AHT's Favorite Burgers of 2009
[Photograph: Damon Gambuto]
We reviewed over 150 burger joints in 2009; which ones were the best? Our main contributors weigh in with their favorite burgers of the year.
Fresh, hot, delicious food content served up daily.
February 1, 2010
The Year That Was: Memes, Themes, and Schemes of 2009
You thought we'd just forget, didn't you? No, no, no, girls and boys. Let The Year That Was 2009 commence! Today, the memes, themes, and schemes that shaped this year in food. (Don't worry, we're not going to go as nuts as last year.)
Leftovers
- On Tap Water: Watter bottle-filling stations installed in SF. [SFist]
- Snoop and Martha: Snoop Dogg bakes brownies on The Martha Stewart Show, then an awkward rap ensues. [EMD]
- 10 Xmas Meal Tips: "Make sure you have some stale bread." [TimesOnline]
- Yelple: Google is in talks to buy Yelp. [NYT]
- Churros: Fried strips of sugar-topped dough = never bad. [Seasaltwithfood]
- Manischewitz Cook-Off: Jacques Pépin will judge the kosher cookingpalooza. It's not too late to enter! [JT]
- Honey! NYC will lift a decade-old ban on keeping honeybees. [Gothamist]
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What's your favorite noodle?
I loooove noodles. Holy kara-miso do i love noodles.
Gift Guide: For the Baking Mix Lover
Note: Our gift-guide marathon continues. Don't know someone with a sweet tooth? Try our full complement of lists. —Ed.
Though from-scratch kitchen projects can be very rewarding (and delicious), sometimes the shortcuts are just too good. These throw-it-together mixes—ranging from cider donuts to funnel cake, brownies, and flan—make great gifts.
Stonewall Kitchen Eggnog Pancake and Waffle Mix: A breakfast flavored with all the ingredients traditionally found in the holiday drink—except the booze. Remedy that by serving them drizzled with maple syrup warmed in a saucepan with a tablespoon or two of bourbon or rum. Available online at stonewallkitchen.com, $5.99
Dean Jacobs Funnel Cake Kit Perfect for kids (or carnies). With two cake mixes, powdered sugar topping, a funnel cake pitcher, frying ring, tongs, and sugar shaker, it seems the only thing not included is the rollercoaster to ride before adequately digesting. Available online at legourmetchef.com, $14.99
Gingerhaus Ultimate Gingerbread House Kit: This includes gingerbread cookie mix, royal icing mix, and decorative candy. Cardboard panels provide a structural framework so you don't have to worry about your house collapsing under the weight of all those gumdrops. Available online at surlatable.com, $34.95
QuickBite Test
This is a quickbite test.
Bloop
Bleep. 1 2 3.
Another test gallery
Hi there. Look at this stuff. Ullamcorper insitam consequat commodo odio suscipit. Duis wisi aliquam minim volutpat anteposuerit. Claram augue eleifend doming lobortis vero. Decima processus est ea lius iriure. Sollemnes cum possim claram videntur consectetuer.
Dolore putamus odio claritatem fiant facilisi. Iusto qui duis exerci odio eorum. Euismod nibh luptatum nulla ex placerat. Ipsum accumsan ii dignissim praesent tation. Soluta insitam vel claram claritatem illum.
Last Week's Contest Winners
Cook the Book: Gourmet Today: Louisa, Jilly, leighana, Michael Z, and gramvo. Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page. Thanks to all who entered.
Cakespy: Brooklyn Basbousa
Note: Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy) drops by every Monday to share a delicious dessert recipe.
[Photograpy and art: Jessie Oleson]
When I was in college, I waited tables at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. While the restaurant specialized in homemade falafel and pita bread pizzas, our secret weapon was really a simple semolina cake called basbousa.
Basbousa was basically our quick fix for any situation. Complaining customers received it as a pacifier. Friendly guests received it as a reward. Homeless people who were denied the use of our bathroom received a slice as consolation.
The cake's virtue is its simplicity: it's sort of like cornbread, only made with semolina. What really makes it shine, though, is that it's topped while still hot with a sweet glaze which oozes into every little nook and cranny of the porous cake. Finished off with a sprinkling of almonds on top, it makes the perfect complement to a strong Turkish coffee. This recipe tastes very similar to the Brooklyn version I remember.
Talk!
50+ baked potatoes
Street Food Profiles: Green Truck in Los Angeles, California
Note: It's time for another edition of Street Food Profiles. This week we scoot to the West Coast.
Name: Green Truck
Vendor: Bobby Allen
Location and hours? Multiple locations around Los Angeles, typically from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Follow @Green_truck on Twitter for updates.
The "Mother Trucker" burger: a homemade vegan patty with heirloom tomatoes, sprouts, and mixed greens, topped with "Trucker sauce."
What do you sell? Organic, vegan-friendly food, including burgers, chicken burritos, Niman beef hot dogs, line-caught albacore tuna sandwiches, falafel wraps with tzatziki, fries, and fresh melon frescas.
How long have you been street fooding? The company formed in 2006 and we've been rolling around Los Angeles since early 2007.
Cook the Book: Dashi and Japanese Chicken Stock
Cook the Book keeps me on my toes, culinarily speaking. Each week, the featured cookbook dictates not only what I am going to cook but where I will do my food shopping. This week's Japanese Hot Pots by chef Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat had me headed to the Japanese supermarket. Though I love pretty much all grocery shopping, Japanese markets are some of my favorite places to shop—all of those fascinating ingredients, the cute packaging, and the insanely appealing prepared.
After gathering all of my supplies, I made two stocks that will serve as foundations for all the hot pots this week. The first was a classic Dashi, or preserved kelp and bonito flakes steeped in water, then strained. And the second, Japanese Chicken Stock, which is just chicken wings and bones boiled in water (nothing else). The stocks used for Japanese hot pots are clean, simple bases, not meant to be used on their own. Instead, they should be flavored in the second round of cooking by other ingredients that get tossed into the hot pot.
Cook the Book: 'Japanese Hot Pots'
The hot pot or nabe in Japanese is more than a meal—it's a social event, a reason for people to gather around the table and enjoy not just a meal together but one from the same pot.
In Japan there is a common belief that str sharing a meal forges closer relationships among diners. You might not have shared a steaming hot pot before, but anyone who has tackled a cheesy, bubbling pot of fondue with friends knows it's a fun, though a bit messy, way to eat with friends.
Japanese Hot Pots by chef Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat, Japanese food aficionado and creator of the comprehensive Japanese food culture bolg, The Japanese Food Report sets out to bring this Japanese dinner time staple onto all of our tables.
Japanese Hot Pots is full of beautiful photography. A quick perusal will make your stomach grumble for a steaming bowl of broth with all kinds of vegetables, proteins, noodles, and tofu. If your knowledge of Japanese is limited to California rolls and shrimp tempura, recreating these stunning hot pots at home might strike you as a daunting task. But let me assure you—these hot pots are a breeze to put together, most of them coming together in less than 30 minutes. Hot pots are more about assembly than complicated cooking. Even the soup bases don't require a long time to simmer.
Talk!
jazzing up white rice
Video: 'So Fine' By Telepathe
Telepathe is a Brooklyn-based electronic band of two girls who released an album earlier this year called Dance Mother. Along with the expected mod bangs, flannel shirts, and dancing in dark alleyways, this music video for their song "So Fine" involves bowls of tangerines, marshmallows roasting in candles, and the spice aisle at the grocery store. The video, after the jump.
One of the Best Burgers I've Had in Asia at Hanoi's My Burger Mỹ
Editor's note: A few months ago, Daniel O'Sullivan contributed a review on Kraze Burger in South Korea while teaching English there. Now he's traveling around Asia for the next two months and documenting the goodies on his blog Street Foodie. Today, he brings us his review of a burger joint in Vietnam.
[Photographs: Daniel O'Sullivan]
My Burger Mỹ
5 Hang Bac, Hoàn Kiếm, Hanoi, Vietnam (map)
Cooking Method: Grilled
Short Order: Good quality burger with toppings to match.
Want Fries with That? Yes; you might want more than what it comes with.
Prices: The Works Mỹ Burger, 69000 VND
In a busy street in Hanoi's old quarter, amid the souvenir shops and tour operators, a simple chalkboard sign hangs unobtrusively on a tree. "Char grilled Burgers, Mexican food, 1m" it announces with a slight flourish. Follow the arrow, and you've reached Mỹ Burger My.
Owned and operated by American chef/writer Daniel Hoyer, My Burger Mỹ is an unassuming sort of place. The menu consists simply of a few burgers, a handful of sandwiches, some Mexican favorites, and a bevy of cold drinks—an essential nod to the unrelenting fury of the Hanoi summer.
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