The Infamous Deep Fried Cheeseburger

“Deep fried cheeseburger.”

Three words that I had always dreamt about but never thought I would have the pleasure of uttering to a waiter.

And yet, in an unsuspecting moment, I was given a chance.

So many questions came to mind when I tried to wrap my head around this concept.

“How do they hold it together?”

“Is it battered or is the bun just deep-fried?”

“Will it kill me?”

Last Sunday was the first sunny day of the spring.  So naturally, I grabbed a few friends and set out on a quest to find a place to enjoy an afternoon Bloody Mary on an open patio.  After literally two hours spent unsuccessfully on the hunt, we settled for Walt’s Other Pub.  Their second story deck wasn’t opened up yet for the year, but when we heard that they had 23 oz. Bloody Mary’s on Sunday special for $4 with in-house infused pepper vodka, we couldn’t pass it up.

I’d never been to Walt’s before, but I was pleasantly surprised by the decor.  Perhaps it was the use of wood and stone, but for some reason it reminded me of restaurants I’ve visited in small Colorado ski towns.  It’s definitely somewhere I’ll take my dad if he manages to make it here for another visit before I graduate in May.

After we were greeted by the friendly staff, we grabbed a seat hidden in the corner of the first floor.  Upon opening the menu, my eyes were flooded with a variety of selections, all calling my name.  However, my stare fell to one item in particular, “The Boilermaker.”  Any item that a restaurant in this area is brave enough to attach Purdue’s namesake to must be worth trying at least once.

I read the description, something about a deep-fried cheeseburger smothered in a healthy amount of velveeta cheese and a jalapeno relish.

Meat, cheese, spicy, deep-fried.  Four of my favorite words in one short phrase.

Instantaneously,  my mouth was watering.

Acting on pure instinct, I made a quick decision to put my health in the hands of the chef and enthusiastically placed my order.

Having been tempted by the description on the menu, my mild hunger had quickly escalated into a ravenous starvation.  In order to cope with my anxious anticipation, we put in an order for some “Apple Knuckles”, which ironically have nothing to do with apples or knuckles.

We got these quickly, deep-fried pieces of bagel dough, smothered in garlic and parmesan, dosed in butter (literally, a pool of butter deep enough to drown a small animal was left in the bottom of the bowl).  Figuring we had already started to slide down the slippery slope of a day filled with excess fat and calorie intake, we dove in.  Delicious.  But nothing compared to what was coming next.

And then we saw our server again, carrying a large tray of food a few inches above our line of sight headed in our direction.  Each member of our party craned their neck in an attempt to catch a brief preview of what we were in for.  And then this was placed in front of me.

And I was pleased.  It looked exactly what I thought it would look like.  A ball of deep-fried batter, and I couldn’t be happier.  I have to admit, for a split second, I was little unsure of how to tackle this beast.  I’m not huge on the idea of using a fork and knife with a sandwich, but it didn’t take a second guess to realize this was the most sane method.

It felt a little like I was King Arthur, ripping Excalibur from the legendary stone as I pulled the massive steak knife skewering the burger out of its crispy deep-fried casing.

Without further adieu, I dug in.

Cheese oozed everywhere, but in a good way.  This was definitely a situation in which I don’t think it was possible to have too much cheese.  In fact, my first bite was mostly deep-fried bun and velveeta, tasting like what I imagine the best grilled cheese in the world would taste like.

As I dug further into the sandwich, each bite got better.  In all honesty, it tasted more like a grilled cheese with a burger added to it, rather than a burger with cheese on it.  But that was fine with me.  It wasn’t that the burger was lacking, I expect that it was around a half pound patty.  It was just that there was probably a quarter pound of cheese between the buns as well.

As one might expect, I quickly hit my limit.  The amount of grease my body was taking in was giving me the sweats and I hit the proverbial wall.  A little over halfway through it got to me and I could eat no more.

Do I regret my decision?  Most certainly not.  Coming in at $8.99, this is one of the most delicious and unique bargains that the Lafayette area has to offer.

I will be back at Walt’s as soon as I get the chance.