Thanks to all two of you who expressed interest in my veggie burger challenge! You are my inspiration – the wind beneath my wings. On the basis of your support, I will now commence with The Great Tampa Bay 2008 Veggie Burger Blog Challenge, and I promise to stick with it (at least until I get bored, or sick of veggie burgers).

Here are some ground rules before I begin:

1. I plan to review one burger per week until I run out of veggie burgers. If anyone knows of any places that offer veggie burgers, please suggest them to me (and thanks, KS, for the tip about the guy at the St. Pete farmer’s market!).

2. I’ll try to include relevant information in my review, including the name of the item I ate, the ingredients (to the best of my knowledge), and the price.

3. In true copycat fashion, I’m going to do what Dave did and try always to eat and review the most “basic” burger that a place offers. Given the dearth of veggie burger options at most restaurants, however, this will probably just mean eating the only veggie burger on the menu. So be it.

4. Unlike Dave, I’m going to try a rating system in which I rate each burger along four dimensions: Taste, Size, Consistency, and Bun. Let me explain.

a. Taste = How delicious is it? Pretty straightforward.

b. Size = Is it big enough? Too big? Did it leave me still hungry? Or did it overextend the tensile strength of my stomach walls, causing internal hemorrhaging and, ultimately, death? Etc.

c. Consistency = Is it dry and crumbly? Moist? Gloppy and gushy?

d. Bun = Is the bun tasty? Stale? Is it just a store-bought piece o’ crap?

Each burger will receive a single rating along each dimension, on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (great). Following the rating, I’ll explain my justification for it. Rest assured – I’m a professional measurer of people’s reactions to things, so you are in good hands here with my rating system.

5. Other than the above claim to competence with rating things, I make no claims to competence. I’m sure I’ll make plenty of mistakes.

6. Okay, this one might sound weird…BUT, I cannot guarantee that “veggie burger” equals “vegetarian burger.” As my friend RB and I discovered recently, at least one local “veggie burger” has meat by-products in it. I’ll provide more details about this when I review this particular burger (stay tuned!), but I don’t plan to make a habit of asking every counterperson or waitperson “Is your veggie burger vegetarian?” So just…you know…caveat emptor and all that.

7. Finally, all of these ground rules are subject to change at my whim, or when I get bored. Or if I forget to follow them.

Veggie Burger #1 – Evo’s American Champion

I ate at Evo’s South Tampa: 609 S. Howard Ave., Tampa, FL 33606

For lack of a better starting point, I’ll begin with Evo’s. I ordered their “American Champion,” because it’s the first thing on their menu, and seems like their standard veggie burger. The ingredients are listed as: soy burger, leaf lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, ketchup, and mustard. You can replace the soy burger with a lowfat patty (but I didn’t). I got it with airfries and a small drink. The price of this combo meal is $7.19 before tax.

Evo's American Champion, airfries, and a drink

Evo's American Champion, airfries, and a drink

Taste = 4. I really like the Evo’s burger. It’s pretty tasty. It’s also very basic, so it’s a good starting point for this challenge. The patty is yummy (though not really special in any way), and the veggies are fresh. The tomato was very red, and true to their word, the lettuce was “leaf lettuce” rather than shredded iceberg (see image below). All in all, a solidly good-tasting veggie burger.

Soy patty and fresh veggies! Nice big pickle, too.

Soy patty and fresh veggies! Nice big pickle, too.

Size = 5. It’s the perfect size. I wasn’t uncomfortably full after eating it, but I also wasn’t hungry again for several hours. It carried me through the whole afternoon, which included an hour of swimming. Of course, I did eat the fries and a drink as well, so this rating may be biased. Nonetheless, I thought it was an ideal size.

Consistency = 4. It’s a soy patty, which means it’s kind of Boca-like in consistency. I haven’t eaten a real meat hamburger in about 21 years, so I can’t compare the consistency to real meat… But it’s a little firmer than a garden burger patty. It was juicy but solid, meaning it won’t fall apart in your hands.

Bun = 4. I almost gave it a 5 for Bun, but then decided to go with a 4. I really like this bun, though! It’s fresh tasting and it looks interesting, kind of like a hot cross bun (see image below). I know looks shouldn’t count here, but they do.

Hot cross bun?

Hot cross bun?

Average rating = 4.25 out of 5, which is pretty damned good. Significantly above the “neutral” midpoint of the scale, too: t(3) = 5.00, p < .02!

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