burgers – SaltShaker

Food Porn Friday

Dan Perlman — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:12:05 +0000

“Porn? I’m not doing porn! What the hell are people talking about? The way we shot close-ups, I just wanted the food to look beautiful. I thought that’s what Americans loved about Italy — that it’s so sensual and romantic. [It’s not] PBS-style cooking. Lidia Bastianich, sorry, but [she’s] kind of boring. I mean, I love Lidia, but you can fall asleep watching her. And Mario Batali? I love Mario to death…but he’s not romantic or sensual. Those are the things I bring to the table.”

– Giada De Laurentiis, TV chef

Buenos Aires – I just posted up a set of photos from the first session of Color Palate of Italy class over on my Flickr page. To those who sent me snippy little e-mails with questions like “Are we going to learn to make anything worth eating?”… well, just sayin’…

In the meantime, here in today’s post, the new(ish) burger with the works at Amaranta…

Copyright © 2026 SaltShaker. This feed contains copyrighted photos and text from SaltShaker. If you are not reading this material in a feed aggregator or by e-mail subscription, the site you are viewing may be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact [email protected] so that I can take appropriate action.
Plugin by Taragana

Burger Wars Continued

Dan Perlman — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:40:29 +0000

“One day in the year 1900 a man dashed into a small New Haven luncheonette and asked for a quick meal that he could eat on the run. Louis Lassen, the establishment’s owner, hurriedly sandwiched a broiled beef patty between two slices of bread and sent the customer on his way, so the story goes, with America’s first hamburger. The tiny eatery that made such a big impact on the eating habits of an entire nation was, of course, Louis’ Lunch. Today, Louis’ grandson, Ken, carries on the family tradition: hamburgers that have changed little from their historic prototype are still the specialty of the house. Each one is made from beef ground fresh each day, broiled vertically in the original cast iron grill and served between two slices of toast. Cheese, tomato and onion are the only acceptable garnish — no true connoisseur would consider corrupting the classic taste with mustard or ketchup.

– from the official Louis’ Lunch website

Buenos Aires – After last week’s post on my trip to the northern suburbs and hamburger samplings, a friend pointed out that I’ve never mentioned the place we go to regularly for burgers when we’re in the mood. I realized that originally, I’d slated it for Round Two of the Great Hamburguesa Roundup, something which I never got around to writing. So the photos, and the memory, lapsed into historical obscurity, while meanwhile, we continued to go and eat really good burgers…

The place, Tucson, the location closest to me (it’s a four-spot chain) in Palermo chico at Salguero 2741. It fits very much in the mold of places like Kansas, which I mentioned in the original roundup – very norteamericano in style – salad bar, burgers, steaks, fries, etc. And, they offer up a couple of different burgers, including one which would make Louis Lassen cringe, given the “cheese, tomato and onion” rule that Louis’ Lunch has maintained for more than a century. And, to add insult to injury, they’ve named it after him – the Louis Lassen Burger – topped with bacon and a very, very sweet hickory barbecue sauce. Luckily, the sauce is fixable by combining it with a little cup of hot, spicy mustard that you’ll have to request, but which is brought gladly to the table – the two together make a really good hickory bbq… And the burger itself, thick and juicy, and cooked to order the way you want it. [Closed, though they do have other locations still open in the city.]

If more than one of you is in attendance at the table, order up a round of the Phoenix Chips, a large bowl of potato… chips… somewhere between a french fry and a potato skin, semi-crunchy, and smothered in mixed cheeses, bacon and green onions, and a little ramekin of Ranch dressing to smother it, as if the heart attack that the food itself is about to provide is insufficient. There’s more in the bowl than one person ought to be considering finishing – and, unlike the first time I went, you’d be best advised to ask for a substitute for the fries with your burger, since you’ll get another mound of french fries that basically puts you somewhere around a four-potato lunch. Tucson has a quite passable cole slaw, and I tend to opt for that as a replacement for the fries.

Enclave of the North

Dan Perlman — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:51:47 +0000

“…we now live in the second robber baron era. One of the things that happens in such times is that the wealthy and powerful get to construct huge building and homes. Yet, however we may feel about the 19th century power hoggers, we are still attracted to the architecture and structures they were rich enough to build. Now, take a stroll through the downtown of a gentrified city of today or drive into the carelessly wealthy suburbs.”

– Sam Smith, Progressive Review

Acassuso – I have been to this small suburb north of the city once before – it was evening, we were there for another purpose, and I didn’t get a chance to see much of it. At some point way back when I wrote my great hamburguesa round-up, a local friend had sent me a note saying “you must try the burger at Pepino’s” and giving me an address in this river community about half an hour north of the city. I had nothing planned for last Sunday other than just getting out of the house, and thought, hey, why not? So, off to the northern suburbs…

I don’t know much about Acassuso, its history, or… hmmm… really much of anything. I would say from wandering around for the day that it seems to be a pretty wealthy suburb, with the majority of homes being behind security fences of one sort or another, private guards on the streets (though, none of them gave me a second glance as I snapped photos), fancy boutique stores, and a whole lot of English and French being spoken by the various people I passed or who were eating in one of the two restaurants I checked out. Yes, two… I was hungry. Mostly, it got me a couple of pictures of fall foliage (interestingly, the town is planted with a lot of what I think of as North American trees – oak, maple, ash, birch, willows – that I don’t see here in other places), a visit to Peru Beach, so-named because it’s at the end of a street named Peru, and not much of a beach – more of a riverbank with some casual cafes setup in a strip mall along the water, and places to rent kayaking, windsurfing, parasailing, and sailing equipment, plus a roller hockey arena in active use. There’s a cute little antiques fair that lines one side of the Tren de la Costa train station (called Barrancas rather than Acassuso) on Sundays – one of two train lines that run through here, I took the regular suburban train out to the town’s main station. More on the restaurants after the photos…

My first stop, given the recommendation, was Pepino, Libertador 14475 – which is basically a big hamburger and hot dog stand. It’s setup to look like a bit nicer spot than that, but that’s really all they offer, other than a salad bar. The place was jammed with people, mostly families with small kids, indoor and outdoor seating, formica tables, vinyl booths and chairs, waiters rushing about taking orders – given that the choices are limited, it’s a quick and easy thing to decide. French fries arrived quickly – brought around by a guy who had plastic baskets of them stacked ten high as he ran around dropping them off on tables – clearly not made to order, and cold. The bacon cheeseburger arrived a good ten minutes later, so they’d have been cold anyway if I’d wanted to eat them together. The burger is tasty, well seasoned, and probably started off at 3-4 ounces before cooking weight. By the time it was cooked (well done, no options, and too thin to do anything else with anyway), it couldn’t have weighed in at more than about 2-3 ounces. It more or less disappeared under two strips of reasonably crispy bacon, lots of melted cheese (again, no options, just cheese) and pickles. The bun was a traditional soft style. All in all, points for the flavor, though not thrilled with the size or execution.

On my way to Pepino, I’d passed a place that looked intriguing, called The Embers, Libertador 14638. Something about it – whether it was the sign that proclaimed it as the “First American Restaurant in Argentina” or just the look of the place – like an old 50s burger and soda joint – caught my attention. Given the minimal nourishment ingested at the first spot, I thought I’d head back and see if I could manage another. The place has tables, plus a couple of counters around the soda stand and the kitchen, I seated myself at the former and perused the menu. Far more extensive, and packed with norteamericano classics, from burgers to ribs to chicken to sandwiches. All the signage is in English, right down to cute little humorous stuff like you’d find in a typical place in the States of this sort (you know, the “unattended children will be sold into slavery” sort). All the babble I heard about me was in English as well, and the newspapers that were here and there were all from the U.S. The owners popped in at some point – hard to tell – she looked like she was likely from the U.S., he didn’t, both, I’d guess, in their early 60s. My waiter highly recommended the chili-burger, I haven’t had one in a long time, so go for it – side of onion rings. The former, the burger itself a little underseasoned, but the chili was great – nice and spicy and completely warming. Delicious! I’d go back just for a bowl of that. The burger, again a bit undersized, not so much as the other spot, but small. The onion rings – hmm… they didn’t get the batter right and it was falling off the rings, but they were tasty. This is a spot I’d go back to!

Apologies to the gentleman caught in my sights, but the picture with the “Chicken in the basket” sign above the swinging “baskets” was too cute to pass up…

Just a Good Ole Fashioned…

Dan Perlman — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 12:40:01 +0000

“Comfort food is not just what gives you momentary pleasure or stress relief. That’s…” – Woo Yen Yen

‘Whereupon she employed a scientific term that rhymes with ‘perturbation’.”

– Colin Goh, Comfort Me With Burgers

(Co-authors of Dim Sum Warriors, graphic novels series)

Buenos Aires – I’m sorry, but Woo Yen Yen is simply wrong, burgers are absolutely comfort food, if… they comfort you. Though I agree with her assessment as she continues on with her explanation about it evoking associations with security and pleasure – so perhaps she doesn’t have those, but there are people who do. I’m sorry, but I don’t need to get all Proustian and wax poetic about madeleines in order to call it “comfort food”. Now, the burger wars, as they may be styled by various writers, and to which I suppose I’ve contributed my share, will probably continue long after you and I are gone. “The best burger in New York”, or perhaps for that matter any city where there are competing offerings, will simply never be settled. It will always be a matter of opinion. It occurred to me a day or so ago, when I was out wandering the East Village, that over the years I’ve probably stopped in and had more burgers at Paul’s Place, 131 2nd Avenue, than anywhere else. Maybe it’s the sign out front that greets you with “When was the last time you had a really great burger? No, I mean a really great burger!” Maybe it’s the huge, sloppy, dripping with grease burger topped with anything you might care to order that they have in the house (I go, always, with the St. Mark’s Burger – topped with grilled onions, mushrooms, and choice of cheese). Maybe it’s the truly great onion rings, or the thick cut fries. Or the root beer or coke floats. I don’t know. But I’m happy there, munching away, and I feel no urge to perturbate…

The Great Hamburguesa Roundup

Dan Perlman — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 13:47:48 +0000

“Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.

– Abby Hoffman, Activist

Buenos Aires – The subject of finding a good hamburger in town came up several times recently on the internet – a travel forum and a couple of expat forums. It was an instant blood in the water with circling sharks fest, as some touted various locales and others trashed the whole idea as an anathema to the spirit of being here. If the questioners had just been tourists, I might have agreed with the latter viewpoint, but they weren’t, they’re expats, as are numerous others on the forums. It’s a valid question, as a change of pace. In general, I haven’t been enamored of the burgers I’ve tried here – Argentine beef tends to be so lean that you just don’t get a juicy burger, and that’s key. So I put the word out among local friends, both Argentines and expats, and decided to take the list of recommendations and try some of them out.

Like many things, this exploration turns out subject to cultural differences. It shouldn’t really surprise me – the most common reaction from locals in regard to hamburguesas is – if you’re going to eat crap like that, why don’t you just go to McDonald’s? They may be right, too, in regard to the average local burger, which often resembles a piece of shoe leather. In fact, there’s a large industry in Argentina supplying neighborhood cafes with premade, frozen burgers, much like a fast food chain uses. And, bluntly, and I know I’ll get into trouble for saying this, most Argentines seem clueless when it comes to a good burger. Let’s face it, a real, proper, juicy, thick hamburger, regardless of its origins or availability anywhere else in the world, is the core of “cuisine” of the heartland of the U.S. – the midwest – my homeland. You may find the occasional great burger elsewhere, but you’ll never find them ubiquitous. It’s a cultural thing, really. Just as I’d bow to the judgment of many a porteño on where to get a great matambre, empanada, or dulce de leche – because, simply, it’s part of their heritage, and not mine; I can blithely say, when it comes to hamburgers, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

—————Shoeless Joe’s “Remember El Alamo” (downstairs bar), Uruguay 1175, Recoleta. A reasonably good recreation of an old style pub, lots of dark wood wainscotting, simple tables, mirrored bar. Quilmes beer available on tap. Various promotions depending on the evening. Kind of known as “the American expat bar” in town – and a large percentage of the clientele are. Staff are bilingual in Castellano and English, in fact, the manager (owner?) directs the staff in loud voice in English. Several TVs scattered around the bar, the night I was there most were tuned to a local news station, a couple to a music video channel. Strange mix of music playing loudly, from folk rock to heavy metal. Staff friendly and efficient, service quite quick. A minor annoyance, when food is ready, the kitchen rings a doorbell – one of those loud hi-lo’s that rings repeatedly for a few seconds. As it got busier, it became more and more annoying. [Although the bar remains open, they closed the kitchen, and for awhile contracted it out to El Tejano, American style barbecue. Then that went away, and later they simply closed up.]

The menu offers two burgers, one with bacon, cheese, and tomato; the other with ham, cheese, and onion. I decided on the former as my “benchmark” burger, since this was the first place to get checked out. Ordered the burger medium rare, with a side of fries. Squeeze bottles of ketchup and mayo (both Hellman’s) arrived swiftly, I asked for mustard and got a basket of mixed packets of ketchup, mustard (Savora), mayo, and salsa golf. The burger – good sized, probably half a pound, reasonably tasty, cooked well done, the meat ground, or pureed, so finely that it was more like a block of meatloaf, still, well seasoned. The bun, excellent – a real, proper hamburger bun. The bacon – thick cut, more or less what I think of as English style bacon – “streaky bacon” – and just warmed rather than cooked, so it hung limply and fattily on the burger. Tomatoes fine, especially given the winter season. Fries – way overcooked – crunchy and hard. Menu price for the burger, 12 pesos, including the fries, but the bar’s computer only charges 11… go figure.

—————La Biela, Quintana 596, on the side of the Recoleta Cemetery, is a huge cafe, noted as a hangout of various artists, actors, luminaries, and a huge number of tourists hoping to spot them. It’s a nicely appointed room, lots of antiques, furniture that has a vaguely drawing room look, semi-efficient waiters who’ve been there for years, and a clientele that ranges from middle aged to just this side of shuffling off the mortal coil. It’s pricey, even for the neighborhood, and especially for a cafe ambiance, and is in my view, made worse, by the fact that every single menu item is upcharged if you choose to sit outside on their patio – anywhere from one to five pesos per item!

The menu offers three burgers – a beef burger, a chicken burger, and a hamburguesa completa, the last as close as I was going to come to my benchmark bacon cheeseburger, this one a ham and cheeseburger. A plate full of condiments arrived immediately – squeeze bottle of ketchup, packets of all the others, and a large can of extra virgin olive oil for salads (they couldn’t put it in a cruet?). The burger is offered with the options of pan francés, pan arabe, pan pebete – respectively what we might call a Pullman loaf, or pain de mie in French, a pita, and a large dinner roll. I opted for the toasted pan francés, more or less a dense, crustless white bread. Note that the burger isn’t in sight – at probably about 5 ounces, it more or less disappeared underneath a couple of slices of lunchmeat ham and some melted quasi-swiss cheese. The burger, when found, cooked correctly at medium rare, and about as flavorless as possible – no seasoning – none. The fries, also cooked perfectly, strangely all very short, not much longer than tater-tots, but tasty. Menu price, 17 pesos for the burger and an additional 5 for the fries – 20 and 6 if you eat them at an outdoor table. You could get a better burger and fries for the same price in any coffee shop in New York.

—————Given my intro above, I should have seen this one coming. Períca, at the corner of Libertador and Sanchez de Bustamante in Recoleta, was hands-down the favorite pick in the city of several Argentines who weighed in on the discussion. So when a thin, perfectly round, well-done (hard to do anything else at that thickness), piece of semi-soft shoe leather was packed on a bun and topped with more layers of other stuff than anything else, all I could think was, “of course… this is just a well made Argentine style hamburger”. Only it’s really not – it’s nearly inedible. It’s an obviously frozen patty, the thickness of two CDs piled atop each other, stamped out in a factory, doused in salt, thrown on a griddle and cooked until long dead (and before anyone claims some sort of freshness, the corporation behind Períca is a commercial supplier of frozen fast-food style patties for other cafes, so you can bet they’re using their own product). The toppings of lunchmeat ham, tasteless cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, raw onion, and a fried egg (at least that was done correctly, with yolk still runny, though it made the sandwich a mess to eat), and a mass-produced oversized square bun that was actually sugary… were all nearly as bad as the undercooked soggy frozen french fries (a few of which were still ice cold). [Closed]

The only thing Períca has going for it is its location – a beautiful spot looking out over Libertador and the park across the street, it’s next to the Design Museum, and it’s a great place to sit and soak up some sunshine. But it’s simply a plain white neighborhood cafe, with harried, barely friendly waiters who couldn’t be less interested in service if they made the effort.

—————I’ve never set foot in a Hard Rock Cafe before. The one here is located on the upper level of the Buenos Aires Design Center, Pueyrredon 2501, here in Barrio Norte. I’d never seen any reason to go into one – they seem to me to be at the pinnacle (what is the point of an inverted cone called?) of bad theme restaurants. I more or less standby that assessment now having visited one. The decor, not unexpectedly a massive collection of musical paraphenalia and advertisements plastering every square inch of wall space. The noise volume atrocious – music videos blasted at top volume along with televisions mounted throughout the room so as to be visible to anyone “dining” – I’m amazed at the number of rock and pop stars who think that appearing shirtless or ripping their shirt off midway through videos is appealling. I can guess the demographic it appeals to. The staff are stuffed full of condescension. (As an example, now that I’m reasonably fluent in Spanish I tend stick to it – the host greeted me in English, and continued in English regardless of my use of Spanish, right down to dropping an English menu on the table – when I asked for a Spanish one, he looked me up and down, said “no” and walked away.) They’re also about as inefficient as it is possible to be. It took nearly half an hour to get an order placed – my waiter and the others seemed far more interesting in chatting with each other in a corner. [Closed in December 2019 when the Design Center shutdown.]

That said, I have to give kudos to the burger itself. I mean, look at that picture – you can actually SEE the burger. It’s a real bun. It’s flavorful, and despite being cooked slightly more than requested (an argument with the waiter – I ordered it medium rare, he insisted on at least medium, asserting to me that less than that was “unhealthy”, and refusing to put my order in that way – I could have sent it back, but it seemed like it would be a waste of time, and it wasn’t like they’d cooked it well done), it was juicy and good. Hard Rock offers several burgers in a “regular” six-ounce size, and this, the “Legendary” burger in a ten-ounce size – for a mere four pesos extra. It’s topped with strips of actual, real, crispy, smoked bacon, a slice of cheddar cheese, and a passable onion ring. A squeeze bottle of mustard and a glass bottle of ketchup were already on the table, both Heinz. The fries, while slightly overdone, are “peel-on”, which I happen to like, and they weren’t so overdone as to be burnt or anything. If it weren’t for the continuous blare of music and the strobe-like effect of a hundred tourists constantly snapping flash photos (and I obviously contributed at least one flash to that number), this might be an interesting place to check out further.

—————Unlike Hard Rock, above, I’ve previously set foot in a T.G.I. Friday’s, this one on the side of the Alto Palermo mall, Arenales 3360 [This outlet has closed]. I haven’t been many times, but enough to know that within the U.S., the menu is essentially (if not completely) identical in each of them, the decor a hodge-podge of kitschy memorabilia. So, not surprisingly, the menu’s essentially the same here – though, rather than as at Hard Rock, with separate English and Spanish menus, TGIF opts to title every dish in English with easily recognizable names for those who speak that, and then puts the descriptions into Spanish, for those who don’t. Slightly odd, but making only one menu necessary. All other signage in the restaurant is in English, which I do find bizarre. On the other hand, when I stopped in for lunch, easily 3/4 of the patrons were English speaking (many of them tourists without a word of Spanish), which made for a continuous series of odd waitstaff encounters, as both American and British tourists, and Argentine waitresses, apparently think that by speaking louder and slower, the other person will instantly apprehend the other’s language. I admit to not helping, I was having too much fun watching and listening. At least they were friendly and attentive – the waitresses, not the tourists.

TGIF offers several versions of their burger, each of which is purported to be 225 grams or 8-ounces. I’m not sure when these burgers were a half-pound, but certainly not by the time they arrive at your table on a bun. Yes, yes, I know that a good burger loses weight as it cooks, as the water content steams out and the fat content drips out. Still, it’s a decent sized burger, and well-seasoned. It’s oddly shaped, looking a bit like a wide mushroom – I’d guess they must pack them into a mold with a bit of an overhang that remains when cooked. The bun is a standard issue hamburger bun, the “famous” burger is topped with real, crispy, bacon, American cheese slices, lettuce, tomato, and strangely one strip of raw onion; despite asking for my usual medium rare, the burger was completely well-done. The fries are clearly formerly frozen, are tasteless, and for that reason, I’m actually thankful that they’re served in what is possibly the skimpiest portion of french fries served with a burger I’ve ever seen in my life. The burger comes accompanied by a small cup of mayo. I had to ask for ketchup and mustard – the latter (squeeze bottle of Heinz) arrived immediately, the ketchup (glass bottle of Heinz) they had to go search for.

—————You’re probably not familiar with The Hillstone Restaurant Group, though you might be familiar with their most well known chain, Houston’s. It’s a successful venture, taking elements of a common, familiar menu, as does TGIF above, but putting it in a setting that’s more upscale and generally caters to a business crowd. It’s successful enough that Hillstone probably doesn’t know that two of their former managers swiped the company manuals and recreated the concept in Buenos Aires, not once, but twice. Possibly they thought that by calling it something else, no one would notice. But word gets around. I haven’t been to their location in the suburbs, but Kansas, Libertador 4625 in Palermo, is pretty much a dead ringer from the moment you walk in. A vast array of leather clad booths, the smell of bbq sauce in the air, the same waiter uniforms, everything – a touch of elegance, and teeming with people – in fact, numbers-wise, it’s probably one of Buenos Aires’ most successful restaurants, this location alone serves over 1,000 meals a day – mostly locals, especially a businessy crowd, and it’s not cheap! Kansas chooses to use an identical menu to the Houston’s original, but with English names for the dishes and Spanish descriptions. Service ought to be good (and my dining companion assured me it generally is), there are more waiters zooming around than they should need, but I found it slow and inattentive until we finally got exasperated and called attention to the fact, after which we got treated far better. Kansas is the only place in Buenos Aires, actually the only place anywhere, where a manager came running over when I snapped a photo of the food and told me that it wasn’t permitted (too late) – apparently they’re worried someone might swipe “their concept”. Or maybe they’re worried that word will get back to Hillstone…

The burger itself, when if finally arrived, was great. Definite thumbs-up material – juicy, one of two burgers of the entire survey that actually came out cooked rare to medium rare as requested, well seasoned, good-sized, and topped with crispy bacon, melted cheddar cheese, onions, pickle, and tomato. I found it slightly odd that the bun (which is a proper hamburger bun) is already coated with mustard, though just a touch, but I still wanted more – which I had to request, and took some time to get, finally arriving in a small silver cup to match the one that was on the plate with ketchup (for the fries). The fries are of the thin variety and were a bit soggy – my guess, given that that’s hard to do with thin fries, the oil isn’t hot enough. 18 pesos, fries included. Oh yeah, they have decent nachos (ask for chilis if you want it proper), iced tea, well, all the stuff you’d expect on a Houston’s menu. It’s also a pretty cool setting, if you grab a table by the back window you’re looking out over the horse track of the Hipodromo.

—————Now, there were other places that came recommended, and at some point I may get to them (I purposely didn’t head out to the couple of suggestions in the suburbs, I wanted to, at least for this posting, limit my exploration to the boundaries of the Capital). For the moment, I’m hamburgered-out. I don’t want to eat another one for at least a month. Maybe two. I know that’s strange – given my upbringing they were practically an every weekend affair, at least during warm weather – dads firing up the backyard grill and all that – but that was a long time ago.

In the end, my vote is for the burger at Kansas. The burger and fries themselves were slightly better at Hard Rock Cafe, but their outright refusal to cook it rare or medium rare, their sucky service attitude, and earsplittingly noisy ambiance (unless you’re into that I suppose), more than counteract that. Kansas’ friendly attitude, comfortable and pleasant setting, and their food are probably as close to home as any U.S. expat is going to get here. It’s not the U.S. at it’s finest, shining best, but it’s certainly world’s apart and better than that of the legion of McDonald’s, Burger King, etc.