A Bugger of a Burger

A friend and I recently dropped into a local restaurant for something to eat after a round of golf, having just return from his vacation in Barbados. Perusing through the menu my friend selected the burger and I one of the rice dishes. After one of those waits where you are sure the kitchen has been out hunting down the cow to make the burger or to grow the rice the food arrived – or what passed for the food.

Looking at my friend’s burger reminded me of the old joke of a diner when asked “how did you find the steak sir” replied “I lifted a chip and there it was”

This burger was tiny – so small in fact that if it had not been for the bun you could have swallowed it whole. Ironically enough I was at a party later that day and the hotel were serving mini burgers in a bun. These were at least 20% larger than the “proper” burger my friend had been served earlier.

As you would expect a discussion on the merits of various burgers around the world ensued – both of us have travelled a fair bit and consensus of opinion was that nothing beats a proper home-made burger with a reasonable amount of local herbs and spices. We spent no more than 30 seconds on the topic of commercial chain burgers other than to agree there were packed full of salt and on the whole disgusting.

What came as  a surprise when doing some research was when burgers first came into existence – there is no true accurate recording of when the first burger was made as every country lays claim to this. The most 

popular theory is that they were invented by chance by one Charlie Nagreen from Seymour Wisconsin who was selling meatballs at local County Fairs in 1885 and discovered that they were too hard to eat and walk at the same time – with a spark of imagination he squashed a meatball flat and put it between 2 pieces of bread….. and so history was made.

Another popular theory, although totally incorrect was that they were first invented in Hamburg Germany so giving the product its name. Some even believe that the burger comes from when the Mongols under Ghengis Khan invaded Europe and were eating raw meat tenderized under their saddles.

Whatever its origins the hamburger is here to stay and part of many peoples staple diet.

Now I wonder where Hot Dogs came from……..