All Sunshine All The Time

Wings and fries -- two of the best inventions in the whole world. The fries were crisp outside and fluffy inside. Genius.

The Mexican burger had us at hola. Ay carumba!

I customized a burger to go with my Racing In The Street program -- half-pound of grade one Australian beef with a slice of portobello. Hello beautiful thing!

I'm a pizza nut with stringent requirements for my pizza. This crust? Lust.

Surprise! Owner Andrew brought out these freshly baked brownie squares drizzled with chocolate sauce on the house. The perfect treat.

I flip for burgers. I really do. I know you know I like a lot of different types of food. But I have a top shelf of what truly constitutes food I can't live without. Such as my mom's laksa (or pretty much anything that comes out of her kitchen), steak, pizza, cheese fries, ice cream, hot dogs. And burgers.

I always like to tell the story of how my first dinner at college was at the infamous Yesterdays (that doesn't exist anymore) down University Place in Evanston, Illinois. I got a honking massive half-pound burger buried under fries. I ate a third of it. Having lived in the city of cows for almost 13 years, I can now eat something like that, plus beer, plus cheese on the fries, plus dessert. No more growing pains.

Chicago is going through a burger craze right now, with one of the lifestyle reporters at the Chicago Tribune declaring himself burger bureau chief, making it his personal mission to hit every burger joint in town (and there are a lot) rating every single one of them. I have a few favorites -- Kuma's Corner (burgers inspired by heavy metal, the Slayer, mercy - piles of fries topped with half a pound of solid black angus, chili, cherry peppers, andouille, onions, jack cheese and anger), to name one -- and I won't eat that fancy stuff that's so trendy now. Also, burgers should never be less than half a pound of meat. I'm sorry, if you're wussing out on a burger, then you should be eating a salad instead.

In Singapore, it's not easy to find a good burger, because few hit the initial half-pound requirement. Also, consider this following equation for our weekly Beer Night outing:

Excellent beer + excellent food = Beer Night. Beer Night is not excellent beer + regular food. Beer Night is not regular beer + excellent food. We don't compromise. Each week, a new joint, dive or bar is proposed for exploration. Last night, Suan proposed Sunshine @ Carrie's, having heard raving things about the burgers there. Suan is a genius.

You probably don't expect the cafe to be located in a condo, by an Olympic-sized pool, and to be hanging out on patio furniture while waiting for your food. But you might not also expect that everything here is homemade, from the grade one Australian beef patties to the pizza crust. It's pretty easy to make a burger, but it's brain surgery executing a juicy, tender slab of meat that melts in the mouth (although I should have been asked how I'd have liked it done -- medium rare). We ordered a total of three burgers -- Mexican, Sunshine and my customized 200g with a grilled portobello and peppercorn sauce on the side. All flippin' fantastic -- it's very key that real burger buns are used, not some of the skimpy, wimpy, limp bread you see mocking good beef. The rucola pizza had a crust that made me wax nostalgic of what emerges from the best pie shops in Chicago. When you make a pizza crust comparable to pizza capital of the world (outside of Naples), you're a maestro. Crisp around the edges without feeling too heavy, it was a great host for the tomato slices, fresh rucola leaves topped off with mozzarella. Note to all restaurateurs: fresh ingredients make your cuisine taste really, really good. The sides of mesclun greens drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette were perfect.

Speaking of great hosts, we really appreciated that the owner Andrew stepped out from behind the grill to check on how we were doing, take a picture for his Facebook group and oh my god, serve us a platter of freshly made brownies with chocolate sauce. It wasn't just a piece of brownie for each of us. There was enough for three squares each. Too many places are run like a business. Last night, hanging out by the pool with a little lantern on our table, we felt like we were at a good friend's house, who wouldn't stop bringing cold beer and other treats from the kitchen. In fact, even though some portions of the order took 50 minutes to serve (we were given due warning), it didn't feel like it at all. And we were more than happy to wait.

Oh, I got so far ahead of myself I forgot to mention that the wings and fries appetizer combo we had, as well as the grilled portobello salad, were fantastic. The fries, although not hand-cut, were cooked just right - perfect crispness is not an easy feat. I didn't have any of the wings, but they disappeared fast. The salad will soothe any conscience for indulging in beer, pizza and burgers. We hung out into the night, but it was like sunshine all the time. Thanks, Drew, for a wonderful evening!

P/S Just $7.80 for a bottle of Little Creatures and no GST or service charge? SCORE! Just please be sure to be nice to your servers, who are really capable and a rare breed in Singapore.