Over the Thanksgiving weekend I went on an adventure to Madison, WI and sampled some burgers for my upcoming hamburger travel guide. my host for the journey was Doug Moe, a columnist from the Capital Times of Madison. One of the standouts was the Plaza Burger from the Plaza Tavern & Grill.
The burger was served on a wheat bun with their secret sauce. I've heard about this sauce but no one has been able to describe it sucessfully. Some say "creamy", "different", or "I can't explain". I say "weird, but good". It is a fantastic sauce that is very close to that stuff that ends up on a Greek Gyro, a white, sharp tasting goo with a zing. Is it a coincidence that there is a Greek restaurant across the street?
The wheat bun frightened me too, but worked well with the sauce. This is the second time this month I have been pleasantly surprized by how well a good wheat bun works for a burger (at Casino El Camino in Austin). The burger, griddled and thin, was what you'd find on an In 'N Out burger. With that in mind, I should have had a double.
The other secret motive to visiting Madison was to quell a personal culinary curiosity - the Deep Fried Cheese Curd. Even friends as close as Milwaukee had never heard of them. I can safely report that the curds of Madison are sublime. I had never tasted anything like this before. Its offspring, the mozzarella stick, is a bastardized version of the deep fried cheese curd. They were so damn good that I took some home and reheated them...
I also visited Dotty Dumplings Dowery (much better cheese curds and an excellent burger) and need to go back to visit 2 others, the Nitty Gritty and Peterson's (outside of Madison).
