Hamburgers

If you've been reading my blog it should be no surprise that I think about food all the time. I love to cook and I love to eat. One of the things I really like to cook, and eat are hamburgers. They are good anyway they come from the basic burger to the super fancy. My trip to Brazil this year I really got to thinking about what makes a great hamburger. In the United States a burger is good when it's made out of great meat, greasy, and you need to keep it in you hand after the first bite to keep it from falling apart. But without a doubt the star of the US hamburger is the meat.

The Brazilian hamburger is a little different and there is no lack of availability. There is a hamburger stand or a mobile hamburger and hotdog truck on about every corner. I hit one of them up at least once a week in order to develop my profound theory you are about to have the pleasure of discovering.

The first thing I noticed is the difference in the meat. I am not sure if it is domestic beef or if it is imported from Argentina or some other beef country. Every place I ate a hamburger in Brazil the patties they used came out of a box and they were thin preformed, and frozen. In the grocery stores the butcher will fresh grind your hamburger to order and it is more lean than the common ground beef we are used to in the United States. Where the burgers shine in Brazil are in the toppings arena. My favorite was the “x-tudo” (pronounced sheese-toodoo) which means a hamburger with everything. You have to remember that everything down there is different than everything up here. The x-tudo is usually made up of the following things: one patty, cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon, ham, a fried egg, corn, and potato strings. I have also seen patties of chicken that are part of this list or not. It is so good, but I feel it could be better.

To make the perfect burger I would combine the hand formed, fresh, and greasier American style meat with the wonderful toppings of the Brazilian burger. The perfect burger. I will be experimenting with this combination and maybe there is a hamburger stand in my future or some kind of street food cart.My idea is to offer hamburgers and hot dogs (that is another subject) from around the world. I will be fostering cultural understanding one burger at a time. I will have the horrible task of traveling around the world seeking out the local burger and dog. Someone has to do it and I am willing to take that bullet for all of you. It will be called, “Burgers From Around the World” or “Burger World” or “World Burger.” You get the jest. I'm going to need to be testing recipes and learning what the people want. Anyone want to help?