Best Burger in the World

I don't consider myself much of a connoisseur of anything, with a couple of possible exceptions. Hamburgers are one of those exceptions. I have had hamburgers all over the world, and it's amazing how much a good old hamburger loses in translation.

Although it was quite a few years ago, I wandered into a McDonald's in Amsterdam, salivating over the thought of a cheeseburger. Well, it did LOOK like a hamburger, and the wrapper looked like something from McDonalds, but it sure didn't taste like a hamburger.

The bun was crunchy in places The meat was barely luke-warm, kinda grayish in color, and could have been used for brake linings. I was sadly disappointed.

However, that's not what I'm on about today. Today we are talking about the BEST hamburgers you've ever tasted.

First, a couple of guidelines.

1. If it's not sloppy, with sauce and stuff all over your face when you've finished it it's just not a hamburger in my book. Maybe a toasted beef and cheese sandwich, but not a hamburger.

2. If it takes five of them to fill me up, it's not a hamburger, it's an appetizer.

3. It's gotta have the basics, and build from there. Bun, beef, sauce, lettuce, tomato, you know, stuff like that. No beef, not a hamburger, maybe a buffalo burger, maybe a tofu burger, maybe a zucchini burger, but NOT a hamburger.

4. Every component has to contribute to the end result. Tasteless cheese, for example, that functions primarily as an adhesive is an instant disqualification.

5. It has to be reasonably priced. I just can't enjoy a hamburger that cost fifteen bucks!

Here's my Top Two:

FIRST PLACE: Uncle's Deluxe Double Cheeseburger, in Aukland, New Zealand. It was over twenty years ago, and I was wandering around downtown Aukland looking for something to eat. In the side of one of the large office buildings was a small counter and fast food place called Uncle's. It was like they had cut a large horizontal hole in the side of the building, set in a counter, and set up a grill on the inside. I was pretty skeptical, but I was also getting hungry, so I opted for their top end burger. My mouth still waters just thinking about it. The bun was large, and tasted like fresh baked bread, fresh out of the oven. The usual stuff was in it, and the beef flavor was excellent. The cheese was a sharp but smooth cheddar, and lots of it. The onions were sweet, and grilled. The mustard was more of a Coleman's type flavor. Up to this point, a really good burger, but it got better yet. Several big slices of bacon, and a ring of pineapple, topped of with a fried egg! WOW! Just WOW! I lived on those Uncle burgers for about a week.

SECOND PLACE: I was driving across the country from upper New York state to Seattle in my 1960 Corvair, somewhere around 1970, or thereabouts. (Made it in three and a half days, but that's a story for another time.) Anyhow, I was out in the absolute middle of nowhere, and the road hadn't changed direction by more that a degree ar so for a couple of hours. It felt like driving down the middle of the world's longest runway. It was early afternoon, and I was getting hungry. As I approached an overpass, I saw a sign that said something like "Out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-ville 3 miles".

About a mile from the freeway I saw a single building coming up on the left with an overhead sign that proclaimed something along the lines of "Mom's cafe". I don't really remember the exact name of the place.

Opening the screen door and walking in, I was transported back to about 1950, the tables, the counters, the stools, all of it. It looked just like the kind of a place they tried to re-create on Happy Days.

As I remember, deluxe bacon cheeseburgers were 85 cents, and the extra large milk shake was about 60 cents. It was a bargain, even for those days. What a treat! None of the ingredients stood out or overpowered any of the other ingredients, but they all worked in harmony. Nothing unique, nothing radical,it was just a hamburger symphony of flavors, and the milkshake was excellent too.

What was the best burger you've ever had?

Leave us all a comment about it!

Thanks.........