The night before I left for my recent week at Rancho La Puerta Fitness Resort & Spa, I met a friend for dinner in the bar at Nine-Ten in La Jolla. Normally, I like to sit in the dining room and order from chef Jason Knibb’s tantalizing menu that includes things like a summer peach, prosciutto and burrata cheese salad; Alaskan halibut with zucchini pesto and artichokes; and Maine scallops with crispy Yukon potato confit.
But on that night, I figured the bar menu’s big burger with a mountain of truffled French fries was a good idea, given that I’d be on a strict vegetarian diet for the following week. (In the 70 years since it opened in Tecate, Mexico, the Ranch has evolved from totally vegetarian to offering a fish option for dinner some nights. However, since the vegetable dishes are so inventive and full of flavor, I stick with them.)
Served on pastry chef Jack Fisher’s freshly baked bun, with Dijon-spiked homemade aioli, and just-about-to-soften chunks of Point Reyes blue cheese, this was the Bo Derek of burgers. The meat itself was extraordinary – a mass of coarsely ground, natural, prime-grade chuck steak, gently formed into a plump patty. Ordered medium-rare, it arrived with a lovely charred outside, and a pink, juicy interior that was so loosely formed I could discern the varying textures with each bite. A lettuce ruffle, sliced tomato and homemade pickles completed the pretty picture.
So delicious was this burger that eight nights later, I was back for more. Why not conclude my spa experience the same way I started it, I asked myself as we drove home from Tecate.
Again, the burger shone. And those two glasses of Pinot Noir tasted mighty fine too after a week in the Ranch's alcohol-free zone.
Now, I’m not suggesting that either Nine-Ten’s burger-and-fries or Rancho La Puerta’s Garden Zucchini Casserole with Melted Cheese, Crispy Leeks and Chipotle Sauce is preferable to the other. I’m just saying I loved the bookend approach: Two blow-it-all-out burger feasts bracketing seven days of the kind of wonderful food we need to be eating if we want to enjoy a long and healthy life.
You can create Rancho La Puerta menus at home with remarkable little effort with the cookbook, “Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta” by Deborah Szekely and Deborah Schneider. It’s $23.10 at Amazon.com.
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