What: The avocado fries
Where: Grill-a-Burger, 73091 Country Club Drive, Palm Desert
How much: $8.95
Contact: 760-346-8170; www.grill-a-burger.com
Why: The rich mix of crunch and creamy.
I love avocados. They’re delicious; they’re good for you; and they’re interesting. (For example: Did you know the avocado is technically a berry? Really!)
Plus, avocados gave the world guacamole. Enough said.
Given my love for avocados, it should come as no surprise that on a recent trip to Grill-a-Burger—the highly regarded and somewhat famous (thank you, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) Palm Desert restaurant—with friend and colleague Kevin, I simply had to try the avocado fries.
While I have enjoyed avocado in a variety of ways, I’d never tried it fried before. Here’s how that works: The good folks at Grill-a-Burger take fresh avocado wedges, dip them in beer batter, coat them in Panko bread crumbs, deep-fry ’em, and then add a little sea salt.
The resulting “fry” is a revelation: It’s sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy and oh-so-delicious. The first bite almost overwhelms the mouth (in a good way), because of the wide variety of flavors and textures arriving all at once.
A word of caution: The avocado fries are rather filling. Our server warned Kevin and me that we’d have more than enough food after each ordering a burger and splitting the avocado fries, but we went ahead and also got an order of the 50/50—half french fries and half onion rings. We barely touched ’em.
Grill-a-Burger has earned a number of accolades during its decade-plus of existence, thanks to the restaurant’s quality (including fresh-baked buns and all-natural USDA beef sans hormones and antibiotics), the variety (30 different burgers, along with mini-burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, salads, milkshakes and malts—plus beer and wine!) and the fantastic service.
If you’ve never been to Grill-a-Burger … go. If you have been to Grill-a-Burger, but you’ve never tried the avocado fries … go. Trust me.