Author: cward

LA Icon Tam’s Burgers Regulated Out of Existence

While The Straight Beef tries to put politics and other worldly concerns aside to concentrate on the purer, more Platonic aspects of burgiatry, we can’t help but mourn when local fussbudgets shut down a perfectly good burger joint just because it’s in a bad neighborhood. Tam’s has been an LA icon for more than 30 years. During the 1992 LA riots, Tam’s was an oasis of calm, a place where neighbors could grab a burger, talk, and escape the craziness of the streets. Now it’s being regulated out of existence. Click link for story.

http://youtu.be/B7YhWNqIU1g

Steak & Shake’s new AllNighter Menu features 7×7 Steakburger

Looking to take on Denny’s, McDonald’s and every other kid on the late-night block, Steak ’n Shake has launched an audacious new AllNighter Menu available between midnight and 6 a.m. while also making its full breakfast menu available now from midnight to 11 a.m. (at participating locations, of course). The attention grabber on the AllNighter Menu is the 7×7 Steakburger, a $7.77 tower of seven Steakburger patties alternating with seven slices of American cheese. Full article at BurgerBusiness.com

We’re guessing that the target audience includes “drunk and self-destructive.”

Notes from the Burger Underground

Classic Drive-In Cooking

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Sometimes you can’t get out to a restaurant when the burger craving hits. The Straight Beef feels your pain. Here, then, is your guide to making classic drive-in and diner style burgers, hot dogs, fresh cut french fries, onion rings, and milkshakes at home, courtesy of Holly Moore. Just click  the link to get started.

Drive-In Cooking: Quintessential American Fare

Holly Moore is a chef, restaurateur, food writer and lover of all things fried and greasy. More formally, he’s the former owner of Holly Moore’s restaurant in Philadelphia, former food and restaurant columnist for Philadelphia’s City Paper and did stints in product development for McDonalds and Burger King. He was one of the developers of the Big Mac. These days he does a little television and is the host and reviewer at HollyEats.com. Long before Guy Fieri’s ridiculous hair and over-the-top presentation, Holly was reviewing diners, drive-ins and dives with the passion of someone who has loved — and worked in — just that sort of place for a very long time. HollyEats is a road map to great food just a little off the beaten path.

In 2003, the food website eGullet started offering online classes in its eGullet Culinary Institute (eGCI) series. I wrote the knife maintenance & sharpening workshop and Holly provided this hands-on lesson in how to prepare classic drive-in fare, lessons learned beginning with the Sip’n’Sup Drive-In, “back when cars had fins.”

Scroll all the way down the tutorial for a link to a Q&A where Holly answers questions about technique, ingredients, et al.

Just another way The Straight Beef maintains and passes on the sacred burgiatric wisdom.

Skillet Burger with Bacon Jam

Skillet, Seattle’s acclaimed diner and food truck empire run by chef Josh Henderson, is known for its extravagant burger. Not extravagant in terms of high-dollar ingredients, but extravagant in the sense of “lacking restraint” with high intensity flavors and perfect execution. The bacon jam is the real scene stealer here, and you can make it at home with relative ease.

Skillet burger recipe with link to bacon jam recipe. Seriously, try this at home.

Skillet burger. Recipe courtesy of Leite’s Culinaria & Josh Henderson. Photo by Sarah Jurado.

Behold the Power of Burgers

In-N-Out president Lynsi Torres is the youngest female billionaire. That’s what serving a great burger can do for you.

[Photograph: Robyn Lee]

Here’s the Bloomberg profile of Lynsi Torres that ran earlier this week.

Famous for its Double-Double cheeseburgers, fresh ingredients and discreet biblical citations on its cups and food wrappers, In-N-Out has almost 280 units in five states. The closely held company had sales of about $625 million in 2012, after applying a five-year compound annual growth rate of 4.6 percent to industry trade magazine Nation’s Restaurant News’s 2011 sales estimate of $596 million.

Notes from the Burger Underground

 I want fries with that!

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There are two key tomes in the canon of hamburger lore, both published in 2005. It was a banner year for hamburger research. George Motz produced his highly regarded documentary and accompanying book, Hamburger America, and John T. Edge published Hamburgers & Fries: an American story.

Edge is the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and a regular contributor to several food magazines. Hamburgers & Fries is a journey across America to discover the hamburger in all its glorious manifestations. It is also a response to the times. While part of the nation was damning fast food and its effect on society, haute restaurants were in an ever escalating war to create the most outrageous and expensive hamburgers imaginable.

But hamburgers are neither industrial death machine nor conspicuous extravagance. They are a uniquely American creation, inexpensive and egalitarian, and, for the last 100 years, a reflection of the times and places that shape them. As the Charles Kuralt quote that opens the book says, “You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.”

Edge is ecumenical, with a broad definition that takes in nearly every regional expression of a hamburger. Along with the usual White Castles and pimento burgers, we discover the onion burgers of Oklahoma and the slug burgers (soy) and dough burgers (flour) of Mississippi, Depression-era efforts to extend expensive beef with cheaper ingredients. Edge delves the mysteries of the “loose meat” sandwiches in Iowa and Kansas and the steamed burgers of Connecticut. I will admit that “loose meat” is disturbing to contemplate, much less type. He explores the bean burgers of San Antonio, replete with Fritos and Cheez Whiz; Minnesota’s Jucy Lucy, two patties with molten cheese sealed in the middle; and Miami’s Cuban frita, a spiced patty topped with crispy shoestring fries. It is a voyage reminiscent of Calvin Trillan’s Tummy Trilogy or Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour, less a travelogue than a reflection on food and place.

There are two areas where the book falls down. While Edge explores some of the standard origin stories of Hamburg steak and trots out a solid half-dozen claimants to first placing it on a bun, he doesn’t come to any conclusions. He just says, “Screw it, let’s go have a burger,” and leaves it at that. It’s unsatisfying.

His greater sin is the short shrift he gives to French fries. Despite the title, Hamburgers & Fries, fries barely make an appearance. Again, this is a controversial topic in burgiatry. How much weight should be given to the fries when assessing the quality of a hamburger joint? But if you are going to call your book Hamburgers & Fries, you’d better damn well write about fries.

Hamburgers & Fries is a fun ride, and John T. Edge is a strong writer, though a little florid now and again. With the book on the bargain tables for $4 or $5, Hamburgers & Fries should be on the shelves of every burger enthusiast, even if it doesn’t properly acknowledge the importance of the fry.

Burger, with everything

For writer Duncan Murrell, a burger is memory. “What is it we remember when we remember a hamburger? We remember what we were doing and where we were, and how it felt to be alive, right then. If that’s a happy memory, it’s a good burger. Simple enough in theory.” While we can’t agree that a hamburger is simply a blank slate for toppings, as he also asserts, we certainly appreciate his excellent essay on hamburgers from the June 2011 issue of Our State magazine. Enjoy.

2012: The Year in Burgiatry

 

SA haiku

As we nibble the last french fry of 2012 and call for the end-of-the year check, we pause for a moment of reflection—on the great burgers, on the not-so-great burgers, on the momentous advances in burgiatry, and on the equally momentous changes in personnel, masterminded at our secret underground lair.

Let us stroll through the burgiatric year that was, shall we?

  • This wraps up three full years of The Straight Beef. In all, we’ve racked up 37 official burger reviews and myriad features—like “Renegade Reviews,” “The Tao of Cow,” and “Ask the Burgiatrist”—that have become shining beacons of hope and solace to our loyal readers.
  • The Straight Beef became burgiatrists-in-residence at WRAL’s “Out & About” site, providing the hungry masses with hard-hitting reviews to help them navigate the Triangle burger scene. In July, the site featured The Straight Beef’s top burgers in its “Our Five Faves” series.
  • We delved even greater into the depths of burger fanaticism with our irregular feature “There’s a McDifference,” in which intrepid burgiatrist Dave Foley investigates the arcane distinctions between the products at various area McDonald’s locations.
  • We reached the highest peaks, anointing Chuck’s the Triangle’s best hamburger (so far).
  • We plumbed the greatest depths, issuing our first one-star review for a hamburger so horrifying that a shaken Dr. Marino was forced to exclaim, “It was the fevered dream of a madman…I only pray that children were never exposed to it.” We dare not speak its name.
  • One of our Top 10 joints, Hurricane Grill & Wings, featured The Straight Beef’s 4.33 rating in its radio campaign, marking an uneasy intersection of hamburger science and commerce.
  • Sadly, the stresses of advanced burgiatry proved too great for Straight Beef founding member Dr. John McManus, who succumbed to the temptation, nay, the depravity, of a vegetable-based “hamburger,” and was summarily dismissed from the burgiatric community. Rehabilitation is a long and difficult road, but we hope that with the loving help of his family–and strong psychotropic drugs–he may yet recover.
  • Following Dr. McManus’s fall from grace, The Straight Beef recruited two new members, the Reverend Donald Corey and Chad Ward, to carry on the proud traditions of our institution.

Now, as we look forward to 2013…

The Straight Beef promises an expanded posting schedule, including burger news, information, and guidance with Chad’s new feature “Notes from the Burger Underground,” and burger truth to rile your soul with Don’s new feature “Reverend Rants.”

Meanwhile, keep an eye out for our first review of 2013, which may very well rock the very foundations of the hallowed Top Five list. Stay tuned.

Burger on!

Travel Channel green-lights “Burger Land,” an exploration of America’s great burger joints with George Motz

The Travel Channel has approved 11 episodes of “Burger Land,” George Motz’s exploration of classic hamburger joints in America. Here’s the quote from the Travel Channel:

Host George Motz, author of the popular book, “Hamburger America,” takes viewers on a road trip to meet some of the nation’s oldest and most storied hamburger creators, tour their establishments and find out what makes their burger the best. Motz uncovers the history, people and secrets behind America’s most iconic sandwich.

George Motz’s documentary “Hamburger America” debuted in 2005, featuring eight great hamburger restaurants across the United States. He then parlayed that into a book by the same name in 2008 which featured 150 iconic burger joints. Now the Travel Channel has approved 11 episodes of “Burger Land,” a new television series that will highlight four burger joints per episode. All we can say is that The Straight Beef media team is in negotiations with Motz and the Travel Channel (meaning that we have sent them an email and an attempted bribe). If Motz and his crew cross the North Carolina border they will quickly find themselves ensconced in the Patty Wagon, The Straight Beef’s A-Team-like stealth burger van, and headed toward our favorite burger spots in the Triangle.

Alton Brown puts the world’s most expensive burger to the test

Reviews are just one facet of The Straight Beef. We are also dedicated to keeping our readers and viewers abreast of the latest burger news and information. In this segment from 20/20, Alton Brown explains why the “Kobe” beef at your local steakhouse is likely a fraud and puts the world’s most expensive burger to a blind taste test. The burger portion of the piece begins at the 4:30 mark.

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