Another Worthy Burger in Strasbourg (France)

Every once in a while, fate smiles upon you. As most of you already know, my wife and I founded the "Share-A-Burger" initiative in December 2004 in a genuine attempt to change the world one burger at a time. If you're not already a fan by the way, please like our facebook page immediately.

As of today, we have 479 fans sharing the love of burgers and even better, a restaurant in Strasbourg that serves burgers using our GNU General Public License Burger recipe with only minor modifications. So, do not hesitate to go try it for yourself at Le Catsy's Chez Frieda!

And of course: May The Burger Be With You All!

The Share-A-Burger Initiative: Changing The World One Burger At A Time

This blog post is dedicated to those who thought the world had already come up with the craziest ideas anyone could think of. I hope that they will realize that nature keeps reinventing itself and will never cease to surprise us.

So here comes the craziest idea ever: The Share-A-Burger Initiative.

What is it?

Well, it's fairly simple: Two years ago, I embarked on the bold endeavor of preparing the finest Sunday burger ever. After numerous attempts at Burger Xanadu, I, in all modesty, believe that I now hold the recipe for the perfect Sunday Burger.

Subsequent to that realization, my purpose in life is to spread Burger wisdom throughout the world. And how better to do so than by sharing a Burger?

So here's the deal:

Summer 2011 Burger Awards

In all modesty, I consider myself the No. 1 hamburger expert in the world. After years of trials and errors, taking pictures of them and tasting them, I believe I have accumulated the knowledge equivalent for Burgers of the Ancient Library of Alexandria. Needless to say, I am more than willing to share my wisdom with the rest of world since, as a cousin of mine recently said to me: "You were a spoiled brat when you were a child and at one point, you decided to become a decent person". I might add that I don't know how long that decent period in my life lasted, probably not more than a few minutes but anyway, the point is that I am willing to share.

Burger joints in the form of restaurants rather than fast-food venues seem to become more and more trendy nowadays. The number five seem to be a burger number since at least 2 chains feature it in their name (5 Napkin Burger and Five guys). So, I naturally decided to include only five of them in my review. In-N-Out Burger would deserve to enter the competition but as they have no restaurants on the east coast, I couldn't sample them on my current trip. I did, however, post an article on my blog not long ago about them.

I am just going to list my selection starting with my least favorite joint to finish with the best, IMHO.

Here comes 5 Napkin Burger:

Their burger was ok but didn't qualify as exceptional. Their ground beef patty is way too thick which makes the burger not juicy enough. Their cheddar is only ok. All in all, a decent burger but not sure I will go back.

The Counter Burger:

Same complaint: when making a 2/3 pounder, why not break it down into two or, even better, three juicy patties in order to make this burger breathe. The cheddar was good, as well as the bacon but I wasn't very impressed.

Five Guys:

Now we're talking Burger magic. Five Guys feature great hamburgers. I, particularly, like their jalapenos in a burger. This was a juicy burger with very good cheddar though it could have been melted a bit more. The buns happened to be too cold though. Five Guys is an excellent burger joint and I will definitely be back!

Bill's Bar and Burger:

Lovely burger, very juicy. Perfect size. They also have great cheese fries, loaded nachos and spicy Margaritas. This place is a must go. It is very close to my favorite burger restaurant featured below.

Shake Shack:

Shake Shack started in 2004 in Madison Square Park in New York and they are growing rapidly. Their burgers reach the Xanadu or, should I say, Xanadu of burgers in my opinion. They are juicy and fresh. The buns are perfect, all the ingredients taste great. I'm having a hard time deciding to go eat at any other place when it comes to burgers as I can't fathom a better burger (besides mine of course, in all modesty again) than theirs. If you haven't tried it yet, just run to their closest location!

34 Oz. Porterhouse T-Bone Steak at Hy's Steak House in Honolulu

Just for the beauty of it, you have to behold this 34 Oz. Porterhouse T-Bone Steak! For the metric system lover, it translates into 963 grams of meat heaven! If you're in Honolulu, don't miss it! Go to Hy's Steak House, you won't be disappointed!

Sunday Burger Sunday December 2010 Edition

In my ongoing quest to reach Burger Xanadu, I am proud to present to you tonight's attempt at Burger Heaven! These burgers tasted as good as they looked! I used the usual ingredients: Onion, Tomato, Iceberg Lettuce, Bacon, Ground Meat and Hellmann's Mayonnaise. What actually set these burgers apart was the use of Louisiana Gold Horseradish Pepper Sauce and Gouda cheese. I used the latter in an attempt to add a good dose of absurdity to my recipe just because I will soon connect through Amsterdam on my way to Brazil. What better way to memorize a travel itinerary than with the composition of a hamburger? Encoded in the other ingredients are the date and time of travel, seat reservations and the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything.

Who needs a flash drive when they have a burger?

Enough With The Beatles: Enjoy The Best Movie And Song Ever... Possibly

I felt I had to share this with the world as this movie & song remind me, with an intense nostalgic feeling, of a time and era I never knew. Xanadu might refer to Project Xanadu or Kubla Khan's Xanadu or even Citizen Kane's Xanadu. Or am I using too many transclusions?

Just enjoy this!

Sunday Burger Xanadu Sunday

Tonight's attempt at burger Xanadu was 96,66 % successful. I can safely say that the burgers pictured in this post were the best I ever made. They consisted of two slices of melted cheddar cheese, fried bacon, one slice of Buffalo Mozzarella, onion, pickles, one slice of tomato, mayonnaise, two beef and pork patties and either Harissa (a.k.a. the traveling condiment) or Jalapeño mustard.

In my mythical quest of the perfect burger, I believe that I have, so far, managed to elevate my soul and my sauces to new heights. Tonight, I was blessed with a glimpse of the divine and through the fulfillness of my taste buds I was ascended, if only for a fraction of a second, to an alternate plane of existence where the complete knowledge of the universe seemed to be at grasp. Back on earth, my beliefs are now shaken and I'm thinking there must be a God or at least a Burger God.

Note: Forgive the blurry pictures but it seems that such beauty induced tremors in my earthling hands.

If I Had A Hammer And A Stargate

I could have chosen "Monday Burger Monday"as the title of this post but decided otherwise as I'm attempting to possibly write the worst blog post ever in the entire history of the Internet and while at it, probably the worst piece of writing altogether in the history of mankind, the Universe and whatever preceded the latter.

You might be tempted to ask, provided you had the guts to comment this post and therefore risk being traced back and associated with this blog, why I would change my perfect habits and make a burger on a Monday. Well, I know I have used my readers to the Sunday burger challenge but I had good reasons to try and reach Burger Xanadu on a Monday. As a matter of fact, we are hosting friends next week-end and will probably go out for dinner next Sunday evening, hence denying ourselves from another attempt at the perfect burger. It, consequently, only seemed logical to anticipate our  Sunday routine as a precaution in case anything would happen to us until the following Sunday.

I must say I was quite happy with tonight's burger. It was tasty, juicy and spicy. I used Louisiana Gold Green sauce, two beef patties, lettuce, two slices of cheese with Buffalo Mozzarella in-between the slices (an idea of a Michelin Star Chef friend of mine). This made for a perfectly melted cheese and juicy burger. It was kind of like applying the recipe for a Juicy Lucy to the cheese itself.

So, what's up with the Hammer, Stargate and possibly worst blog post ever?

Well, here it comes: while I was tasting my burger, I had this stroke of genius (well, actually quite the opposite): If I had a Stargate, I would probably use it to go the most isolated planet in the galaxy (where, of course, the entire population of the planet speaks English, just like in the TV series) and I would introduce to this unspoiled civilization the holy Burger. I would persuade them to believe that hamburgers are representations of the essence of the universe, that they should be revered to and that  followers should strive to try and perfect their recipe. This amazing idea would make generations and generations work on my Sunday burger challenge. They would innovate in the field of Hamburgers (disregarding any other field such as physics, mathematics, biology, art etc... as Hamburgers unify all fields) and the result of all this would be the advent of a new Universe filled with wisdom and melted cheddar.

What about the Hammer? Well, isn't it obvious? The Hammer would be used to show the people from this faraway planet at the edge of the universe how to beat the sh*t out of a beef patty in order to make it flat and large. I would teach this people how to frantically scream, like a serial killer for his first kill, and flatten all patties ever destined to be used in a burger.

And when this whole process is over and in millions of years, Burger Xanadu is reached, I will prove Bergson wrong when he stated that the essential function of the universe was to be a machine for the making of Gods for in fact, the essential function of the universe is to be a machine for the making of Burgers.

Sunday Burger Sunday

In my ongoing Sunday challenge to achieve Burger Nirvana, I am 100% sure (though still in doubt) that I took the best Hamburger pictures ever today! I, of course, decided to post them on my blog right away in order to share them with the world. Indeed, what better way to start off a new week than by having burger dreams the night before? So, here are the pictures for you to behold and have wet dreams (I'm referring to drooling)!

Unfortunately, my attempt at Burger Xanadu only completed one of my goals: form. Sadly, content was not on par with the way the burgers looked today. A classic tale of form vs. content! However, If I manage, next week, to combine last week's burger taste with this week's appearance, I believe that I will have reached Burger Heaven and through this compassionate act, bliss will be spread amongst all human beings as Rupert Sheldrake accurately predicted in his Morphic Resonance Theory. For those of you not yet familiar with this very popular, yet totally unknown and controversial, theory, it suggests, as Douglas Rushkoff presented it in his hard-to-be-taken-seriously book Cyberia, that acquired competence in one individual of a species can be passed on to all other individuals of the same species through a Morphogenetic Field Of Consciousness! For better understanding of this theory, do not confuse the words consciousness and couscousness (the latter referring to a mental state reached after having eaten way too much North African food).