The Perfect Burger

In this article, The LA Times opines about the perfect burger. Personally, I think that the hamburger is one of the most divine foods on the planet (behind pizza maybe?) and king in the category of original American sandwiches.



I think it is good to examine foods like this, where they came from, and where they are going, to remind ourselves that good food doesn't have to be fancy food. It is easy enough to make simple foods fancy, as demonstrated by a recent spate of thousand dollar hamburgers topped with truffles and foie gras, but it is much more difficult to make fancy food simple.



My own personal appreciation of the burger didn't begin until I moved to Northern Europe. Let me tell you, there just isn't a good hamburger to be found anywhere in Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, Cologne, or Berlin. I am afraid to ask in Paris. The migration of culinary tradition from the old world to America didn't go the opposite direction.



Where as in America if I cooked for a date I would have made something fancy like seafood ceviche, or beef fillet with Bearnaise sauce, I found that a well made hamburger (made from commonly available ground fillet, eaten as tartar in Holland) was the most exotic and delicious thing in my repertoire.



So the next time you are chowing down on a half pound burger, appreciate that you are dining on the pinnacle of American Culinary tradition.