Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple. As Henry David Thoreau once said, “Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.” Quite often, restaurants fail to recognize this necessity by throwing in vegetable garnishings or trying to turn a burger into a gourmet meal. Big Daddy’s Burgers in Lake Tahoe, however, wouldn’t dream of crossing this line. They only make burgers, hot dogs and fries. It’s a menu so simple that it makes In-N-Out Burger’s menu look like a novel.

At the counter, I ordered the bacon cheeseburger, without vegetables. I also got a side of fries and ordered a burger for my girlfriend. Then I got the bill. For both burgers and fries, the total was only 10 bucks. I was amazed, because even in the crappiest diners in LA, a couple burgers and fries like that will set me back at least 15 bucks, but probably more. I could watch right behind the counter as the patties were being grilled, but I decided to take a set outside at the mildly dilapidated picnic table.

When the burger was ready, I was overjoyed with excitement. If I had to eat burgers everyday, this is the burger I would choose. There was nothing so fancy about it, except that everything tasted right. It wasn’t crowded with seasoning or other ingredients. The couple slices of bacon and couple slices of cheese melded perfectly with the beef. Even the bun just felt right. It reminded me of better days, before burgers suddenly became the domain of pretentious gourmet restaurants. Big Daddy’s knew exactly what to do with their burgers and they did it well. Plus, for the price I paid, I couldn’t ask for anything more.

After a long day of hiking, there’s nothing better for an unvegan than beer and greasy food. Luckily, just a few steps from my hotel in Lake Tahoe, there was a nifty little joint called McP’s Irish Pub & Grill.

We took our seats in the upstairs and outdoors dining area, just outside the doors of a small performance. As we looked at our menus, there was a small child dancing like a crazy person to the sound of the music from within. This was infinitely more entertaining than the menu, but food had to be ordered. There was plenty of good-looking food on the menu, and eventually I decided to get the BBQ Beef Sandwich.

As I waited, I sipped on my beer and enjoyed the music coming from inside the place. The dancing child entertained until she went inside the bar to get closer to the band. Not sure why her parents let that happen, but I’m not one to interfere in the growth process, unless it involves ending the growth of a tasty animal.

My BBQ sandwich ended up tasting pretty good. In fact, it leaned a bit towards the Philly Cheese Steak end of the sandwich spectrum, despite having a distinctly BBQ-ey flavor. Fries would have gotten along with it better than chips, but I was still pretty happy with my meal.

I’m not usually a “go out to breakfast” type of guy, but recently when I was in Lake Tahoe, going out to breakfast was really my only option. Rather than take my chances with a place I had never heard of, IHOP started calling my name, and I answered.

The wait was kind of long, but I knew it would be worth it to get a hearty meal before spending the day hiking. IHOP was having a special called Hawaiian Pancakes at the time, so my eyes immediately started checking them out. This wasn’t simply an order of pancakes though, the special also included bacon, hash browns and eggs. Amazingly, this special cost less than if I had just ordered eggs, hash browns and bacon (without the pancakes) so I knew it had to be mine. Of all the Hawaiian flavors, I decided to get the Strawberry Passion Fruit. The picture of it on the menu looked delicious, especially with the strange yellowish cream spilling out from between the two pancakes.

My meal came out pretty rapidly and looked just as I had hoped. The lip of the dish containing the pancakes concealed the yellowish cream, but I knew it was in there somewhere. The bacon was decently crisp and the eggs were scrambled like I had asked. I tested out the pancakes and was pretty happy. They weren’t too sweet, as some specialty pancakes tend to be, but they were also distinctly fruity.

Aside from the pancakes, nothing about the meal was too exemplary. It all tasted good enough, but didn’t exactly dance on my tongue. Nonetheless, it was a great way to jump start my metabolic system before a day of outdoor activities.