The Lobster Burger

By Michel Richard of Citronelle

4 lobsters (1 pound each)

1 large tomato, cut into 4 slices

1 clove garlic, sliced

1/2 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 pound scallops

2 tablespoons milk

4 teaspoons mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon peeled and grated ginger

Salt and pepper to taste

4 brioche buns

Fill a large stockpot with water and bring to a boil.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Set the tomato slices on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with garlic and sugar, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes and cool.

When the water is boiling, cook the lobsters for 5 minutes. Transfer to cold water. When the lobsters are cool, remove meat from the claws, legs, knuckles, and tail. Cut the meat into large pieces. Set aside in a bowl.

In a food processor, puree the scallops for a few seconds until smooth. Stir in 2 tablespoons of milk. Fold the scallop mixture into the lobster meat. Season with salt and pepper. Mold into 4 lightly packed patties and keep cold.

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, soy sauce, and ginger.

In a pan over medium heat, sautee the patties in 1 tablespoon of olive oil until golden, about 5 minutes on each side.

Split the buns and sprinkle with the remaining olive oil. Lightly toast. Serve the burgers with a slice of tomato and the ginger mayonnaise.

Like his restaurant, Fabio Trabocchi’s extravagant headcheese burger with Osetra caviar is worthy of a celebration. Photograph by Allison Dinner

The Decadent Burger

By Fabio Trabocchi of Maestro

Headcheese terrine:

1 pig head (about 6 pounds)

3 tablespoons white-wine vinegar

1 small onion, skin removed

1 celery heart

1 rosemary sprig

3 garlic cloves

3 bay leaves

3 tablespoons rock salt

2 tablespoons crushed white peppercorns

5 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

4 tablespoons Osetra caviar (for topping)

Set the pig’s head under cold, running water for 6 hours. Cover the head in a stockpot with salted water, ice, and the white-wine vinegar. Refrigerate overnight.

Drain the water from the stockpot and set it aside. Set the head under cold running water as you prepare the rest of the ingredients or about 1 hour.

Place the head and reserved water in a pot just big enough to hold it. Set the pot over medium-low heat. Skimming the surface frequently, simmer for 20 minutes, until water is slightly cloudy. Add the onion, celery, rosemary, garlic, bay leaves, rock salt, and white pepper.

Simmer very slowly for 8 hours, skimming occasionally and making sure the water stays above the head.

When the head is cooked (its flesh falls off the bone), remove the pot from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

Drain the liquid and place the head on a sheet pan. Pull all the meat from the bone and set aside.

Pull flat a piece of plastic wrap 1 foot by 2 feet across a countertop. Arrange the pieces of meat along the side of the plastic closest to you. Sprinkle with chopped parsley. Pull the edge of the plastic over the meat and roll into a tightly packed cylinder until all the plastic is used. Tie each end of the cylinder with kitchen string. Refrigerate overnight.

Cut the terrine into 1/2-inch slices and drizzle with olive oil. Let the slices rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Split a bun and toast lightly. Place 2 tablespoons of potato salad (recipe follows) on the bottom of the bun, then top with a slice of headcheese terrine. Finish with a quenelle of Osetra caviar. Serve immediately.

Potato salad:

3 cups canola oil

11/2 pounds small red-skin potatoes, diced

1/2 pound bacon, diced

1 small onion, diced

1 bunch of dill, leaves only

4 egg yolks

1/2 small shallot

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar

2 eggs, hard-boiled and diced

Salt and pepper to taste

Place 2 cups of canola oil in a sautee pan over high heat. Heat the oil to 350 degrees temperature. Working in small batches, shallow fry the potatoes until golden brown, about 4 to 5 minutes each batch. Drain the potatoes on a paper towel and season with salt and pepper.

Set a sautee pan over low heat and render the fat from the bacon. Once the bacon is crispy, discard it and add the diced onion to the fat. Sauteethe onion until soft and translucent. Strain, cool, and set aside.

In a food processor, puree the dill, egg yolks, shallot, half of the lemon juice, and the white-wine vinegar until smooth. While the processor is running, slowly add the remaining cup of canola oil. Once the mixture is blended into a smooth green mayonnaise, season to taste.

In a bowl, fold together the potatoes, sauteed onions, diced egg, and vinaigrette. Season to taste.

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The cheese at The Fifties is certainly new Millenium

WGH found this blog on The Fifties. We can’t verify the contents so we would be mighty glad for some feedback. Anyway, here it is verbatim:

As you walk into any of three The Fifties locations in Sao Paulo, you are greeted with alternating black and white tiles, marble counters and tabletops, and the most delicious mixture of smells. This amazing place is any food-lover’s wet dream. Service is always impeccable, as the waiters quickly and efficiently jot your order down into their wireless IPAQs. Nothing I’ve ever ordered here has been disappointing. Keeping in line with the fifties malt shop that it emulates, the strongest candidates on the menu are the burgers, fries, and variants thereof. However, I’ve seen people happily sitting down to a plate of carpaccio or pasta. Suffice it to say, when these guys do delicious, they don’t mess around.

A few of the most popular menu items after the jump.

The Pic Burger (pictured above, with more photos here) arrives at your table cozily resting in its protective paper bag. This bag helps to keep the defenseless burger from being gobbled whole, for who can resist the sliced lettuce, diced onions, melted cheese, and special sauce. The flavor party reaches its crescendo in the beef, which exists in the form of ground picanha — the most delicious beef in Brazil. Similar in quality to filet mignon and revered by all Brazilians as the ultimate cut, picanha is a must for any barbecue, lest ye be cast out into the darkness. This almost sacrosanct piece of cow is lovingly ground up, perfectly cooked by the master grill men, and deposited onto your tastebuds. Truly this burger is the pinnacle of gastronomy as relates to the manipulation of ground beef, bread, and fixins.

Next up is the establishment’s eponymous superstar sandwich, The Fifties. Over time this particular delight has become my personal favorite, outpacing even the illustrious Pic Burger. I guess it’s a matter of personal taste, but when I imagine the ciabatta bread, the tender thin filet mignon, melted cheese, bacon, and green herb mayo — well, words alone cannot communicate the satisfaction which is yours upon first biting into this masterpiece. Subsequent bites serve only to reinforce your initial impression, and when you find yourself staring an empty plate, gluttonous visions of a second helping will flit through your mind.

While there, do not neglect the fries. These little beauties are not the frozen precut crap that you might have become accustomed to in other less discriminating establishments. They are freshly cut on-site every day and fried to a crispy state which will leave you delirious. I’ve been known to stop by there just for an order of fries (although upon arrival I can never resist sampling more selections).

Last but certainly not least is the petit gateau. This Brazilian variation of the dessert features a mini chocolate cake filled with liquid chocolate. This is heated, then topped with more liquid chocolate and surrounded by ripe mango slices. A scoop of amazing vanilla ice cream completes the construction of this climactic meal-ending treat.

A final recommendation: have an espresso and a glass of sparkling water with a twist of lime. It will cleanse your palate and help you digest the prodigious quantities of excellent food nestled comfortably in your stomach. If you find yourself in Sao Paulo, this place shouldn’t be skipped for any reason whatsoever.

The Fifties - Sao Paulo, Brazil - January 2006 [Flickr]
The Fifties [Official site, in Portuguese]

[Daniel Juliano]

Previously:

Well, for those who like their burgers with a bite, look no further than our Jalapeno Bacon Cheeseburger recipe. This one packs a punch and will keep them coming back for more. Best news, it’s easy-to-make.

Jalapeno Bacon Cheeseburgers

Spicy Ranch Sauce

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 4 green onions, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced seeded jalapeño chile
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Burgers

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 small onion, chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped seeded jalapeño chile
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Worcestershire-Coffee Glaze

• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1 teaspoon instant coffee crystals
• 2 teaspoons (packed) golden brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter

Other

• 16 bacon slices
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 8 hamburger buns or 3- to 4-inch square focaccia rolls, split horizontally
• 8 lettuce leaves
• 2 cups coarsely shredded sharp white cheddar cheese

Preparation

For spicy ranch sauce:

1. Whisk all ingredients in medium bowl to blend.
2. Season sauce with salt and pepper.

For burgers:

1. Gently mix all ingredients in large bowl.
2. Form mixture into eight 1/2- to 3/4-inch-thick patties.
3. Place on small baking sheet.
4. Cover and chill at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

For glaze:

1. Stir first 5 ingredients in small saucepan over medium heat until coffee is
   dissolved.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk in butter.
4. Season glaze to taste with salt and pepper.

Cooking

1. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat).
2. Working in batches if necessary, cook bacon in large skillet over
   medium-high heat until crisp and brown.
3. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Spray grill rack with nonstick spray.
4. Toast buns until golden, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer buns, cut side up, to plates.
5. Grill burgers 5 minutes, basting with glaze.
6. Turn burgers, baste with glaze, and grill until cooked to desired doneness,
   about 5 minutes longer for medium.
7. Press cheese atop each burger and allow cheese to melt.
8. Place some sauce, then 1 burger on each bun bottom.
9. Top each with 2 slices bacon and desired additional toppings. Cover with bun
   top. Serve with remaining sauce.

Now tell me that doesn’t sound delicious

Fast food games on the web

We are always on the lookout for fun things to do. Gaming is one of them. Even more so when it involves burgers and fast-food themes.

The Fast Food Logo Game presents you with 26 partial fast food logos and challenges you to guess which restaurant they represent.

Burger Time is a Donkey Kong variant in which you direct a little chef up ladders, across beams, and over burger components to construct complete burgers before being tackled by errant hot dogs.

McVideogame.com is both a game and a disturbing look at McDonald’s that I wrote about in March. It is is a satirical, ‘anti-advergame’ that highlights the dark-side of running a McDonald’s-like fast food restaurant. The player discovers that to make money running the company you must exploit underdeveloped countries and low-wage workers and feed unhealthy growth hormones to cattle.

Fast Food Fiasco can be almost as addictive as fast food itself, without the additives! It’s a traditional matching game like Bejeweled in which you have to arrange 3 identical fast food items in a row or column to score points.

Guess the Calories is exactly what it sounds like: the game presents you with a popular fast food item and you have to move the slider on the calorie scale to indicate how many calories you think it has. Hint: use Fast Food Facts or the Fast Food Facts book to cheat!

Busy Burger is an infuriating (read challenging) little animated game that requires you to prepare and bag exactly what the customer has ordered. There are only three items for customers to choose from; burgers, fries, chicken, and a drink, but fulfilling an order requires planning and coordination.

Burger Invasion is a Galaga, shoot the space ships, type game except that the space ships are burgers and what looks like croissants. It just barely qualifies as a fast food game; primarily because of its name.

Bueno Rufus features Bueno the Beaver (!) who has been hired by a Mexican fast food joint to process orders. He has to top each dish with the correct topping before they quickly zap by. You help Bueno make the right choice of toppings in the nick of time because this is fast food and Bueno needs to be on his toes!

Fast Food Follies is really a horrible game both in premise and play. I don’t even know why I’m listing it except for its absurdity. It is a shoot ‘em up game that takes place in a Canadian Dairy Queen. The DQ employees you’re shooting at are always in the same place and the premise, that DQ is getting meat anywhere it can, is just plain weird.

Of course the big boys have created some of their own games at their respective web sites:

Taco Bell has a memory game and you can dress up their sauce packets.

There’s a couple games, including Burger Invaders, at Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.; just click on the video game controller on their homepages.

McDonald’s has gotten in the game, too, with Shark Bait. Shark bait is a promotion game for their Filet-O-Fish sandwich that I’ve written about before.

If you’d prefer to go with the full PC game experience you could purchase either Fast Food Tycoon 2 or the more advanced Restaurant Empire at Amazon.

And finally, if you need a fast food game fix on your mobile phone there’s Fast Food Mayhem.Labels: Hardee’s,

The Great Ohio Burger Hunt - Barley’s

Would that we had started with a lesser burger, we might not have been so disappointed on our second venture. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For this leg of the Burger Hunt, Husband and I headed to Barley’s, after their Kobe Blue Burger was recommended when I made my call for suggestions. Barley’s is a local brew pub, and they have a variety of great beers on tap. They also have great sauerkraut balls and really good (grilled) wings. Okay, now that I’ve started with a few positives, let’s get on with things. I chose the Kobe burger ($12) and Husband went for the Barley burger. I know I said we’d try different sides, but we were both in the mood for fries.

Just to recap, here’s how the rating system works:

1 fry = eat at your own risk
2 fries = acceptable, decent burger
3 fries = good burger, would eat again without reservations, sticks in memory
4 fries = excellent burger, will definitely eat again,
5 fries = transcendent burger, will dream about until such time as can revel in its burgery glory again and again.
We will each assign a fry rating, and then will average it for the end summary.

Lisa’s Review:
I have my opinions about whether Kobe is best used when ground into hamburger, but I’ll save those for another day. I suppose you have to do something with all of the trimmings, and grinding it into $10 a pound hamburger is probably a good option. This was my first Kobe burger - I have had American Kobe before, but only in steak form. I was a convert. I thought the meat was a little lackluster until I tasted Husbands standard beef burger. But I digress. The Kobe Blue burger comes topped with caramelized onions and crumbled blue cheese, and a good smattering of nearly whole peppercorns. I typically don’t like nearly whole peppercorns, but these were okay. The burger was set atop a less-than-adequate bun; it arrived already soggy on the bottom. I don’t even feel like I should have to say I don’t like soggy buns - who does? I cut the burger in half, and most of the bun just fell apart after the first bite:

What more could you want? How about a soggy-bun?

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Burger Bar

Mandalay Place
3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South
702-632-9364
www.mandalaybay.com

It seems like one of those only-in-Vegas phenomena: a hamburger restaurant operated by a French chef amid the bustle of an upscale shopping area. Hubert Keller’s Burger Bar raises meat patties to new art, offering choices of three types of beef (Ridgefield Farm, Black Angus, and American Kobe), plus lamb, turkey, and vegetarian, and toppings that include asparagus, smoked salmon, jalapeño bacon, a grilled half-lobster, and more. Prices range from $8 for a basic unadorned burger to $60 for the Rossini, with Kobe, foie gras, and shaved truffles, and dozens of you-name-it options in between. For dessert, consider a Sweet Burger made from ganache, mint, and mango—standing in for beef, lettuce, and cheese. The decor is sort of refined-sports-bar; if you’re a fan, stop in at game time and snag a booth—they all have their own TVs.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen in England; cooked by a New Zealander!

Thanks to a burger blogger (bb) we have this information hot off the press from England.

“Since starting out in Battersea in 2001, we have expanded extensively across the country, with the Brighton store the first to open outside of London. After over a year in Brighton we are still going strong with an incredible word of mouth reputation for serving the best burger ever!”

Big Ben not missing a beat with the burgers in town

Leading New Zealand and London based chef Peter Gordon is the creative force behind the Gourmet Burger Kitchen menu. Peter’s passion for exciting and creative flavours is reflected in our burger varieties and with 23 different burgers to choose from including vegetarian options, there is something for everyone. Classic and innovative combinations include juicy beef, avocado and bacon, chorizo and sweet potato and succulent lamb and minted relish. Our extensive extras board allows you to create virtually any combination you want.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen uses 100% Aberdeen Angus scotch beef sourced from grass-fed herds and our sour dough buns are made fresh each morning using a unique artisan recipe.

Come and visit us in the heart of the North Laines and relax in the friendly and laid back atmosphere you can only associate with Brighton. You will be met with a genuine smile and a dedicated team treating you to a uniquely gourmet experience.

Well sounds pretty damn good. WGH can’t attest to the PR speak so we would love to hear from some others who have tried it.

The Wall Street Journal’s Raymond Sokolov comes up with a list of the country’s best burgers. Says Sokolov:

Patties of ground beef weighing from 1 ounce to 15 pounds, often not seasoned and cooked until gray, then served as a sandwich, usually between two halves of a compressible, flavorless untoasted bun, are this nation’s leading contribution to world cuisine. In their fast-food form, burgers provide quantitative evidence for the charge, more widespread than ever, that Americans are a bunch of insensitive louts.

But all across the country there are places, almost all of them locally owned operations, that cook and sell my idea of a first-rate burger. And I’ve been on a hunt to find the best of them. …

His list includes but is not limited to the following:

Primanti Bros.
Address: 46 18th Street, Pittsburgh PA 15222
Phone: 412-263-2142
URL: primantibros.com
The Skinny: They put fries on the burger here.

Rosebud Steakhouse
Address: 192 East Walton Street, Chicago IL 60611
Phone: 312-397-1000
URL: http://www.rosebudrestaurants.com/rest4.php
The Skinny: Thick 12-ounce burger served on a grilled-pretzel roll. Sokolov finds the bun an “eccentric distraction.”

Louis’ Lunch
Address: 261-263 Crown Street, New Haven CT 06510
Phone: 203-562-5507
URL: louislunch.com
The Skinny: Claims to be the birthplace of the burger. The fact that its sandwich is served between two slices of toasted bread provokes endless debate among hamburger semanticists. Don’t ask for ketchup here!

Dirty Martin’s Kum-Bak Place
Address: 2808 Guadalupe Street, Austin TX 78705
Phone: 512-477-3173
URL: dirtymartins.com
The Skinny: Didn’t rate high from Mr. Sokolov (he called it “thin and lackluster”), but friend of AHT and New York magazine online food editor Josh “Mr. Cutlets” Ozersky says “The burger, broader and thinner than the Shake Shack’s, gives you more salty surface area and just as much juicy beef goodness.”

The Shake Shack
Address: Located in New York City’s Madison Square Park, 23rd Street and Madison Avenue
Phone: N/A
URL: shakeshacknyc.com
The Skinny: Open from the first day of spring to the last day of fall, the Shake Shack has become a beloved burger institution in New York in the handful of years it’s been open. Unpretentious and delicious burgers with a crunchy, salty outer crust and superb blend of meats. (More on the Shack from A Hamburger Today.)

In-N-Out Burger
Address: Various locations throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona
Phone: N/A
URL: in-n-out.com
The Skinny: Arguably the nation’s best chain hamburger, albeit a chain whose reach is cruelly limited to three Western states. High-quality meat that’s fresh, never-frozen along with hand-cut fries. The chain is deservedly famous for its cleanliness, efficiency, and friendly customer service. Mr. Sokolov, however, does not particularly like In-N-Out: “unspectacular — fairly thin, cautiously seasoned”

Miller’s Bar
Address: 23700 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn MI 48124
Phone: 313-565-2577
URL: millersbar.com
The Skinny: Serving one of Sokolov’s choice burgers, Miller’s sandwiches are hefty, no-nonsense affairs.

Ann’s Snack Bar
Address: 1615 Memorial Drive, Atlanta GA 30317
Phone: 404-687-9207
URL: N/A
The Skinny: A tiny diner on a grim stretch of highway, go for the Ghetto Burger, Sokolov says.

There are more tasty burgers in Mr. Sokolov’s article: The Best Burger, along with a PDF map of his cross-country adventure.

‘New York’ Magazine’s Top New York Burgers

New York magazine just dumped its “Best of New York 2007″ issue, and in it the weekly’s food critics name their favorite high-, mid-, and low-end burgers in the Big Apple.

Here are their picks, in descending order from high to low. Oh, and Gael Greene just managed to shoot up even more in our estimation with her low-end fave.

Adam Platt
Waverly Inn: 16 Bank Street, New York NY 10014.
BLT Burger: 470 Sixth Avenue, New York NY 10011. Here’s A Hamburger Today’s take on BLT Burger.
Shake Shack: Southwest corner of Madison Square Park. Here’s all AHT’s posts on the Shake Shack.

Rob Patronite
Blue Smoke: 16 East 27th Street, New York NY 10016. Psst: Wanna know a super cool secret about Blue Smoke’s burger?
Stoned Crow: 85 Washington Place, New York NY 10011.
Shake Shack: Southwest corner of Madison Square Park. Here’s all AHT’s posts on the Shake Shack.

Robin Raisfeld
Nicole’s: 10 East 60th Street, New York NY 10022.
Prune: 54 East 1st Street, New York NY 10003. OMG: Prune’s lamburger is insane.
P. J. Clarke’s: 915 Third Avenue, New York NY 10022.

Gael Greene
Brooklyn Diner: 212 West 57th Street, New York NY 10019.
Fairway Café: 2127 Broadway, New York NY 10023.
White Castle: Various locations citywide. We love you, Gael Greene—almost as much as we love White Castle.

Best Burgers - Best of New York Food 2007 [New York magazine]