Finally, shakes are also better at the Shack.

After some sightseeing in the city, we met a former roommate for drinks at a nice rooftop bar in midtown.  A few Brooklyn lagers later and we found ourselves at Poke with the fiancee.  Poke is a sushi bar on the upper east side that happens to also be BYOB, which is a great idea.  Some sapporo, some edamame, some salad with the ginger dressing: the night was off to a good start.  Now, I am a sushi rookie and I am working very very slowly (practically crawling) to expand my comfort zone.  So I stuck with my usual: 2 pieces of ebi (shrimp) sushi and a ebi tempura roll.  Outstanding.  But, then again, I'm eating cooked "fish."  But my buddy loves sushi and he had some more adventurous stuff, and had nothing but good things to say.  The fiancee also had a crab tempura roll that had some spicy tuna in it. I gave it a taste - delicious.  Granted, I ate it in one bite and quickly washed it down with some beer, but hey, it's a start!

A final note about Day 1 of this eating trip: While heading to the subway, we saw Anthony Bourdain just having a bite to eat in the window of the Papaya King three blocks from apartment. My first NYC celebrity sighting, and a food-related one too!

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FN1: Whenever I am in California, which is rare, I do my best to eat multiple times at In-n-Out.  Its magical what they do with fast food.

FN2: My top 3 burger places goes likes this: Shake Shack, In-n-Out, Five Guys. Though they are third on the list, Five Guys has the best fries and I love what they do with the sauteed onions on the burger. In a weaker conference, they would run away with the title. But burger places have become like the AL East - you could have the 3rd best record in all of baseball and miss the playoffs.