The Burger Bus!

What goes best with a good root beer? Why a good burger, of course! Followed by a chocolate malt. But we'll forgo the malt for the interests of this post. And the root beer, for that matter, since I didn't get one here...

Anywho...

I stopped by The Burger Bus in Santa Barbara (Goleta, actually, but who's counting...?) after a meeting this past week and had a CB&J -- that's cheeseburger & jelly, as in cheddar cheese on a griddled 1/3 lb patty, on a ciabatta roll with berry jelly and caramelized onions. And yam fries on the side. Had to skip the fried pickle chips since I was a dollar short, and they only take cash.

The Burger Bus is basically a lunch truck, except they use a shortbus instead of a roach coach, and lunch is limited to burgers and falafel sandwiches with fries, onion rings, or fried pickles. But that's OK, since I'm a fan of the burger lunch option. The burger patty was very good -- seasoned nicely and griddled to a perfect combination of charred on the outside and tender on the inside. I could do without the jelly and the ciabatta roll though, since the berry jelly was a little too sweet, and the ciabatta roll (due to its crusty and chewy nature) caused everything to blow out the back of the burger when I took my first bite... Still the roll was tasty, as were the onions -- at least the ones that stayed in the burger and didn't blow out the back... I imagine the ones that blew out the back were good, too, but I left them alone since I didn't really want to eat a just whole mouthful of onions and jelly after I finished my burger -- though the sweet berry jelly and sweet caramelized onions did taste good together.

Next time, if I'm on The Bus' route (yes, we are on a first ... er, last... name basis now), I might skip the jelly altogether and stick with the standard lettuce, onions and tomato, or at least try the habanero jelly instead of the berry jelly for some extra kick. And while I would be perfectly happy getting the yam fries again since they were really good (great subtly sweet yammy richness, with coarse salt sprinkled in for a great salty contrast), I'll bring enough cash to try the fried pickle chips.