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I discovered this Portobello burger recipe in Food & Wine magazine 6 years ago when Matt and I were still living kid-free in Washington DC. At that time we were living near U Street, which back in the day was a thriving and self-sufficient African American community during the segregation era. It was considered Washington's “Black Broadway" with folks like Duke Ellington playing the after-hours jazz clubs.

But when we lived there, it was not Black Broadway. Almost everyday I would have to step over a homeless person who was passed out drunk on our front steps. I never walked on the carpet with my bare feet because I didn't know what was lurking in it. Matt was bitten by a rat taking out the garbage. We could hear prostitutes conducting business meetings outside our bedroom window. It was bad. But, we figured, we were young and the rent price was right. We could handle it.

So one night I brought home this recipe to cook. It was a ridiculously sweltering DC summer night, and Matt and I got cooking in the kitchen. Vegetables were frying, cheese was melting, buns were toasting. It was all coming together until suddenly cockroaches started flying out from behind the stove. Literally flying. I didn't even know those suckers had wings. Five, maybe eight came flying out and attached themselves to the walls and started crawling. It was bananas.

I ran out laughing and disgusted, but Matt had the bravery to stay. A few minutes later, sweat pouring down his face from battling yet another insect/animal encounter, he brought me this burger on a plate. I had lost my appetite, but he urged me to bite into it and when I did, it was heaven. Really, really juicy and good. 

I know selling a recipe with stories about roaches is not really a good thing, but trust me, it's tasty. We make a basil aioli with it that is the crowning touch to the woody richness of the Portobello and the smokiness of the gouda. Anyway-each time we make this, I have to laugh to myself and thank the Gods that I'm no longer surrounded by killer DC roaches.