Grapes, Tours and the Death Burger

After our the distillery had warmed up our taste buds, we decided to venture down the road and get to a winery or two before lunch. (Yes we did drink bourbon before 11, don’t judge.) We stopped at Becker Winery, a few miles down from the distillery, to pick up a bottle of wine, get a tour of the winery and maybe do a tasting. And tasting we did aplenty, we paid to do 6 tastes each so that we could try 12 different wines and pick one that we both really liked. Sample after sample and we decided upon the first one I tasted, it was the Claret 2009, a red from several different kinds of grapes. The tour was nothing too exciting, although we did learn that one wine vat costs $350,000, I was not expecting that at all. Basically if you are going to start your own winery, you better have lots of money to invest. All of these tours and tastings had worked up our appetites so we ventured back to town to test the strength of our tongues against the death burger….


Hondo's in Fredericksburg, TX

Spicy food is the best type of food. Spices and flavors turn ordinary dishes into memorable, extraordinary meals. So, when I saw “Death Burger” on the menu at Hondo’s on Main Street, I knew it would be a place worth eating. Topped with jalapenos and Hondo’s specialty “Death Sauce”, this enormous burger is not meant for the faint of heart. The crunchy jalapenos mixed with the melted cheddar cheese and really made the burger pop. We also ordered the fried crunchies sampler, which was exactly as deliciously fattening as it sounds. It came with curly q fries, parmesan potato chips and jalapeno matchsticks. Before this experience, I had never tasted jalapenos that were friend with their seeds and stems, the ranch dressing side did little to cool down the fire. If I lived in Fredericksburg, this would definitely be a regular spot on my restaurant rotation.