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The last two days have given us an entirely new meaning to "adventure" — they've been awesome. We left Hoi An yesterday morning {Sunday}, after packing up our belonging and leaving our cute little house. For the first time in the month+ we'd been there, we woke up to pouring rain. Awesome. I nearly voted for us to stay an extra night just to avoid the rain, but it lightened to a drizzle and eventually stopped before we headed out of town.
We opted to drive West, away from busy/scary Highway 1, and get on the Ho Chi Minh Highway {HCMH}. THANK GOD WE DID! Highway 1 is seriously no fun. It's hot. There are a ton of cars, busses, trucks — all of which careen around you at terrifying speeds. We picked our way through some small towns, taking nearly two hours to go thirty kilometers due to baggage-attachment issues and breakfast needs, before making our turn on to the HCMH. Immediately, the view was gorgeous, the road was smooth and flat and EMPTY!
We cruised along at a much nicer clip, enjoying the view and lack of scary traffic. Then, it began to rain. I've seen a lot of rain in my life, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen as much rain in such a short time as I've seen in the last 48 hours! BUCKETS. We proceeded to get soaked, FROZEN, and nearly run out of gas {luckily we did not, but it was far too close for comfort as we puttered up a mountain pass in the middle of nowhere Vietnam while frozen and sopping wet}. Many lessons were learned.
The rain came and went the rest of the day, and we took shelter in a coffee shop at the perfect time to avoid the heaviest monsoonal deluge, but having already soaked ourselves, it was a chilly afternoon {cotton kills!}. My super-sexy red poncho {essential motorbike accessory} made me look extra awesome — and kept my luggage dry. Whew. We were psyched to get to our destination {Plei Can}, find a hotel, take a HOT shower, put on PANTS AND A SWEATER, and get some food. If only we'd been able to get some sleep... That's another story. {Vietnam = LOUD}.
Today we started off in a monsoonal deluge, but we were ready. We got our raincoats out (for the first time this trip), wrapped our bags in the ponchos, and hit the road. I have a lovely picture of this get-up, which {if you're lucky} I may bless my instagram followers with later! We had a much shorter trip today, only about 110 km, and were at our hotel in Pleiku by 2 pm! Woohoo! The rain gave up at about twelve thirty, so we arrived dry and warm. Win!
In our newfound adventure into the wild central highlands of Vietnam {they're not really wild, but much less populated than most areas we've been!}, we've been loving the barbecue. Everyone cooks delicious meet out on a grill in front of their restaurant {restaurant being a very loose term}, and it blows me away every time! I LOVE that blackened, smokey taste that only comes from cooking over some hot coals! Can't get enough.
With that, I was inspired to share these burgers with you guys. I know grilling season is very much alive at home right now — I just wish we could grill some burgers with all of you, too! These burgers would be perfect for 4th of July — they're ALMOST red, white, and blue! Just add something blue... and let me know what that is, exactly. I suppose you could use blueberry jam and cook rare burgers! I'm too much a fan of raspberry jam, though, so I'm sticking with it!
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Brie & Jam Burgers on Pretzel Rolls
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground pepper
- 8 oz Brie, sliced into ¼" thick pieces
- 4 pretzel buns
- greens of your choice
- ⅓ cup berry jam {I prefer raspberry}
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Mix together thoroughly with your hands, taking care to not "squeeze" the meat too much. Set aside and let rest for 30 minutes before proceeding.
- Form the meat into four patties and cook in a heavy skillet over medium heat for about 4 minutes each side (depending on how done you like your burger).
- When the burgers are done, place them all on a baking sheet. Top each burger with slices of brie, and broil until the cheese is fully melted.
- Serve on toasted pretzel buns with greens and liberal amounts of jam.
Rachel @LittleChefBigAppetite says
Gah! I LOVE brie and jam on burgers! One of my favorite local burger spots makes a similar burger and I devour it in about 10 seconds! no shame!