Don’t think I’m a qualified food blogger? Think my reviews suck? I know you naysayers are out there, but that didn’t stop Eat Street (a program airing on the Canadian Food Network and American Cooking Channel) from contacting me about appearing on their show. Not only did they want me on the show, they even referred to me as a “Food Expert.” Boo-yah!

So I answered the call and a few months ago I headed out to the Grill ‘Em All truck to give Eat Street my opinion of their burgers. I had tried them once before and delighted in their Behemoth, so I was excited to experience Grill ‘Em All again. At the truck I met fellow burger lover, Rev, and we instantly bonded over our disdain for pickles and our mighty Michigan roots. Rev not only manages Grill ‘Em All, but is always conquering burgers for his blog, Burger Conquest.

I also got to meet Chef Ryan, his burger partner, Matt, and the rest of the crew working for Grill ‘Em All and Eat Street. They were all fans of Unvegan (obviously) and they were all cool to hang out with. When it came down to eating, I wound up with their Molly Hatchet. Made with seared fennel sausage gravy, maple syrup and bacon, it was a perfect unvegan burger that didn’t even require a special order. But how was it?

Tune into the Cooking Channel at 8:00 on July 5th to find out!

While down at the Grand Central Market, my girlfriend (that’s for you, Joel) remembered she had seen one of the stalls on The Best Thing I Ever Ate on The Food Network. This stall was Sarita’s Pupuseria, which specializes in…wait for it…pupusas! You know, everyone’s favorite Salvadoran food. I am a huge fan of pupusas and while I may not know what Salvadorans look for in terms of a good pupusa, I know what this unvegan likes. The pupusa featured on that show was the basic bean and cheese, so we ordered one to split just to find out if it could hit the list of the best things we ever ate.

Pupusas here were made completely from scratch, so it took a while for them to fry ours up on the griddle, but it was great to see them put it together and I definitely don’t mind waiting for freshly-cooked food. When it was ready, our number was authentically called in Spanish and we grabbed our pupusa. My girlfriend destroyed her half by putting cabbage on it, but I kept mine pristine and cabbage-free.

In the process of eating, I found that I was a fan of this pupusa, but could it really qualify as the best thing I ever ate? Sadly for Sarita, this was not the case. In fact, strangely enough I have eaten better pupusas in North Hollywood. So what was the problem? Well, I’m glad you asked. The pupusa had some strangely distinct flavor that I was unable to put my finger on. It might have been coffee or who knows, but whatever it was, I didn’t want it. On top of that, I felt the dough was still, well…doughy. I like a pupusa that you can pick up in your hand and eat, but this one didn’t offer that to me. In general, it was still quite tasty, just not worth making the cut as one of the best things I ever ate.

So the moral here?

Don’t believe everything you see on TV.

Just a disclaimer before the real entry. Apparently our country is experiencing a sort of bacon obsession. Almost every time I try to profile a prolific Unvegan Hero, they seem to have some sort of bacon fixation. This is in no way a bad thing, but I would like to shed light on more of a variety of meats. I just wanted to apologize in advance for so many baconated posts and will do my best to find more of a variety of Unvegan Heroes in the future. On to the entry.

I’ve never been much of a Food Network watcher because I’d usually rather be eating food than watching someone make food and eat it in front of me without offering any of it to. If you think about it, it’s pretty rude. That may change soon, though.

I recently stumbled across Paula Deen, one of the Food Network personalities. I’m not sure what she typically makes, but in the clip above she makes deep-fried, bacon-wrapped mac and cheese. It’s amazing watching her go through all the steps, just knowing that the end product has to be amazing. From the looks of it, it’s a powerful combination of flavors that would make any unvegan proud.

For finding a way to enhance macaroni and cheese with meat, Paula Deen, you are a true Unvegan Hero.

(via Serious Eats)