Food
10 Burgers Only America Can Invent
Hamburgers are a true American classic. They offer something for everyone from enormous amounts of meat to minis that fit in the palm of a child’s hand. The possibilities for burgers are as limitless as the imagination. Whether you crave a basic burger or one topped with spaghetti there’s a burger for everyone.
10. Size Matters
Leave it to Americans to turn eating tasty hamburgers into a competitive sport. That’s exactly what they’ve done at Mallie’s Sports Grill in Detroit, Michigan. A big burger isn’t enough for them because they decided to craft a giant 10 pound burger with a huge six pound beef patty with all the fixings. They offer this all American burger to hungry customers and then they dare people to eat it. If a customer does indeed consume one of these giant burgers in the 2 hour time limit than he is rewarded with a free meal, a t-shirt and $100 in cash. However, the burger itself will cost you $39. This is either an expensive hamburger or a cheap way to give yourself a heart attack. Many restaurants of laid claim to their own version of a monster burger and some of them are even more monstrous than the one Mallie’s offers. Some of this burgers can weigh 30 pounds or more. However, at some point burger lovers will want quality over quantity so at some point a monster burger becomes a novelty or perhaps even a punch line. That’s the problem with this monster hamburger – the sheer size of it overshadows anything else about it including the most important thing of all – how it tastes.
9. Judge Me By My Size Do You?
If you can’t go big or go home than you might as well go small and hang around. This is exactly what White Castle has done. Instead of marketing ever bigger burgers this chain has contented itself with finding a mini burger niche. A lot of restaurants have jumped on the mini burger or slider craze, but White Castle has being going small for decades. White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. The original location was a big success and the founders decided to turn their burger business into a chain. White Castle operates in 13 states with 377 locations with most restaurants located in the Midwest. White Castle is the original king of sliders and the classic little hamburger is the top seller, but the restaurants also offers several variations of this classic as well as options like a breakfast slider a barbecue brisket slider and a fish slider. You can buy sliders as part of a combo pack and in addition to french fries you can get an order of fried pickles. There is something refreshing about a successful hamburger chain that has built its success on quality rather than quantity. Although some people might look at the min burgers as just as much of a gimmick as a giant burger – taste still reigns supreme. Tiny burgers wouldn’t last almost a hundred years if they weren’t delicious.
8. PB & J… & B
There’s no doubt the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a true American classic. It’s already ben established that hamburgers are as American as it gets so is it only natural to try to combine these two classics? Maybe. The PB & J hamburger could go either way and probably depends a lot on the exact choice of ingredients. A sugary spread of peanut butter and a glop of garish grape jelly is not going to work for most people even if they love both sandwiches. Some foodie inspired recipes have tried to sidestep these potential pitfalls with ingredients such as spicy pepper jelly and melted brie cheese along with a mild peanut butter. While this might be easier to swallow than the more generic alternatives perhaps not all great tastes taste great together. Or is it just a matter of taste? A case can be made about sweet and salty going together well with certain kinds of foods, but if this particular burger creation rubs you the wrong way you’re probably not alone. Americans love burgers and they tend to embrace extreme burgers with ingredients like huge amounts of meat, piles of bacon and tomato sauce. However the PB & J burger could likely be relegated to niche status.
7. S’More Of The Same?
S’mores are the perfect treat to enjoy around the campfire or any summer celebration. The beloved trio of chocolate bars, roasted marshmallows and graham crackers is a sweet treat unlike any other. However, this isn’t enough for some hamburger lovers. Someone decided to combine their love of burgers with their love of S’mores because in America enough usually isn’t enough. In the topsy turvy world of extreme hamburgers it isn’t surprising that there is more than one version of the S’mores burger. Some of them go all the way and essentially add a burger patty or two to the traditional chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker that makes up the famous summer treat. Other variations are a little less gluttonous adding the sweet flavors in more subtle combinations such as buns encrusted with graham crackers and burgers topped with marshmallow sauce and some chocolate. At least one of these sweet and salty combinations uses cocoa infused bread instead of a plain bun. Much like the PB & J hamburger the S’mores burger tries to appeal to many people’s penchant for mixing sweet and salty. However, this decadent burger seems much more like a fair ground novelty that will be gone with the summer.
6. Vive La French Onion
The french may not be known for eating hamburgers, but they are known for things like French Onion Soup. Americans eat their share of soup too, but probably eat more French Onion Dip with their favorite chips than they eat French Onion Soup. Never the less this French classic is fine inspiration for a unique hamburger taste. It comes pretty naturally because many people eat onions on burgers – both raw and grilled so the French Onion Soup Burger simply takes it to the next illogical step. This classic French soup is known for its sautéed onions and melty, gooey cheese and that’s exactly what the French Onion Soup Burger borrows from it. Because cheese and onions go so well with hamburgers this is destined to be a popular choice among extreme burgers. Unlike the PB & J and S’more burgers that rely on combining seemingly incompatible flavors into a coherent taste, this burger puts a French twist on classic hamburger ingredients. For many burger lovers the combination of sweet sautéed onions, cheese and meat will be enough of a sweet and salty flavor fix to satisfy them without turning to something a little more nutty.
5. California Rolling
The Japanese have Kobe beef, but you don’t necessarily think hamburger when you think about Japanese cuisine. A chef like the well-known Katsu is not known for hamburgers. At least he wasn’t until he decided to combine the best California Roll flavors with a classic hamburger. If you are a lover of California Rolls and all the flavors they entail then this might be the hamburger for you. It starts off simple enough with a juicy Angus patty cooked to perfection. This sounds like enough for many burger lovers, but this California Roll burger is just getting started. To the tasty beef Chef Katsu adds toppings such as crab salad, sliced avocado and pickled ginger. he tops it off with some nori (seaweed) and a fresh-made shoyu wasabi mayonnaise. There are plenty of variations of California Rolls so there are almost an endless number of possibilities for a California Roll burger, but things like seaweed may not endear this particular burger to a lot of burger lovers who may be looking for some more traditional toppings like lettuce, pickles and tomatoes. Try it for yourself to see if this a terrific blend of Japanese and American foods or a strange concoction to be avoided.
4. A Triple Threat
Even if you really, really love hamburgers as millions of people do there is still some lines that are better left uncrossed. The Triple Coronary Bypass Burger and the challenge to eat it seems pretty unappetizing. Extreme burgers can be good if the focus is quality and taste – the burger should look like something you’d want to eat. A burger with 3 beef patties, 3 fried eggs, 14 slices of cheese, 10 slices of bacon and sandwiched between a pair of grilled cheese sandwich sounds like an adolescent boy’s practical joke not like a popular meal offered by an actual restaurant. But this Triple Coronary Bypass Burger is actually sold to hungry customers looking for a food challenge. If Americans needed to be reminded that bigger isn’t always better than this burger is performing a service. The troublesome thing about this particular burger is that it seems designed at a marketing gimmick to get attention instead of a serious attempt to make a high quality, tasty burger that satisfied customer will wan to keep coming back for. This is America after all, so if this ridiculous burger is something you want to try then go for it- but don’t say we didn’t warn you.
3. Two Great Tastes
Question: What foods are more popular in America than hamburgers and pizza? Answer: Nothing. Hamburgers are great and pizza is great so it is only natural to combine the two beloved treats into one even better food experience. There are a lot of attempts to create exotic burgers by combining unusual foods and trying to make them appealing against all common sense. The beauty of the pizza burger is that there is absolutely no work required. This is a no brainer that probably makes a lot of sense to burger and pizza lovers alike. There are a number of variations on this pizza burger theme and, not surprisingly, most of them look pretty delicious. Some of them feature a beef patty and pizza toppings between a traditional bun. Other go the whole hog and place a patty with pizza toppings smothered between either slices of pizza or even a pair of small, personal pizzas. There is plenty of room for personal touches such as the kinds of cheese and meats used on the burger itself and on the pizzas. Pepperoni and mozzarella are always popular choices for pizza so would likely be popular on pizza burgers. While the pizza burger is truly over the top it looks like one well-worth trying. However, there is one question that deserves to be answered: Is this really a hamburger that includes pizza or a pizza that includes a hamburger? Maybe sampling one of two of these tasty creations will help us find the answer.
2. Mangia!
Italian is a very popular ethnic cuisine so it might seem like a no brainer to combine it with the elements of a classic American hamburger. You be the judge. Instead of a traditional bun made from boring old bread the spaghetti burger features, not surprisingly, a bun fashioned exclusively from long, soft noodles. This is certainly an Italian twist on a bun, but it might not be the best choice for burger. Part of the fun of eating a good hamburger is that you can eat one with your hands – no fork, knives or even plates required to enjoy a hardy meal. On stronger footing is the meat patty which is actually a spicy meatball. This tasty meatball is filled with creamy mozzarella cheese. This patty is topped with traditional marinara sauce and sprinkled with parmesan flakes for an authentic Italian flavor. The spaghetti bun may or may not be a winner, but this burgers success ultimately rests with the quality of the meatball patty. If the meatball patty tastes as good as it looks than the spaghetti burger is a real winner and deserves a place in Italian-American lore. This is truly an American creation: this juicy burger combines two of Americans’ favorite kinds of food into a single over the top burger creation that will satisfy multiple cravings all at once.
1. ‘merica Forever
You don’t have to be an American to love the ‘merica burger, but doesn’t hurt either. This isn’t so much about love of country as love of bacon. This is because this all American hamburger is built primarily from bacon. The meat patty itself is made completely of bacon – which seems like overkill even for an American recipe. The special sauce is really special because it is infused with more bacon and you guessed it – the cheese also has bacon in it. As if this issn’t more than enough bacon already the sis topped with a couple of giant strips of bacon! But we’re not done yet because this giant heap of meat, fat and salt is definitely missing something. To this end the creators of the ‘merica burger decided to top their monster with a freshly cooked egg. So you can either look at it as a crazy burger with bacon or bacon and eggs that happens to come in the form of a burger. The photograph of this burger makes it look difficult to actually eat, but perhaps it requires a little patience and it’s consumed in stages. In America bigger is often better, but the ‘merica burger might be evidence against this, but there is surely a market for such a big and tasty American burger. If you love big juicy burgers and you love bacon more than life itself than this might be the one for you.
