The Elusive Best Burger

After eating a bacon cheeseburger at Veselka last night, I was chatting with my friend Rob about the idea of the ‘best burger in New York.’ There are many different opinions on this subject—some people prefer J.G. Melon’s, some like Corner Bistro, loads of people love the burger at shake Shack etc... After discussing, we almost came to the conclusion that the best burger in NY is an elusive concept.

While I have not had burgers at several of the consensus ‘best burger’ spots, I have to admit that my favorite burger is the one at corner bistro. I’ll acknowledge that its not always cooked to perfection and that often times its so juicy that I eat it upside down (so the juice don’t dissolve the much smaller bottom bun) but I love and am consistently satisfied. From time to time I have had better burgers elsewhere but no other ‘best burger’ spot has become a burger destination for me. I’m in love with the ratty beer drenched surroundings of the bistro. I love the fact that beers are less than three dollars and the fact that I always seem to be there with a group of close friends. I even appreciate the fact that I once saw a cockroach fly right over my head while I was sitting in the back room.

I suppose for me the burger is a true comfort food and is just as much of an experience as it is a food item. Not only should eating the burger make me happy, but the surroundings of where I eat the burger should be as accommodating to my personal tastes as possible (I don’t love flying cockroaches but I like the idea of a place so relaxed that no one seems to care that the roaches are flying.) I like the burgers at burger joint, but it’s not a place I’d like to linger and start off my Saturday night. Shake shack can be extremely satisfying at times but I am generally against waiting on long lines in the middle of the day. I liked my Veselka burger but it could have been better if I had it at 2 am instead of 7 pm (if only I lived in the east village.) In fact, one of my favorite NYCburgers is the one I get from the 24 hour food cart outside my house. I’m not sure if it’s actually good but it makes an incredible 1am to 5am snack as I sit in my bed and start to pass out. I also had one of the best burgers of my life at Florent at 5 in the morning on New Year’s day. Perhaps burgers for me are meant to be enjoyed with, or after beer?

The ‘best burger’ is a very personal thing. People tell me all the time to check out a new burger place and I always go expecting to eat the best burger I’ve ever had. And although burgers are never bad, I’m consistently disappointed. Eating is not just about taste it’s about experience. Great food is not as good when there is no one to share it with and good food can be great if it you’re eating with people you love. Most of us have been eating burgers our whole lives and to achieve a level of transcendence in comfort food, we must be reminded of how that food comforted us in the past. Luckily there are so many places in New York that we can all find a place to serve us the ebst burger ever.


P.S. if you’re interested in burgers, try any of the below mentioned spots, all are supposed to be good.

J.G. Melon’s
DB bistro Moderne
Dumont
Peter Luger’s
Spotted pig
BLT burger
Corner bistro
Walker’s
Burger joint
Shake shack
Veselka
Spotted pig
Bouley upstairs
City hall
Jackson Hole
PJ clarkes
Florent

Burger Wars

I’ve been incredibly busy lately, often working from 9 in the morning to 7 at night. Some mornings I even have to wake up extremely early to go see a physical therapist and work out for an hour because I have the lower back of a 70 year old man. In general I like to keep a nice balance of work and play which has been really difficult lately.

Lucky for me, one of my greatest passions, food, is something that not only has to be enjoyed at least a couple of times a day, but is also best when experienced with friends.

These thoughts have led me to anew running theme for my blog: Burger Wars. I tried to think of a kind of food that I love that is inexpensive, can be enjoyed quickly and can also be found in several comparable destinations. The food I came up with is the burger. I’m actually surprised that I haven’t done something as unoriginal as a burger search already. Attempting to taste some of New York’s best burgers seems like an obvious thing to do for someone like me who once spent a summer consuming upwards of 8 cheeseburgers a week. Regardless of the reason for the delay, I now plan on using this search as a good way to keep ion touch with friends and eat something delicious at the same time. I promise to visit as many burger places with different friends as possible and bring you my judgments. (Of the burgers, not my friends.)

If you’re reading this and feel like grabbing a burger or suggesting a place please feel free to e-mail me or post a comment below. Please note that I have already stopped off Burger Joint and Corner Bistro on my journey for delicious ground meat.

Grilling

I spent the second half of my weekend visiting my friend in medical
school in Philadelphia. While part of the reason I went down was to see
my friend, the other part was that he had a grill and I would have the
opportunity to do some cooking. I love grilling, but living in
Manhattan, the opportunities to BBQ are few and far between. Whenever
someone mentions the word grilling to me I start to salivate and
instantly make plans to be wherever it is said grill might be. I even
got on the Amtrak train this past Friday with a backpack full of frozen
meat and zucchini purchased at the Union Square farmer’s market

Our medical school BBQ included one farmer’s market porterhouse, a pack of bacon, one pack of green onion sausages, one pack of beef sausages, two packs of hot dogs, 3 kinds of zucchini, grilled corn, and hand made hamburgers.


Here are some pictures of the porterhouse I
bought at the farmer’s market. I coated it generously with salt and
pepper and grilled it over high heat for 6-7 minutes until it was
slightly charred on both sides and let sit for another 8-10 minutes so
that it could cook a little more. The result was a perfectly medium
rare steak that went fantastically well with our Columbia Valley
Cabernet.

I have also noticed that people at the last couple of barbeques I’ve been at really enjoy my burgers so I thought I’d provide an outline of how I go about making them.

Ingredients:

Worcestershire sauce
Coarse grain mustard
A little ketchup
Onion chopped very fine
Garlic chopped very fine
A little bit of Jack Daniels

I dip lumps of meat in the marinade then form the burgers and let them
sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before throwing them on the
grill so that they are less likely to fall apart. You can vary the
proportions of ingredients however you want but definitely do not add
too much whiskey. I once made that mistake and had burgers that tasted
like JD they were not enjoyable. Happy eating!