Turkey Burger FAIL

I ate this amazing burger in Detroit on a business trip a couple weeks ago called the California Veggie Burger at Uptown Grille. First of all, I didn’t get the veggie patty…I demanded beef. Second of all, it totally didn’t need ranch dressing. You see, I like ranch dressing on my burgers (as if they weren’t already enough of a caloric splurge) but this burger would have none of that nonsense. It was dressed with pesto, gorgonzola, basil, and avocado on a crusty bun. Yum. I set out to recreate the magic and, as Aubrey so kindly put it to me, “Hmmm, well, you failed.”

My first mistake was trying to make it a turkey burger. I figured somewhere between the intended veggie burger and my all beef substitution was the happy turkey patty. My first clue to the failure is that it started out looking like this…

I thought I’d get creative and actually mixed pesto, garlic, gorgonzola, a bit of Italian bread crumbs, some olive oil, and salt into the meat. Oh, and some parsley for kicks and since I had some. You know what? It made for a pretty moist burger! And, that’s saying something because turkey burgers are notoriously dry. It would have been alright, too, if the gorgonzola I had wasn’t flavor-challenged. It was actually better described as disgusting and WAY too close to aged bleu cheese to do anything for the delicate pesto I used. I literally took my second bite and spit it back out on the plate. I should have known it wasn’t meant to be when I accidentally burned the first set of buns.

Oh, what potential it had. Next time, I’m back to the beef… and ANYTHING but that awful cheese. Pesto, yes. Gorgonzola, no. Pesto, yes. Gorgonzola, no. I think I’ll stick to actual recipes for a while now.