On a roll
In one of my first blog posts (Sugar, #2) I talked about how sugary bread is in the US, and I’ve generally avoided buying loaves of bread ever since, in favour of tortilla wraps (have I mentioned just how much I love the Mexican food here? Mental note to do a Mexican blog post soon). But I was having a look through my phone’s camera roll the other day (over half of which is just pictures of food), and I noticed that most of the highlights are bread-based. And now that I think about it, nearly all of New York’s most iconic foods are. What would NYC be without its pizzas, hot dogs, bagels, sandwiches, pretzels, et cetera et cetera…? And so this post is dedicated to that most iconic of American foods, the burger, along with some other delights that come sandwiched between two slices of bread.
From garum to gochujang
Lots of foods we enjoy today have indistinct beginnings, having been created/enjoyed in various iterations over the centuries. And burgers exemplify this, given that both ground meat and bread are eaten all over the world in some form, although not necessarily together. Back in the time of the Roman Empire, for example, minced meat was eaten with pine nuts, pepper, wine and garum (a Roman sauce made with fermented fish). More recently – in the nineteenth century – German immigrants to the US (primarily in New York and Chicago) created and served the “Hamburg steak”. This was made with beef from Hamburg cows, which was minced and combined with seasoning and spices. Note two key differences from today’s hamburgers, though: it was often the most expensive item on menus and it still wasn’t served inside a bun…
Continuing on the same theme, there are arguments about who exactly invented the burger-in-a-bun concept. One theory goes that during the Industrial Revolution factory workers were served Hamburg steaks from street carts and that it was sandwiched in bread to make it more portable. Another theory credits Louis of Louis’ Lunch restaurant with creating them in 1900 in New Haven, Connecticut. While they still make that claim to this day (and serve the burgers in exactly the same way – and strictly without ketchup) they serve them between two slices of square toast, rather than the traditional bun. Either way, I’m sure they taste delicious and I’m tempted to make the 27 hour walk to get there from my apartment (or 2.5 hours in a car, which is an excellent incentive to learn how to drive). What is clear is that industrialisation fostered an era where mass-produced and affordable food were in high demand, and the twentieth century brought in some of the big names in burgers that are still around today: White Castle (1921), McDonalds (1940), Burger King (1953) and so on.
As with lots of other now-ubiquitous and iconic foods, there’s always the temptation for someone to refine, reimagine and upscale them (I’m thinking particularly of cereal in my blog post on sugar - #2 – and on coffee - #4). If you want to roll your eyes while your mouth waters, check out this article on the city’s most expensive burgers, including a $250 Wagyu burger with truffles and caviar… On the other end of the scale are places like Shake Shack and Five Guys (on a side note, my favourite restaurant name back in London is undoubtedly “Five Lads” in Leyton who presumably have just about sidestepped copyright infringements). While their burgers are relatively cheap, portable and mass-produced, the quality is elevated from the more traditional chains, and they probably make my favourite sort of burgers (much more so than posh pub types with brioche buns, etc). Shake Shack still retains its original location in Madison Square Park (which started out as a hotdog stand in 2001) but now has over 250 locations, including in the UK.
Different once again is what many consider to be the best burger in NYC: the Emmy Burger from Pizza Loves Emily restaurant. As the name suggests, the restaurants are actually pizza-focused (and the pizzas are pretty great) but they do a signature burger that people rave about so - purely in the interests of scientific research - I tried it out. It departs from a traditional burger in a couple of ways, for example it’s served in a pretzel bun with a heap of incredibly reduced-down, caramelised onions. But the main difference is the sauce, which incorporates kewpie mayonnaise (which is Japanese and is a bit sweeter than the Western stuff) and gochujang, which is a Korean chilli paste (which I talked about a little in blog post #5). It was supremely juicy, with the sauce melting into the juices from the meat, and both oozing out onto the plate and into the soft bread. And the taste? Hm. It was undoubtedly really tasty, beautifully savoury and sweet with a little spice… It reminded me yet again of America’s sweet tooth with the super sweet onions and sugary bun. But, it didn’t really taste like a burger. When something’s touted as the best burger in New York, I kind of want it to taste like a burger (with strong flavours of mustard and pickle and ketchup) and not something completely of its own. Next time I would probably eat their delicious pizza and – if I wanted a burger – spend a sixth of the Emmy Burger price on a Shake Shack.
How many foods can you read about in ten minutes?
In case your craving for carbs is not yet assured, a short rhapsody on two other classics:
It’s hard to think of burgers without hot dogs, which are perhaps even more iconic of New York City. Similarly to burgers, their origins are hard to establish but are thought to have been imported from Germany, becoming popular as a portable and cheap street food that quickly spread throughout the States in the twentieth century. A wonderful anecdote is that they were served to King George VI on the first British royal visit to the US, at which time the Queen Mother asked “How do you eat this?” One origin story credits a Coney Island restaurateur with introducing sausage to bun in the 1860s, before one of his employees opened a competitor, Nathan’s, that undercut his former boss by selling each hot dog at 5 cents (half the price of his old employer’s). Nathan’s is still a Coney Island staple and is particularly famous for its annual hot dog eating competition where contestants compete to see how many they can eat in ten minutes … I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that Joey Chestnut successfully defended his title this month by eating 71 hot dogs and was awarded the prized mustard-yellow belt for his efforts. I recently took the trip and had one, complete with beach views and beer. It’s hard to say much about it other than that it tasted exactly like a hot dog should taste. Though it was quite small. 71 hot dogs suddenly didn’t seem as impressive as before.
And finally, one of my favourites: the lobster roll. Unlike the others, this is one that I hadn’t tried before moving to the States and isn’t so much associated with New York as with New England (the collection of six states north east of New York state). There really isn’t much that I could find out about its origins, other than that it was supposedly first served in a restaurant in Milford, Connecticut in 1929 and is now widespread throughout the region (and far beyond). It’s served in a hot dog style bun but is traditionally grilled, so the bun is flat on either side and split along the top before being generously stuffed with cold knuckle, claw and tail meat from the lobster, usually mixed with mayonnaise or butter and lightly seasoned. I had my first one in Boston, which was sublime; it’s hard to describe how well the combination and texture contrast of fresh seafood and buttery bread works. In line with burgers and hot dogs, a lobster roll chain has opened up in the US called Luke’s Lobster that specialises in sustainable seafood at a cheaper price (well, $17 for a roll is pretty expensive but not for lobster). Not quite as divine as some others I’ve tried, but it more than does the job and has a slight twist from others I’ve tried by sprinkling old bay-style seasoning on the lobster filling. They’ve already spread into Asia, capitalising on the classic American approach of portable and tasty flavours served up in a bun. Perhaps by the time I get home, there’ll be one in London? In the meantime, I have one about 5 minutes’ walk from me in Brooklyn. Try not to get jealous.
