Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Oregon is for lovers...and the resurrection!

On a recent trip to Oregon, to celebrate B's birthday, and spend Easter with her family, I decided that the perfect first blog for me would be my favorite of all foods.....the cheeseburger. So in an effort to make this as unbiased as possible I decided to try a few burger joints relatively new to me. My original plan was to hit up some joints that aren't locally available. Burgerville, Arctic Circle, and Sonic Drive-In .

The first stop we made was Burgerville, in....... well it was either Kelso or Centralia, regardless it was the first sign I saw off of I-5. The town was rather forgettable. Burgerville promotes it self as being, fresh, local, and sustainable. All of which is rather cool for a fast food burger restaurant. I ordered a Pepper Bacon Tillamook Cheddar Burger Meal with fries and a Mr. Pibb, for $7.63.
The burger was pretty good, I ate it in my truck while B and Bailey stared at me waiting to get back on the road. Well B wanted to get back on the road, Bailey just wanted my burger. The fries were crispy and hot and on the little package said they were from locally grown potatoes. The bacon was actually good for a fast food burger, usually its rubbery and tastes of liquid smoke and cheapness, and the beef was from Oregon Country Beef a naturally raised beef cooperative. Was it the best burger I have ever had at a fast food joint, probably not, but for all the intangibles, if there was a local chain I would partake in the occasional burger.

As much as I love to eat cheeseburgers, it was hard to convince B that it was a good idea to eat one for 3 consecutive meals, especially on her birthday weekend. Burgerville is on the way to Portland, however Sonic is in Hillsboro about 35 minutes out of the way, and we just didn't have he time to get to Arctic Circle. So to redeem my weekend of birthday, burgers, and jesus, I thought it only right to hit up the Markum Inn, home of the Double Jumbo Markum Burger.



The Markum Inn is right outside of Silverton, Oregon. B's mom and her husband own a marion berry farm in Silverton, this is where the family was gathering to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We decided to go to the Markum Inn for dinner on Saturday. I have been to the Markum Inn before so I knew what to expect, but its hard to explain what its like there, kind of miserable and smoky. The people are 95% local and its a farming community. I have tried to eat the D.J.M.B. before and failed, this is a GIANT burger! Since my burger weekend didn't really pan out I thought it would be a good idea to try it again.




This burger has over a pound of meat, like 6 slices of ham, too many slices of american cheese, and finished with shaved lettuce and thousand island dressing. All of these ingredients make a pretty close to perfect burger for me, but this is just ridiculous. When my burger arrived the table next to us were freaked out that I was going to eat this massive thing. By the time I ate 1/2 the burger I was done, the meat alone was too much, but add ham and American cheese. Commence the meat sweats. I finished the whole thing, with some fries, not cause I wanted to, but for this blog. Unless you are in to burgers the size of your head, and you enjoy sweating while you eat, I recommend the Jumbo Markum Burger, the same as above just half the size. I love the Markum Inn and I wish it were closer to home, same with , Burgerville, Arctic Circle, and Sonic Drive-In. The last two I have yet too try, well....there is always Christmas!

8 comments:

White Pepper said...

Amazing first post!
"liquid smoke and cheapness" = awesome

In my opinion there is no such thing as too much american cheese but I can see how that would be too much. Kinda like when I was younger and my brother and I would eat american cheese and carl buddig ham fried up in a pan.

I would kill to try a sonic slush. Stupid ass commercials.

Anonymous said...

COMMENCE THE MEAT SWEATS!

great fucking post, i seriously wish I had a cheeseburger with thousand island right now

TekkaDon Juan said...

fantastic post, bazook. a three cheese burger marathon sounds like an awesome foodventure, even if it didn't quite pan out. and oh my lord. the enlarged burger picture is hilarious. are those french fries supersized, too? each fry looks like a whole potato. wtf.

welcome food bazooka.

TekkaDon Juan said...

ps, a chocolate hazelnut shake sounds delicious.

Unknown said...

Good first post.

Hillsboro has the BEST mexican food. Theres a super market with a taco shop in the back, it's right next to a Zoot Suit shop. I assume theres only 1 Zoot Suit shop there, maybe only 1 on the entire NW.

You must have felt like shit for hours.

Anonymous said...

I have not been to the Markum Inn in 20 years, my grandparent live right down the street from there, and we used to get a Markum Burger everytime we would visit, my older brother, my sister, and I would share one...thank you for the picture...I have been trying to show my husband how massive these things are, but I am in Arizona, and unfortunately we have nothing even close to compare it too. I can still taste the goodness!

Anonymous said...

I read about it some days ago in another blog and the main things that you mention here are very similar

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