Bob’s Burgers Review: Havarti Like It’s 1999

It’s Sunday morning, and that can only mean one thing: last night, I made and ate a hamburger. Specifically, a burger featured on the hit series Bob’s Burgers. 

Havarti Like It’s 1999 Burger [S8:E8 “Y Tu Ga-Ga Tambien”]

About the Episode

When Mr. Frond creates a game (Ga-Ga Ball) that anyone can play, it threatens the Becher’s very understanding of recess. And when Tina and Louise join the players, Gene finds himself on the outside looking in.

Back at the restaurant, Linda is jumps at the opportunity to temporarily take over story time at the local library. She takes as her persona Punky Bookster:

When she’s not rockin’ she’s readin’ and the only drug she’s addicted to is books.

Sounds foolproof. Or foolish.

A Note About the Title

The title is a reference to the 2001 Mexican drama film Y Tu Mamá También, which translates into English as “And Your Mother Too”. Ga-ga is a variant of dodgeball that is played with one ball of Israeli origin.

About the Burger

Do you remember 1999? Everyone was prepping for the end of the world and sun-dried tomatoes were in everything. I was in high school, and we always had to have all the Doritos flavors: nacho cheese and cool ranch.

So, I decided to make this burger reflect these memories.

My local market packages their meat on-site and today I just couldn’t find a package close to one pound. The closest I could find was 1 1/3 pound. To the ground beef I would eventually add:

• 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup grated yellow onion
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Because I’d purchased slightly more beef than usual, this mix made 5 burgers instead of my usual 4.

But what of the Havarti? I purchased several slices of each flavor available in the deli case: regular, dill, and jalapeño. My deli sells large slices, and since I was using three cheeses per burger anyway, I only needed two or three slices of each.

As an aside, I’ve made friends with my cheese man. I go in at the same time every week just to see him. We talk and he takes good care of me.

I formed my patties from the above mixture and cooked as normal. While they were cooking I stacked my cheese slices: regular, jalapeño, and dill. I quartered the stack and placed one quarter on each burger during the last minute and a half of cooking. (I tent my burgers with tinfoil after flipping halfway through)

The Response

Krystal really wanted to like this burger but found the sun dried tomatoes too chewy. I looked back at the package and realized I’d picked up smoked sun dried tomatoes; if I do the recipe again I’ll get regular ones.

I liked this burger, and while it was definitely better than most burgers from a shop, it just didn’t have the same punch as some of my other burgers.

Overall, we gave this burger

3.5 Stars

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Come back next week when we’ll try a new, as-yet-to-be-determined burger!

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Our featured image comes from Andrew Heath. Check out his website and – if it’s your thing – buy some of his art. He’s also releasing a game this December: Burger Battle! I’m not on commission or anything, just doing my part to support a great and talented fan artist.