A Really Good Burger

Burgers are an important food to me, I grew up in small town Ontario and there was no fast food or mass market burgers. On the rare occasions when we ate in a restaurant, holidays or on the road only, I always ordered a burger and was rarely disappointed.

But modern times have conspired against the noble burger: first it was fast food and the comically small cardboard "burgers" that have become standard, then e-coli and Canadian over reaction meant that even at a real restaurant my burger had to be incinerated, then the $50 foie gras and Kobe beef things started appearing (which are, I'm sure, superb but calling something with foie gras and Kobe beef in it a "burger" is like calling Uma Thurman a "single mom" - it's accurate but just wrong). Yes it is hard times for the burger on the restaurant front, but at home is a different story - the burger still reigns.

Wife rarely cooks but she does "grill" and she also makes transcendent burgers.

Yesterday I battled the hordes at the PNE with daughter and dragged my sorry ass home around 6ish, tired, dusty and more than a little thirsty/hungry/grumpy but bouyed by the thought that wife was cooking burgers. A shower and a cold Pilsner took care of much of my woes and the burger took care of the rest.

Wife's burgers are not complex, just lean organic beef, salt, pepper, diced onion and grated cheddar. Wife's grilling technique is "cook 'em for a little while on one side, then flip them over and cook 'em for a little while on the other side, then flip 'em again, top with cheese and cook 'em a little while longer". The resulting, sloppy, pink in the middle masterpiece was garnished with mustard, mayo, tomato, lettuce, avocado and bacon and served on a Kaiser roll with fresh corn-on-the-cob and a bottle of full throttle fruity Malbec.

Forget the Foie gras and Kobe beef, hell forget Uma .......... sometimes all you need is a really good burger.