Yes, I feel it's time to try my hand at the food
blogging thing. Not because of any sort of hobby/career aspirations, but just
because I ate some really good food, and I happen to have a blog. And as the
saying goes: if the shoe fits, write a cliché blog about it.
Just so you have some background into how this came
about: I ate a hamburger.
When I ate the first burger, I knew it was special. When
I ate the second one, it inspired me to write about it. When I went to write
about it, I realized I needed to eat it 2 more times: once to notice the
details of how everything is done and what the place is like, and once to write
about it as I eat it or shortly afterward. Point is: I’ve eaten this burger a
bunch of times, so you can trust that my research process has been thorough. I
try to keep things professional around here.
 |
| Fits in the palm of your hand. Ergonomics are the hallmark of the Sandwich industry. |
It all started when Will suggested we walk in the
opposite direction from the restaurants we usually go to for dinner. There was
the mention of some “Curry Place,” which is a perfectly normal and legitimate
possibility in Thailand, but we never actually found it. Instead we happened
across a little shop whose sign advertised a 25 Baht burger. Could be a tourist
trap, or more of that bad imitation western food that plagues parts of the
city… but it’s not in an area that sees many/any tourists… and the sign and
banner is written completely in Thai… better check it out…
We walk over and ask what the best burger to get is, and
the woman behind the counter says beef, which ended up being 27 Baht, and a short
5 minutes later Will and I were sharing the best burger I’ve eaten in Thailand.
Allow me to elaborate.
The shop is quite small, and looks a bit more like a
security outpost at the front gate of a private community or some old-money mansion
than a burger joint. Inside they have an electric griddle and a table-top fryer,
with a couple large coolers on the floor keeping the meat cold. No frills, or
even other basic kitchen standbys, just what they need to get the job done. In
their confined space, The Burger People
(“The ______ People/Lady/Guy” is what you call proprietors of
establishments with no name, simply because you can’t refer to the person or place
by name) ply their trade, pumpin’ out burgers (of egg, beef, chicken, pork, or fish)
and fries to the hungry people of Chiang Mai (local school kids who want some
ethnic food).
The whole thing starts with the bun; The Burger Babe
takes this surprisingly thick, fluffy bun out of a bag that says “King” brand
buns, and cuts it in half herself, before buttering both halves and throwing
them on the griddle. Excellent way to start. They then throw a fairly thin
frozen burger patty on the heat, and check on the buns. Once they take the buns
off, the Burger Bro starts settin’ up the salad: on the bottom bun, a tomato
and piece of iceberg lettuce, topped with a slaw of shredded cabbage and carrot,
and a ketchup/chili sauce/mayo combo. The top bun also gets the saucy combo and
now we’re just waiting on the burger. The Burger Babe slices the already thin
patty in half horizontally and opens it up onto the hotplate, a move that is
appreciated in a country where undercooked meat can equate to days spent going
back and forth to the toilet.. After about 4-5 minutes, your burger is fully
constructed, and expertly wrapped in a nice, white, parchment paper-ish
wrapper. It’s the perfect size for a small meal, though you could eat 2 if you
were particularly hungry (and if you were American, you could probably go for
fries with that). It’s the kind of burger you eat with the wrapper still on, so
you can just open it up and shove your face in.
 |
| No wrappers were fully/permanently removed in the making of this photo. |
And that’s what you do. Apparently word got to Thailand
that the best way to wrap up any hot sandwich is with parchment paper, and it’s
every bit as satisfying as it’s ever been to fold back the paper and bask in
that first nose-full of glorious burger scent. It’s the best way to start the
burger eating process if you ask me. Going into the first bite you already have
an excellent idea of what you’re getting. And when you chomp down, the burger
delivers everything it promised and more: the bun is soft and fluffy, with the
slightest hint of a crunch left from the expert toasting maneuver. The lettuce
crunches as well, along with the cucumbers and cabbage/carrot slaw, leaving the
tomato to just melt into the world of Sauciness. And what a world it is. In my
humble opinion, the sauce makes the burger. The aforementioned Sauce Combo of
ketchup/chili sauce/mayo is a prevalent feature, and deservedly so. The Combo
lends the perfect mixture of flavors, spiciness, and messiness that is the
essence of the whole burger experience. All of this is of course mutually
complementing the beef patty, which is surprisingly not dried out, despite the
thoroughness of the cooking process. It’s a beautiful experience, from first
bite to last, and it’s over all too soon.
 |
| Player Tip #14: You can get a fried egg on almost anything in Thailand. Burgers are no exception. |
 |
| I've managed to unhinge my jaw and eat the whole thing like a Boa Constrictor, sans the choking |
Let me just say: This is not the best burger I’ve ever
had in my life. Let’s remember: I’m from America. But it is the best burger I’ve had in Thailand for certain. If you spend
some time in the more touristic parts of this country, you will find a lot of poor
imitations of great western food, that invariably are less good than the
version of the food you’ve had access to all your life. To top it off, these
meals are far more expensive than the very much NOT imitation Thai food that
you are blessed with access to at any given moment. Not an easy sell for me.
This burger isn’t that though; this burger has its own, individual, Thai style, and it executes it
perfectly. There’s no attempt to monkey some western recipe, no pandering to
the backpackers that refuse to eat any local food aside from Pad Thai, just a
delicious interpretation of a staple of another culture’s diet.
It’s not certified Black Angus beef, but neither is
Thailand.
No comments:
Post a Comment