George Motz Burger Meister

Yesterday I went to a luncheon launch of George Motz's revised Hamburger America.

Mr. Motz is very charming and if you are a burger eater his book is the essential guide to finding diner style burgers in American.  In it is a list of 150 burger joints all across the country, with a description of the food you will find there and the people who make them.  In addition to the revised edition comes an iPhone app which has a GPS component to help you find these burger joints if you are on the road and in need. 

 

Why you would be in need for food like this is a wonder to me, but I understand very clearly that I am not the demographic for this kind of food.  I was a little disappointed that with such an array of actual quality burgers in New York City that he didn't include any of what I would call the best burgers in town: Shake Shack, Back 40, or in particular Diner's burger, which is made from locally raised grass fed beef which is then butchered right up the street from the restaurant.  Seems to me this is the most honest reflection of how burgers used to be made and how they should still be made, given that when all is said and done a grass fed burger just tastes better.

Here is a description from a burger George encountered in Montana at Matt's Place Drive-In it's called the Nutburger:

"the counter person spoons chopped salted peanuts from the sundae bar into a coffee mug and adds Miracle Whip.  It's that simple.  The texture of the nuts and the creamy sweetness of the Miracle Whip* synthesize perfectly the salty greasy meatiness of the burger"

What Mr. Motz is doing is at once exploring the vast array of burgers in America and talking to the people who make them to get the back story of the burger.  Some people, as you will see in the trailer, are very much about the care and love of the cows that the meat comes from, others, not so much.  It's a good cross section and it certainly is, to me, a very upsetting insight into how America eat.

Not that my ranting will make any difference, because the reality is this is how most Americans eat and Mr. Motz is to be credited with at least stressing in his own burger making the importance of buying the meat from a butcher who can tell you about how the cow was treated and fed before slaughter.  He also stresses how important it is to have all your ground beef come from one piece of meat, as opposed to the kind you get in a big chain grocery store.  The rest is just cultural anthropology, well done and interesting, even to non burger eating people like me.

Here is the trailer for Hamburger America:



Deep fried burger?  Only in America.