Grass or Grain?

The OC Register has an interesting article on the grass fed / grain fed debate. Link.

National Burger Month Cookin' @ Home - The Bourgeois Burger

Here is a little burger I came up with. It is called the Bourgeois burger because it uses freshly ground USDA prime dry aged rib eye seasoned with Kosher salt, pepper and crushed coriander seeds and served with Bearnaise sauce, Maitre D'Hotel butter and minced shallots. The only common ingredient is the Martin's Potato roll which is slathered in Maitre D'Hotel butter and griddled until golden. The burger is actually slider size because I use Martin's sliced Potato rolls as opposed to the larger sandwich rolls. I do this partially because I love sliders but mostly because I make the burgers in small amounts since I use scraps from the weekly Beef Aficionado rib eye steak night for the burgers. This allows me to make the burgers very fatty and full of that earthy, musky, blue cheese like dry age flavor that we love around here.


I cook them in a cast iron skillet which I heat up for at least 15 minutes on high so that it is ridiculously hot. Sprinkled water should evaporate instantly on the skillet, not sizzle and sputter. I add around a teaspoon of peanut oil to the skillet and then gently the place small 1.5 oz patties, which are brought to room temperature for at least an hour out of the fridge, in the skillet pressing down just enough to provide maximum contact. The idea is to completely sear the outside while allowing the inside to remain rare. Never mash down on a burger unless you want a dry hockey puck . They cook very quickly yet remain plump and bulging with juice and flavor. I cook the buns on a separate non stick griddle using the flavored butter until they are golden and crispy and exude a croissant like texture. The burger must be allowed to sit on plate for 5 or so minutes and is then placed on the warm bun, minced shallots go on the bottom and Bearnaise goes on top. A tasty little snack which will break the bank and give you a heart attack. Sounds good?

Slate.com on the Rising Cost of Beef

Link

National Burger Month Day 30 - Stand

Stands inclusion in the NY Post's top burger list in its May 30th edition confounded me, especially because the recommendation came from Mr Hamburger America himself George Motz. I had eaten at Stand about a month before and was not impressed. The beef was definitely good quality and the place had a nice minimalist interior, more akin to a sushi bar or nightclub than a burger shop. But the bun ruined the burger for me. The burger is on the smaller side, maybe 7oz tops but the bun is just enormously tall and difficult to eat. This was made worse by the injudiciousness of the bun cutters blade, Look at this burger:

It looks like it is wearing a Yarmulke. I resorted to a knife and fork to eat it and vowed never to return. But because of George's recommendation I decided to give Stand another shot. I was equally disappointed. The bread, while cut better, is still way too big for the task at hand and is too stiff and uncompliant. It also has an unwelcome sweetness.
Worse, the beef, despite the wooden stake stuck into declaring it "rare" was medium and quite dry. In fact the more that I think about it the burger was actually shockingly bad. overcooked, dry, and over rated. How disappointing.

Stand
24 East 12th Street (5th & Univ.)
New York, NY 10003

National Burger Month Day 29 - Zip Burger

Yet another "chef driven" burger shop, this time from Les Halles alumnist Ted Pryor, that strives to provide an all natural, healthier approach to fast food. Oh Boy, here we go again. Actually the burger did not seem compromised in any way except execution at Zip.

The patty was very flavorful and juicy, definitely one of the better tasting in this current survey but was cooked beyond the requested rare. which sapped some life from it. The bun however ruined the burger as it was stone cold, as if it had just come from the fridge and asymmetrically cut with a very large head . I am assuming that no chef would design a recipe this way deliberatly so it must have been a case of pilot error. Never the less I would recommend you ask for your bun to be warmed if you go to Zip. And I am not sure I would recommend you do with PJ Clarkes and Goodburger so close by. Beyond the easily correctable problem with the bun the burger at Zip is fine but personally I felt it lacked "soul," there was nothing inherently wrong with it but it just did not grab me.

Zip Burger
300 1/2 E. 52nd St
NY NY

National Burger Month Day 28 - Wollensky's Grill

I love Smith and Wollensky steakhouse. It is one of my favorite restaurants although I don't eat there as much as I used to, only about once a week these days. I had not eaten a burger at the adjacent Wollensky's Grill in sometime but I remember it as being very good. My recent experiences with steakhouse burgers where not so great, could the Grill come through? Yes and no. It certainly bests the other burgers I tried from Lugers, Keens and the Old Homestead in that it was perfectly cooked, edible with hands, and the bun was perfect for the task. The meat as with all Steakhouse burgers was great, but also oversized which leads it to get a bit sloppy. I have really come to appreciate the elegant daintiness of the slider but really anything up to around 7-8 oz is manageable in my book. Most steakhouses serve up closer to 10oz of beef which makes the burgers hard to eat and messy.

The ingredients here are all fresh, the bun well toasted and the beef served sizzling from the same grill that churns out some of NY's best steaks. And while this is a really good tasting burger I still find the beef too coarsely ground and just too big, the bun/beef ratio is off. So definitely the best of the Steakhouse burgers but at almost $15 it can compete with other steakhouses but not, say PJ Clarkes right up the street or Balthazar downtown. Go to S&W and the Grill for the steaks and chops, leave the burgers to others.

Wollensky's Grill
201 E. 49th St.
(3rd Ave.)
Manhattan, NY

National Burger Month Day 27 - Burke in the Box

While I was somewhat apprehensive about a another celebrity chef take on the burger I was heartened to discover that David Burke was making sliders at his trendy fast food eatery in Bloomingdale's. It is no secret that some of the best burgers I have had are sliders and I am a definite convert to the church of little burgers. Unfortunately Burkes little grass fed patty's served on English muffin buns stray so far from the classic burger archetype that I find them disconcerting. And too expensive at almost $11 for three.

It is not that I found them distasteful, they are obviously built from the highest quality components it is just that they seem more like dumplings than burger. You can find out how they are made here. While I appreciate the efforts to truly meld the flavors of the sandwich, in a similar way to White Manna, ie the classic slider technique, the whole oven crisping thing makes the burger seems, frankly half baked.

Burke in the Box
@Bloomingdale’s
150 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022
tel 212.705.3800

National Burger Month Day 26 - Lucky Burger

Six degrees of Luck

In a very round about sort of way Lucky Burger is partially to blame for the creation of this blog. About a year and half ago I happened upon Lucky's Famous on Avenue A in the East Village. The first time I ate the burger there I was intrigued, it tasted more like a hot dog than a burger having a distinct smoky, spiced flavor. There was also a mayonnaise type concoction called "Lucky sauce" that mirrored the meat in having a smoky taste.

An original Lucky Burger from Ave A

In addition to the aforementioned sauce Lucky burger came dressed with ketchup, mustard, chopped onion, tomato, lettuce, pickles and Cheddar on a Martin's potato roll. At its best I thought it was a very good sandwich indeed. I normally don't go for exotically flavored burgers but for some reason Lucky burger had a certain je ne sais quoi. At its best the contrasts of both texture and flavor was wonderful - the spongy compliance of the buttery sweet potato roll countered by tart the crunchiness of the pickle and onions themselves countered by the tender beefy succulent patty produced a unique burger experience. The beef was intensely juicy, much more so than its rather lean looking fine grind would indicate. I felt everything was in perfect proportion. I admit that it was a unique, some might say even an acquired, taste. I think that the first one that I ate was so good that I was always aware of the burgers true potential so I stuck with them despite occasional missteps. I ended up eating at Lucky quite frequently.

During one of these visits I met owner and creator of the burger Noah Max. He claimed that the burger was "cold smoked" and marinated overnight. He would not reveal the type of beef he used but said it was fresh, never frozen and was cooked on a searing griddle. I suspected it was mostly sirloin. Noah said he took two years to develop his recipe and it certainly seemed that the choice of ingredient was deliberate rather than just a case of copying the next guy. Certainly the uniqueness of the sauce indicates this but I must admit that I generally don't like "special" sauces anyway and took to ordering without, the smoke flavor was intrinsic to the beef anyway.

In further conversations with Noah he mentioned a negative review he received in A Hamburger Today, a blog with which I was unfamiliar with but with which I was soon enthralled. Although I liked Lucky's I also empathized with Adam Kubans experience, I order my burgers rare but on the occasions when they came otherwise at Lucky's they were mealy and dry. And quality control was definitely an issue on Ave A, unless Noah was there personally the burgers where not always so great. In any event discovering AHT was great and inspired this blog.

The Lucky of today

Then one day Lucky was gone, at least on Avenue A, but a new one sprang up almost instantly on west 52nd. Sans Monsieur Max and much further from Beef Aficionado headquarters than before. Would the burger remain intriguing enough to keep me going back? Unfortunately not. Despite some decent efforts on a few visits the original recipe has strayed sufficiently from its origins to be a different steer altogether. The Lucky sauce is now even more overpowering than before, perhaps because the beef seems to have completely forgone the "cold smoke" technique. The burger has also changed shape becoming much thinner and more spread out. Rather than the plump juicy crispy patty of yore on my visit today I witnessed the cook pressing down with all his might on my burger. Sure it was rare and the outside charred but it had no juice at all. Too bad because the original was distinct enough for inclusion in my burger diet. On the plus side the newer Lucky's maintains the standard of using fresh ingredients and the restaurant is very clean. I never bought the hype that it was the "best burger on earth" but I thought it a pleasant diversion. The NYC burger landscape has changed so much with a new joint opening almost weekly in the last year that 52nd St is too far to depend on luck alone for a decent burger.

Lucky's Famous
370 W 52nd St
between 8th and 9th Aves

Expect Those Steakhouse Tabs to Get Bigger, Maybe a lot Bigger

The New York Times reports that while the price of beef is rising along with demand availability is dropping precipitously. Expect your favorite Steakhouse to raise prices, if they haven't already. I still have nightmares about the last time this happened back in 2003.

Link

(Thanks to Glenn for the tip)

National Burger Month Day 25 - Sparky's

I am convinced that you can not make a burger "healthy" and tasty at the same time. Sparky's bolstered this argument to a much greater degree than I could imagine The very concept of a hamburger, taking some of the fattiest cuts of beef, cooking it up, often with some cheese and slapping it on a bleached white wheat bun, flies in the face of either health or nutrition. The healthier one makes a burger by cutting fat, and adding whole grains to the bun the further one gets away from what makes a burger so great. A guilty greasy comforting union of bread and beef.


Sparky's, a two store chain located in Soho and Williamsburg Brooklyn, uses only organically grown and responsibility farmed produce. This is fine, I love organic food, I eat it all the time as it generally tastes great. I have had plenty of grass fed beef also. It too tastes great but Hamburgers need fat and when you don't put any in I don't care if you use the finest prime grade Angus steer your burger ain't going to be any good. Sparky's burgers ain't no good. The burger is sort of rubbery with a displeasing texture and has an odd flavor reminiscent of falafel seasoning. Enough said, if you like burger don't eat Sparky's. If you are worried about your health don't eat burgers.

Sparky's

333 Lafayette St
New York, NY

135A N. 5th St.,
Brooklyn, NY 11211

National Burger Month Day 24 - Burgers & Cupcakes

Talk about a dangerous combination. Burgers and Cupcakes on 23rd Street offers up two of NYC's latest gastronomic fads in one place.

The bun looked a bit small but it did its job well forming around the patty nicely, soaking up the burger juice and bonding to the melted cheese.

The beef while cooked perfectly rare had a nicely charred exterior and decent, but not great flavor. It was very juicy however. On balance a decent burger but at almost $10 before tip a bit on the steep side. Miraculously I escaped the clutch of the cupcakes.

Burgers & Cupcakes
265 West 23rd St

National Burger Month Day 23 -Old Homestead

I will admit that I am prejudice against the Old Homestead Steakhouse, I have yet to enjoy a meal there despite numerous attempts. I want to like the place, I really do, especially because it is within walking distance from my house but I just find the beef to lack flavor. However, there has been some buzz as of late about the Homesteads "new" burger cafe that operates outside on 9th Ave. so I thought I would give it a shot.

The menu is quite spartan with different variations of burger all for $15. Sides go for an additional $6 making a burger and fries $21 before tax and tip. For that price the burger better be damn good

It isn't.

I ordered the basic burger, cooked rare, which comes served with lettuce, tomato and onion on a seeded type roll. For $15 you would think they could throw you a slice or two of cheese. The beef is, like all steakhouse burgers, great. Full of flavor, juicy and succulent. Although it was cooked mostly rare, about a quarter of the patty was cooked through. Unfortunately the bread was stale and the onion completely overpowering. To add insult to injury the whole contraption is so tall that it is hard to eat.

Too much money for not enough burger.

Old Homestead Steakhouse
56 Ninth Ave.
(bet. 14th & 15th St.)
Manhattan, NY

Bittman on Burgers

Mark Bittman has a nice article on making burgers in todays New York Times. Link.

National Burger Month Day 22 - ALL AMERICAN HAMBURGER

If you ever wondered what a burger at the original MacDonald's in San Bernadino, California tasted like in 1948 you will not find the answer under golden arches, not these days. But at a timeless little drive in located in Massapequa, NY that has been cranking out burgers for over 40 years you just might find a taste of yesterday.

Order an All American cheeseburger and you get a sandwich that will look familiar to anyone who has had the McDonald's cheeseburger - diced onion, pickles, ketchup, cheese, a small patty on a simple white bun. The difference is that at All American the food tastes fresh, unlike the frozen plastic that the chains sell. The beef, despite the small patty has a robust and hearty flavor. The cheese covers the burger meat and adheres it to to the bun, lovingly snuggling the tart pickles and sweet onions. The bun itself is light and spongy with a golden hue. Biting in to one of these burgers evokes feelings of a different age, of drive ins and convertibles, before the mass marketing of food, before frozen burgers. These burgers are American classics. They rank in my top five favorite burgers.

Love at first bite.

Despite the mass of people the line moves at a rapid rate, this is fast food that is made with care and it shows.

A Double Double. Two patties with cheese, pickles, onion, ketchup.

All American Hamburger Drive In
4286 Merrick Road
Massapequa, NY 11758

Great Moments in Australian Cinema - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdom Cattle Car

I just watched Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and took a snap of what has to be the coolest vehicle in post apocalyptic survival actions films - the cattle car. Paradoxically, for a film about the future, the final installment of the Mad Max trilogy seems the most dated of the three films. It seems so rooted in the 1980's, perhaps because of the soundtrack and the ridiculous hair styles. Love that car though.

National Burger Month Day 21 - PJ Clarkes

PJ Clarkes is as storied an institution as you will find in New York. It often makes those ubiquitous Top Burger lists and deservedly so. It is a fantastic sandwich, perfectly designed and expertly constructed. Big enough too satisfy but small enough to handle easily. The fresh ground beef has a hearty flavor, it is juicy and succulent, the simple bun is light and airy yet perfectly soaks up the torrent of juice that gushes from the patty. The cheese is tangy and contrasts nicely with the sweet onion. The place gets busy, flush with suits but the service is zippy. This is one of my favorite burgers of all time.

P.J.Clarks
915 3rd Ave
New York, NY

National Burger Month Day 20 - Schnack

From what I had read about Schnack I really expected a modern polished Formica clad homage too fast food. Instead I walked into a decidedly bohemian restaurant that serves some very tasty little burgers and other comfort foods.

Schnack have dubbed their little sliders "Schnakies," they consist of a 1.5oz fresh beef patty on a tasty little oval shaped bun and comes with cheese and dressed with Schnack sauce, a spicy 1000 Island variant. I did not care for the latter condiment but the burgers are very good otherwise. The beef tasted fresh, the cheese was nicely melted and the bun is spongy and full of life, although the shape is a bit perturbing. All in all Schnack is a fun little place with some tasty food.

Schnack
122 Union St
Brooklyn NY
718 855 2879

Big Apple BBQ Block Party - Bubba Fast Pass Available

I mentioned the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party last week but neglected to mention that you are strongly advised to get your self a Bubba Fast Pass unless you want to spend an awful lot of time in line. The card allows you to cut the long lines, it costs $100 and is good for two people and a whole lot of 'Cue. Available only through 25th May, you can order the pass here.

National Burger Month - Pickles

Although technically the coverage of pickles might be a bit outside of the bounds of this blog but because it is National Burger Month, and because I love pickles on my burgers, I thought I would let you know that the 7th Annual NYC International Pickle Day is set for 16th September, 2007. Full details here.

Happy 20th Anniversary San Loco!

Just a quick reminder that today is San Loco's 20th anniversary, you can head down to any of their 4 NYC locations for 20 Cent tacos.

San Loco

National Burger Month Day 19 - Jimbo's Hamburger Place

This literal hole in the wall has been open for sixty years. They claim to use "the best chopped meat money can buy" which is probably not true in this age of Kobe and other boutique steer but to be fair the beef is of good quality. Griddled and served rare as ordered the patty was juicy but lacked seasoning, this was somewhat remedied by a sprinkle of salt but it is better to season during cooking. In any event the bun was nicely toasted, the cheese thoroughly melted a the burgers exterior well browned but not really charred.

A decent, perfectly servicable hamburger but probably not worth traveling too far for since there are so many other notable burgers in the area such as Goodburger and PJ Clarkes. Still, if you live on the block and want a quick bite this place is perfect.

Jimbo's Hamburger Place
991 1st Ave, New York
NY - 10022
Tel: (212) 355 6120

National Burger Month Day 18 - White Manna

I will have a lot more to say about these burgers in a later post, but for now, suffice it to say that White Manna is as close to the Holy Grail of burgerdom as one can get, enjoy the video.

National Burger Month Day 17 - Sassy's Sliders

I ate Sassy's Sliders quite a few times back in the 1990's when they occupied a storefront on East 9th or 10th street street in the East Village. At their best I recall the little burgers were really very good, offering an edible version of the White Castle burger replete with a very authentic tasting bun. Unfortunately as time went on the standards went south rapidly and I stopped going altogether. I assumed, unsurprised, that they had become defunct when I happened past one day and saw the space empty. It turns out they actually packed up and moved to the Upper East Side. Could the move north reverse Sassy's southward slide?

Unfortunately not completely. The restaurant itself looks far more appealing being relatively clean, brightly lit although less spacious than their old digs. The menu has not changed much but the quality of the ingredients are better than I remember them, the small beef patty tasted fresh, the pickle was nice and crunchy and the bun was wonderful. But the whole thing was slapped together with no care, the cheese was completely cold and did not even cover the meat, instead just hanging off the side. Sliders at their best positively ooze with molten cheese, it seems an afterthought here.

It is too bad because these could be really good if they would only take a little time to cook everything properly and a little effort into assembly. I would still recommend checking them out if you are on the UES, I may have just been there on an off night. The burgers definitely have potential.

Sassy's Sliders

National Burger Month Day 16 - White Castle

I must admit, that because I grew up in England and was never exposed to them as a child that I have never "gotten" White Castle Hamburgers. Frankly I find them repulsive, mealy, soggy. sour tasting little sponges. But I imagine that most Americans would find food that I grew up eating, like fried bread and steak and kidney pudding equally unappealing.During the course of the last year I have eaten a lot of burgers and some of my favorites have been sliders. So I decided to venture in to a White Castle again and try to approach it with an open mind.

There is only one White Castle left in Manhattan. This is not surprising. Even by the woefully low standards of fast food restaurants in the Big Apple White Castle manages to lower the bar. The food is so poor that it is not really worth taking about. I am sure that the White Castle of yore, during the golden age of the slider,before everything became prepackaged frozen rubbish was incredibly scrumptious. Sadly the current incarnation has been reduced to the lowest common denominator.

If one wants to really experience what White Castle once must have tasted like one needs to seek out White Diamond, White, Manna or White Mana in New Jersey. I will cover all three in a future post but unless you go there for nostalgic purposes I really don't recommend the Castle.

White Castle

San Loco Celebrates 20 Year anniversary with 20 cent Tacos!

For those of us who came of age in the late 1980's, and remember the East Village when it was still called the Lower East Side, you will either be heartened or utterly depressed by the fact that San Loco is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. I remember staggering over to the original San Loco location at 192 Second Ave after many a CBGB's hardcore matinée or a late night of bar hopping for their cheap but flavorful offerings. San Loco definitely filled a void, until then the only decent taco around was at Festival down on Rivington Street. Over the years San Loco has grown to four NYC stores and one in Miami Beach and they still provide decent cheap flavorful food. So to celebrate San Loco is offering 20 cent Tacos on May 20th. Here is the fine print:

"Offer valid at all four NY Area San Loco locations on May 20th, 2007. Limit five (5) per customer. Hard Shell beef tacos and bean/rice tacos only. Not valid for delivery service. Tax is not included. Offer valid on may 20th, starting at 11a.m., while supplies last. (No funny business)"

San Loco locations

National Burger Month Day 15 - Goodburger

Everything that I reported about the Burger Joint @ The Parker Meridian a few days back holds true for Goodburger, the rapidly expanding NY mini chain. It is a virtually identical product. Five and a half ounces of flame grilled beef topped with yellow and white cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion pickles, ketchup, mayo and Dijon mustard. It is a fantastic sandwich .

Goodburger
Multiple locations

Jersey Dogs! Clifton NJ - Hot Dog Mecca

New York has some great Hot Dogs but New Yorkers are fickle. We give up eating comfort food for decades at a time in favor of alfalfa sprouts or sushi or wheat grass juice or whatever the latest culinary/health food fad is. Thus the Hot Dog fell out of favor for many years here in the Big Apple. Sure, you could find the dirty water dog on many street corners but those are not really worth discussing. And of course there are some hold outs like Gray's Papaya and Katz's Deli on Houston Street, but that was about it unless you wanted to trek out to Coney Island and visit the original Nathan's. The low carb fad of the past several years has definitely lessened peoples qualms about eating fatty foods. Soon people that had adhered to strict low fat regimes were suddenly wolfing down bun-less burgers and dogs at alarming rates. Many, once reacquainted with such comfort foods, reincorporated them back into their diet when they started eating carbs again, simply adding the buns. This, at least partially, explains the resurgence of both the Hamburger and to a somewhat lesser degree the Hot Dog on the NYC culinary scene.

New Jersey tends to not get caught up in fads in quite the same way as New York, thus the Hot Dog has remained a staple of the comfort food diet there. New Yorkers may boast what is arguably the most diverse culinary landscape in the world, some of the top restaurants anywhere and the best pizza this side of the Atlantic but when it comes to Hot Dogs New Jersey has the Big Apple beat hands down. The town of Clifton alone boasts some of the finest Dogs I have ever eaten.

The most renowned Dog in Clifton is found at Rutt's Hut. Dating back to 1928 this ramshackle structure located on River Road serves up fried Hot Dogs that are utterly superb. The Dog itself is expertly constructed by Thumann's and contains a delectable mix that is 60 percent beef, 35 percent pork and 5 percent cereal filling. It is then deep fried in scalding oil. As with many similar establishments a specific vernacular has evolved for ordering at Rutt's. Most people order a"Ripper" which is a Dog the has been fried long enough for the skin to split or rip open. A "weller" is a well done ripper and a "cremator" is totally burned. You can also order medium or "in and out" which is rare.

The Ripper



"in and out"

Served on perfect white buns that soak up the grease from the deep fat fryer, the only condiment that will not immediately brand you as an outsider to regulars is the delicious home made mustard relish. A tangy, sweet crunchy concoction with a kick, it perfectly compliments the crackling flesh of the dog.

A ripper with mustard relish

Biting into a ripper for the first time is a wondrous experience. The soft bun gently nestles the sausage in a pillowy embrace, the grease from the rippers flesh adhering to the bread, softening it slightly and providing varying degrees of texture and compliance. The ripper literally bursts with flavor when bitten in to, the rip in its flesh causes the casing to become taught and crunchy. The character of this Dog, despite its incredibly violent method of preparation, is actually more subtle than a NY style Kosher Frank since the latter is obviously made from 100 percent beef. The pork in the Rutt's Dog adds sweetness and smooths out the palate. The garlic and heavy seasoning of a beef dog is lessoned here as it would most assuredly over power the delicate balance of flavor.

Rutt's ranks at the very top of my list of great Hot Dogs along with Walter's in Mamaronck, Westchester County, NY. It really is a timeless classic, well worth a visit.

Rutt's Hut

417 River Road, Clifton
(973) 779-8615

Also in Clifton, although ironically, not as famous as Rutt's Hut, is the Famous Midtown Grill, once known as simply the Midtown Grill and the home of what was once a tremendous "Texas Weiner" but now, sadly it is a shadow of it's former self. Located on Main Ave in the middle of town the appropriately named Midtown Grill was a classic lunch counter but has now become a fairly generic diner type restaurant selling everything from gyro's and salads to eggs to burgers. They still sell "Texas Weiners" a method of Hot Dog preparation popular in Jersey that features chili, onions and mustard slathered over a Dog. The Texas Weiner is actually not from Texas at all but originates from neighboring Paterson NJ. There is an excellent history of the Texas Weiner here. Unfortunately the Texas Weiner at the Famous Midtown Grill are totally lackluster these days and are done with far more passion elsewhere.

A sad Texas Weiner

Famous Midtown Grill
1218 Main Ave
Clifton, NJ 07011
(973) 546-0121

Fortunately Clifton is also the home to the Hot Grill, purveyors of irresistibly scrumptious Texas Weiners. They have been making them since 1961 and the taste is pure classic. Spicy mustard coats the crispy fried pup, pungent diced onions and a dark complex chili, with strong hints of cinnamon, cascades over the weiner and bun. The Texas Weiner is an admittedly sloppy sandwich to eat but somehow the bun just barely holds everything together and becomes wonderfully soggy from the flavorful chili. There are very few authentic Texas Weiners left in the world but they are well worth seeking out.

Hot Grill

669 Lexington Ave
Clifton, NJ 07011-1234

National Burger Month Day 14 - Schiller's Liquor Bar

As those of you who read my review of the Balthazar burger a few days ago know I am a friend of Chef Riad Nasr; So when he divulged to me that he felt the burger at Schiller's Liquor Bar, where he is also the Chef, was superior, and for a surprising reason, I had to give it a try. The reason it is better you ask? Because he uses a generic bun instead of the fancy hifalutin custom bun from the magnificent Balthazar bakery.

He is right.

Everything about the burger at Schiller's is as good as it's bigger brother Balthazar except the bun, which is indeed superior. There is something special about the perfectly blank canvas that the white bun provides. Because the bun is slightly flatter than the Balthazar bun it is easier to pick up and offers a more uniform experience, bite too bite. As at Balthazar, the ingredients at Schiller's are of the utmost freshness. The patty, a wonderfully fine mince with hearty flavor is cooked too perfection and comes embossed in golden, molten cheese.

The lettuce, red onion and tomato are crisp and luscious. The bun fulfills its roll perfectly, holding everything in place and soaking up the copious juices from the burger. The sandwich, even with the high quality of its components, is indeed better than the sum of its parts. A jolly good burger.

Schiller's
131 Rivington St.
(Norfolk St.)
Manhattan, NY
212-260-4555

5th Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party set to invade Madison Sq. Park June 9th -10th

Barbecue fanatics will have their rib bones tickled on Saturday June 9th and Sunday June 10th when the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party makes its fifth annual appearance in Madison Square Park. If past years are any indication attendees are in for some gastronomical delights from some of the top Pitmasters from across the country; such as Ed Mitchell of Mitchell' BBQ in Wilson, NC, Bryan Bracewell of Southside Market in Elgin, TX as well as local talent including John Stage from Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem.

Brisket from the Salt Lick BBQ



Hot Links!



Beef brisket from the Southside Market



That's a lot of beef.

Blast From The Past - Pen and Pencil

I recently strolled down 45th Street here in Manhattan and got to thinking about what was once called steak row. John Bruno's Pen and Pencil, now long gone, was the restaurant that started it all when it opened at 205 East 45th Street back in 1939. I only ate there once, back in the 1980's but it was a memorable experience. A classic old New York establishment, it is sad that it is gone.

National Burger Month Day 13 - Burger Joint @ The Parker Meridian

This, unlike the other Burger Joint, is worth visiting. Along with Shake Shack this is the most hyped burger in the city and the lines prove it. Never mind that there are half a dozen comparable burgers in Manhattan that require no wait at all, the Shack and the Joint both have ridiculous lines during peak hours. But, like the Shack, the Burger Joint makes a magnificent sandwich. Unlike the Shack you wait is in an environment that is less than salubrious.

Burger Joint is nestled surreptitiously behind a curtain, like some sort of speak easy, in the lobby of the Parker Meridian Hotel. The unmistakable aroma of charred, flame grilled meat hits you as soon as you hit the lobby, completely at odds with the sleek modern decor of an upscale hotel. As you snake your way through the curtains, a neon sign, masterfully fashioned into a burger, beckons one through a small doorway into a cramped smoky room that is usually packed with people lining up to a small booth in the back of the room. The small booth holds a voluminous grill, deep fryers and everything else the large, frenetic and tightly packed crew needs to crank out some seriously good burgers and fries.

Flame grilled, served on plump seedless rolls and festooned with lettuce, red onion, pickles, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and mayo, the burger is in perfect proportion in every way. The beef to bun ratio is spot on, the double layer of white and yellow cheese adding a tangy creaminess while the fresh vegetables and pickles provide both sweetness and crunch.The only real knock on this place is the line and the lack of adequate seating. However, if you want a virtually identical product with generally much shorter wait times there is Goodburger which is a rapidly expanding chain that employs quite a few Burger Joint alumni. Either way you are in for a real treat.

Burger Joint @ the Parker Meridian
119 W. 56th St.
(bet. 6th & 7th Aves.)
Manhattan, NY
212-708-7414

National Burger Month Day 12 - Houston's

I must admit that I am quite familiar with the burger at Houston’s, having eaten there quite often in the past. I stopped going because of a complete inability by the kitchen to not over cook the meat, be it Prime Rib or a burger. I also suspect that the patty lost a little weight over the course of time, getting a little too skinny for the bun, and making it even easier to over cook. But, at its best I remember it being a good burger and so I decided to venture back.

Houston's is a national chain, not quite a Smith and Wollensky but decidedly more up market than a TGIF’s or a Bennigans, with food and prices that reflect this. I visited the location of 27^th Street and Park Ave, the décor is modern, darkly lit with a cluby feel.

The burger comes dressed with mayo, mustard, and an incomprehensible and unnecessary dab of BBQ sauce, as well as shredded lettuce, onion, pickle and tomato. The bun is oversized, and has the most sesame seeds I have seen on such a thing. The patty itself is quite thick and flavorful, with a slight hint of au povre style seasoning. The cheddar was nicely melted. The burger was actually cooked perfectly rare, the outside well browned and bulging slightly, betraying it’s rare inner state But it is still too thin for the bun, and if it was cooked medium it would loose further thickness. There was also too much mustard on it which obscured what might have been a pleasing balance between the condiments and burger.

The Houston's burger comes close to getting it right but falls just short. Too bad because it is a very pleasant room to dine in and other menu items, the prime rib for example when not over cooked, are quite good but I don't recommend the burger.

Houston's
NY Life Bldg.
378 Park Ave. S.
(27th St.)
Manhattan, NY 10016

National Burger Month Day 11- Fanelli

Fanelli's is one of the timeless NY watering holes that you hope will always be around. Located in bustling Soho Fanelli's gritty, grimy decor provides a welcome relief from the bright plastic sheen that has covered the neighborhood in its ascension to trendiness. The room does not look like it has changed much in since it opened in 1847. The menu is equally spartan, sandwiches, pizza and salads. No risotto or truffle oil or foam here, just good quality pub fare and a very decent hamburger.

The burger is a large, plump flame grilled patty of finely minced beef. Cooked beautifully rare the meat was succulent, juicy and flavorful although I prefer the exterior more charred. The bun surprised me. I tend to prefer generic white buns and really abhor those stiff, unyielding sourdough or Foccaccio buns that seem to be gaining currency as of late. I expected the oversized onion roll here to be difficult to eat but this is not the case. The bun is super soft and perfectly wraps itself around the burger, soaking up the juice and copious amounts of cheese. The standard onion, lettuce and tomatoes are all fresh and provided good accompaniments to the main event.

Fanelli does very good burger and provides an oasis of old world charm in an ocean contemporary urban trendiness. It is not the equal of Balthazar, just a few blocks away but it is a third cheaper and you don't need a reservation.

Fanelli
94 Prince St., New York, NY 10012
at Mercer St.
212-226-9412

National Burger Month Day 10 - Pete's Tavern, O (dear) Henry

I wanted to come up with some witty way to work in an O'Henry story in to the review of the burger at Pete's Tavern but I have already wasted enough time. The burger was awful, mealy, flavorless slop, the bun was stale, the lettuce wilted. I did not eat it. You shouldn't either.

Pete's Tavern
129 E. 18th St.
(Irving Pl.)
Manhattan, NY
212-473-7676

National Burger Month Day 9- brgr

Following Danny Meyers lead with Shake Shack it seems that more and more Chefs are trying their hand at the hamburger, the latest is Chris Russell or Moomba, TanDa, and Sage fame. Where as the Shack is pure unabashed comfort food brgr strives to provide a healthier version of the fast food staple, using organic ingredients, whole wheat alternatives and grass fed beef. Located on 7th Ave the space is a beautifully renovated store front with raw brick and exposed beams. The Mid Century styling of the furniture provides a pleasing contrast to the stripped down interior.

The restaurant is definitely designed to cope with a large volume, a long counter provides both seating and plenty of room to lay out the myriad of burgers options, there is even a dedicated bread station in the back.

A long grill provides plenty of real estate to cook the grass fed patty's sourced from Montana Legend. The burgers come dressed in the classic California model in lettuce, onion, tomato and brgr's special sauce.

While there is no denying the quality and freshness of the ingredients I have a couple of issues with the burger at brgr. Firstly, and this is easily correctable, the grill is just not hot enough. The patty does not get charred in the way burger lovers so prize. The other problem has to do with the beef itself, it is just far too lean, perhaps as a function of it being grass fed. Grass fed beef is much lower in cholesterol and fat than grain fed beef, it also has a much earthier flavor. Unfortunately these are not traits that make for good hamburgers. brgr makes a quality product, the restaurant is clean and efficient, the food fresh but I just cannot enjoy the burger because frankly, it is too healthy.

bgrg
287 Seventh Ave.,
New York, NY 10001
(212) 488-7500

National Burger Month Day 8 - Balthazar

I should state at the onset of this review, in the interest of full disclosure, that Chef Riad Nasr of Balthazar, Schiller's and Pastis fame is a good friend of mine and someone who's views on all things culinary I highly respect. However, nothing would have given me greater pleasure, and given me more credibility with my readers, than if I was to pan the Balthazar burger. There is just no way that I can. It is a fantastic sandwich. The only knock against it might be the $16 price tag but in this case you are getting what you pay for, in terms of service, atmosphere and especially because it comes with the finest fries in all of the city.

This burger has a wonderfully juicy patty, containing just under 20% fat of very tasty, flavorful beef. I really appreciate the grind here, too many burgers that I have eaten as of late have been too coarsely ground, Balthazar achieves the delicate balance between texture, flavor and fat emulsification. Even when cooked perfectly rare a robust dark crust is seared onto the outside while the pink flesh inside remains moist and tender. The generous serving of cheddar oozes over the charred meat and the gorgeous seeded bun that is baked on the premises. The fresh tomato, lettuce and onion providing the perfect accompaniments.

The burger is also easy to pick up and eat because of the compliance of the bun. In stark contrast to say, the Keens Steakhouse burger, the bun here does its job perfectly allowing one to handle the burger but keeping all the oozing juices and gooey cheese in check.

Balthazar is one of my favorite restaurants in the city and I am happy to recommend the burger, it really is very good indeed.

Balthazar
80 Spring St.
(bet. B'way & Crosby St.)
Manhattan, NY
212-965-1414

National Burger Month Day 7 - Keens Steakhouse burger or Lessons in how to make something worse than the sum of it's parts.

Take some dry aged, USDA prime beef and grind it in to a coarse chuck so that the beef loses it's natural tenderness but not enough to breakdown the beef so that it will melt in ones mouth. Next take a puffy, crusty seeded roll that would be exquisite slathered in fresh dairy butter and served along side a salad. Then take some wonderfully fresh, crispy and vibrant Bibb lettuce and a thick juicy slice of mild and sweet Vidalia onion. Combine all of the above. You get this:

A burger that is impossible to eat with anything less than three hands. While the ingredients are of the highest quality and the grill chars the beef beautifully the combination just does not work. A burger that is taller than it is wide is hard to eat when it is this size. Because the roll is so hard and unforgiving the patty tends to slide around on the onion and lettuce making for a frustrating experience. The beef could also be ground a tad finer but the real culprit here is the roll, a soft generic burger roll would form itself around the patty nicely and allow one to enjoy the succulent meat.

So, Keen's has managed to reverse what makes the hamburger so appealing - namely that it they are greater than the some of their parts. The Keens burger is just the opposite. It is unfortunate because Keens is one of my favorite restaurants, their Prime Rib is amongst the top two or three in the city and their steaks are not far behind. It is one of the last places that serves mutton and it is a year older than Peter Luger, so it has some real history. I recommend you go there for everything but the burger.

Keens Steakhouse
72 W. 36th St.
(bet. 5th & 6th Aves.)
Manhattan, NY
212-947-3636

National Burger Month Day 6 - Old Town

A quintessentially NY gin mill, Old Town is a dark, some might say seedy bar which serves up a burger that is actually fairly good. The bun/beef ratio is just about perfect, the beef itself is of good quality, pleasently fatty and flavorful with a pleasing texture and is prepared as ordered.

Served on a well toasted seeded bun with a generous portion of cheese the burger comes accompanied by some tasty pickles, onion, tomatoes and lettuce. While the burger is decent, it is a bit small for the $10 price. With so many good burger spots so close by, and Goodburger opening around the corner, it is hard to recommend this place for the burgers these days, but for a bit of old New York it is worth a drink.

Old Town
45 Easy 18th St
NY NY
212 529 6732

National Burger Month Day 5 - The Burger Joint 3rd Ave.

Not to be confused with the celebrated Burger Joint at the Parker Meridian, this downtown hole in the wall caters to students, police cadets and people that work for a living. I wanted to like the Burger Joint as soon as I walked in. There are no Plasma TV screens, no faux designer furniture, no Formica cabinetry, no pretension, no gimmicks. There is just a modestly sized grill, a long wooden counter, raw brick walls, a couple of black and white photos and a quick and dirty coat of black paint. The menu is equally Spartan - Burgers, fries, shakes, cola and pie of the day. A gruff elderly gentleman, with a thick mop of silver hair and an equally thick New York accent takes your order. The Burgers are of the slider variety meaning that they are small little pucks of which three or four would equal a regular 7 or 8oz burger. Served on soft puffy potato rolls you can get cheese, onions and pickles on your burger but if you want lettuce or tomatoes or avocado or portabella mushrooms or Foi Gras you are probably in the wrong place. This is pure unabashed greasy American comfort food.

The burgers are cooked to order on a smoky, cramped, grill littered with onions, steam and grease vapors billow off the burgers as they sizzle and splatter under the heavy hand of the spatula operator. Being so small the burgers cook quite rapidly yet they are none the less quite thick for their size, resembling a small meatball as much a burger. The buns are perhaps a trifle over sized but do a good job of holding the little ball securely. I ordered three cheese burgers, all rare, one with pickles one with onions and one plain, fries and a vanilla shake. Unfortunately, and despite the relative thickness of the burgers, they where over cooked to beyond medium, the cheese however was completely unmelted, so at least that was rare. The outside of the patty was admittedly nicely browned but aside from being over cooked the quality of the meat was disappointing. It was rather grisly and seemed to lack fat content, although this may have been a product of being over cooked. Using pure sirloin, as they do, does not help as it tends to lack enough fat content. Perhaps most offensively there was a dark garlic/allspice like flavor to the burger that may have suggested it was spiced but more likely it is the result of flavoring from the charred onions strewn on the grill. The burger had a rather mealy consistency and was excessively dry, again not unlike a meatball. The potato bun was also little cold, it could have benefited from a little grill time. The whole experience can best be summed up as stogy.

Quite frankly I think you could easily replicate this burger at home with cheap supermarket ingredient, and be equally disappointed. Considering the price I suppose that the burgers at The Burger Joint could be considered a bargain on some level, but only if price is your bottom line. I really wanted to like this place, its basic formula could work so well, it is unpretentious and in many ways a throwback to the lunch counters of yore, but ultimately the burgers are stogy and generic. Regretfully, not recommended.

Burger Joint
241 Third Ave.
(bet. 19th & 20th Sts.)
Manhattan, NY
212-228-1219

National Burger Month Day 4 - Peter Luger

I am going to get right to the point on this one. I feel the Luger Burger is overrated. I have eaten at Peter Luger's more times than I can count but I usually go for the steak. The beef is the finest in the city. Beautifully marbled, the creme de la creme of USDA Prime beef, dry aged to perfection. Wonderful stuff. Unfortunately it is often over cooked. I eat my steaks black and blue and for some reason the Luger grill cannot char the outside while leaving the inside cool. I go back because in spite of this the beef is so good I would eat it raw. I have tried the burgers on several occasions, as an appetizer to a steak. I simply cannot walk into this place and just order a burger, not with a blog like this.

The Luger burger is large, probably 10oz, coarsely ground and grilled, served on a substantial seeded bun with a wedge of onion. While there is no denying that the beef flavor is excellent I personally find the grind too coarse although it is plenty juicy. The real problem with the burger is that it is never cooked with any care. A rare order will come out like a hockey puck and a medium order will come out raw. The picture below depicts two burgers that where ordered medium:



Personally I like my burgers rare but the one on the top was basically raw. It was sent back and the one on the bottom one was sent in its place. Still not medium but close. Of course at under $10 the burger is a deal but I am not sure it is worth traveling to Williamsburg, Brooklyn unless you live really close by.

Peter Luger Steakhouse
178 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-387-7400

National Burger Month Day 3 - Blue 9

In his memoir Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant Daniel Tammet reveals that he sees numbers as colors and that 9 appears blue to him. Upon reading this I imagined that perhaps the founders of Blue 9 Burger where alluding to Tammet when they named their little burger spot on 3rd Avenue in the East Village. Certainly at their best the burgers are pure genius - inspired by the venerable California chain In-N-Out Burger, they use fresh, never frozen beef formed into thin patties and served on a pillow soft white rolls, American cheese oozing off the burger in a delectable manner.

I find the plain cheeseburger perfect but you can add lettuce, tomato and onion plus Thousand Island or Mango Chili sauce. They have recently added Medieval style, which mimics Animal style at the In-N-Out chain, where the patty is cooked in mustard and served with grilled onions, pickles and extra lettuce and sauce.

Medieval Style

But like a human autistic savant Blue 9 Burger manages to function in a slightly impaired state, a lot of the time. I once waited there for 25 minutes in a completely empty restaurant for a rare burger that showed up so charred that they must have been cooking it before I got there. Special orders are so routinely ignored that I once asked the manager why they even bothered taking them. He meekly shrugged and pressed a $5 coupon into my hand. At best the staff is disinterested, often they are down right hostile. The food is so inconsistent that where the burgers not so potentially great I would dismiss it out of hand. The place is also kind of grimy and run down, even with the new coat of paint they slapped on last year.

In addition to the new paint job a new sign was hung that explained where the name Blue 9 came from, it turns out it had nothing to do with Daniel Tammet but rather something more mundane, it was the name of some team the founders where on in business school. So a potentially great hamburger, as good as Shake Shack in its own way, on the right day, but very hit and miss.

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Blue 9 Burger
92 Third Ave.
(bet. 12th & 13th Sts.)
Manhattan, NY
212-979-0053

National Burger Month Day 2 - SHAKE SHACK!

Located outdoors in Manhattan's Madison Square Park and operated seasonally between April and November Danny Meyer's Shake Shack is definitely the avant-garde of the NYC burger renaissance. Everything you have heard is true - these are truly great burgers. If you can cope with the line, which can be as long as two hours at times, and with occasional inconsistencies in execution you will be rewarded with a wondrous experience. The beef is a mix of sirloin and brisket that produces a beautifully rich, full bodies flavor while providing the right mix juiciness and firmness. The high fat content of the brisket is a great compliment to the refined texture of the sirloin which when combined form a virtually perfect patty. The grill at the Shack definitely operates at the upper registers of BTU output for such a device, beautifully searing the meat, even when ordered rare. Served on a heavily buttered and grilled potato rolls either plain or with cheese or Shack style with cheese, lettuce, tomato and special Shack sauce (a sort of a garlicky mayo) these 5oz burger are magnificent.

Shack Burger

Last year the Shack started serving diced onion and pickles on the side and I highly recommend them as an addition to the Shack burger, it adds some welcome textural contrast to the compliance of the bun and patty. Personally though I prefer a plane cheeseburger. The quality of the beef is so good and the bun so decadent, with croissant like buttery goodness, that all I need is a dollop of ketchup (with apologizes to George Motz who abhors the red stuff on burgers).

Cheeseburger

If you have yet to experience these little gems you are really missing out on one of the finest burgers in the city. While the line can be prohibitive during lunch times and on weekends they are open until 9PM during the spring and until 11PM in summertime. They also have a handy Shack Cam that you can use to gauge your wait, so you really have no excuse for not going.

Shake Shack

Zagat Review

“Spring really arrives” when Danny Meyer’s seasonal (March–December), alfre...

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Madison Square Park
(23rd St.)
Manhattan, NY
212-889-6600

National Burger Month Day 1 - Blue Smoke

I wanted to go to Shake Shack to kick off National Burger Month but got there too late in the evening so I figured I would try another of Danny Meyer's burgers and headed over to his Barbecue restaurant Blue Smoke. Just as when I go to a Steakhouse and have a hard time ordering a burger with all those steaks on the menu, at Blue Smoke I had a hard time just ordering a burger what with all that juicy 'Cue on the menu. But these are the types of sacrifices I am prepared to make for you, dear reader.

So I ordered a rare cheddar burger which promptly arrived. All in all not a bad burger at all. Large and plump, cooked perfectly rare with a charred exterior, the beef had decent flavor but was not as juicy as I would like. The cheese was perfectly melted and the pickles where seriously good. The sesame seeded bun was quite pleasing, engulfing the patty in it's pillowy embrace but I found the whole object too large to handle and resorted to knife and fork. Burger size is an issue I intend to touch on as the month goes on because I have a personal bias against a burger that I cannot effectively consume with my hands, or preferably just one.

In any case Blue Smoke definitely does a very decent Hamburger. The beef is fresh and of high quality and it is nicely cooked. However, with the Shack so close by and all that tasty barbecue on the menu I am not sure I will eat this burger again anytime soon. I know that it is highly regarded but I was not blown away. Not dissatisfied but not blown away. Perhaps because I knew my mission the next day would be the mighty Shack.

Blue Smoke
116 E. 27th St.
(bet. Lexington Ave. & Park Ave. S.)
Manhattan, NY
212-447-7733

First Post! Welcome to Beef Aficionado.

Welcome to Beef Aficionado, a Blog dedicated to Beef eating.

When I first envisioned Beef Aficionado I intended to primarily focus on steaks, like the Wolfgang's steak for two pictured above, prime rib, high end restaurants and butchers that specialize in dry aging. I had always planned on eventually featuring burgers but after watching George Motz’ seminal film “Hamburger America,” reading the wonderful A Hamburger Today blog and witnessing a veritable explosion of burger locations in New York City in the last few years I became inspired to focus on the Hamburger. Plus May is National Burger Month so what better way could there be to kick off a blog than by eating a month worth of Burgers. But first a little perspective.

I grew up in England and thus never attended Fourth of July barbecues as a child, nor drive in diners and burgers where not served in my school, so my vision of the hamburger is obviously going to be quite different from that of an average American. To me a hamburger was much more than just lunch or diner, it represented a whole culture, a way of life. The fact that you could eat it with your hands seemed to reflect the freedom that America offered. To me the American Hamburger was defined not by the hockey puck like “beef burgers” that they foisted upon us at Wimpy Bars or the virtually indefinable, in both form and aroma, blobs of meat that are sold off push carts outside of Football (soccer) stadiums or down Oxford Street on Saturday nights, nor even by the MacDonald’s that opened up on Kensington High Street in the late 70’s that took us a good 3/4 hours to get to from our South London home.

I always thought that the classic American Hamburger must be what a chain of restaurants called the Great American Disaster that later morphed into the Hard Rock Café served up in 1970’s London. Located throughout some of the cities trendier neighborhoods like Fulham and Knightsbridge they provided an experience that I imagined was what America must be like. Modern dark stained wooden furniture and raw brick, loud blaring rock music, waitresses in tight clothes, low lighting and, to justify the name, framed newspapers depicting some the 20^th century’s greatest disasters –Hindenburg, Apollo 13 etc. But ambiance only gets you so far and we kept going back because the food was spectacular. The French fries (I don’t think they even called them chips) where crinkle cut and incredibly crispy and golden, served in wooden bowls. I remember snapping off the “head” of the fries at one of the narrow points in the accordion like ridges to reveal a puff of steam and a fluffy flaky interior and then dipping it into real Heinz ketchup, not the runny vinegary stuff that would cost 2 pence a packet at the fish and chip shop. The burgers where equally captivating, massive, fat, juicy flame broiled patties cooked to order, a charred exterior literally cracked open when bit to reveal the succulent pink flesh inside. The burgers where served on beautiful golden seeded buns with lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Desert consisted of milkshakes and sundaes of enormous proportions.

When I moved to America in my mid teens back in the mid eighties my vision of the quintessential American Hamburger was thrown into turmoil. The Great American Disaster had been so definitively superior to everything else in my experience that coming to the US was a watershed. Now I was inundated with seemingly endless variations, everything from steamed mini sliders to half pound flame broiled monsters. I soon realized that there really is no such thing as the quintessential Hamburger, that what is, in fact, so quintessentially American about burgers is the very fact that there is so much diversity in form, that there is no consensus and consequently each can become unique expression of the American experience. Of course the mid 1980's where not kind to the burger. Fears of cholesterol and high fat diets saw burgers drop in popularity. Avocado and bean sprouts appeared on menus across the nation. I must admit that I avoided burgers for the better part of a decade. Initially because of the health concerns but later as my finances improved I began a serous exploration of food in NYC and must admit that I looked down on burgers as rather common.

I rediscovered the burger in much the same way as the rest of America, through the low carb diet fad. The afore mentioned exploration into food in NYC had left me with a wealth of experience and the belly to show for it. For a carnivore that needs to lose weight what could be more appealing than the Atkins diet? Exactly. I lost about 35lbs and at the same time fell in love once more with the hamburger. That was a two years ago and while I have managed to keep the weight (mostly) off I cannot stop eating hamburgers.

Please check back soon, I have plenty of burger posts on the grill.

Nick
Editor-in-Beef