Boarding @ Home: Day 67/84: International Hamburger Day

May 28th is International Hamburger Day which celebrates America’s most iconic food. Americans eat over 50 billion burgers a year so it’s only fitting we set aside a whole day for these special sandwiches. Originating in Hamburg, Germany, the hamburger as we know it was developed in Seymour, Wisconsin, a town still famous for its hamburger heroics. A baked bun, beef patty, mustard, ketchup, onion, pickles, with optional cheese. Convenient, cheap, and delicious, the world-famous burger has a storied and uncertain history. No one is quite sure about the origins of the hamburger, other than that it is eponymously named for the town of Hamburg in Germany.

People have been eating cooked meat on bread for centuries, but the association with Hamburg seems to stem from a 1758 recipe for a dish called the “Hamburg Sausage.” Others think the name originates from a cruise company known as the Hamburg America Line, which served its passengers similar sandwiches in the mid-1800s. To this day, there is little agreement over who actually created the iconic food.
Don't know about hamburgers. Have you tried a Gothenburger in The Pans? Numerous deli and diner owners across the United States claim that their joint is responsible for inventing the burger. However, there seems to be some consensus amongst historians that the food as we know it today truly gained popularity at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, an event that also gave us the ice-cream cone. However it happened, the hamburger has grown to be one of the world’s most widely consumed food items, found on menus from Texas to Thailand. They can be had for a pound/ dollar apiece or made from gourmet ingredients that cost a great deal more. Our Gothenburg has had them on the menu since about 2004 when we reopened in today's style. And they are big sellers. However, with lockdown and all that a distant memory … for today, Avril, fire up that refulgent, shining, gleaming new electric barbecue you bought online last week and let's cook up something delicious - The MalsouresBurger? No room for scrouging, encroaching on another person's space, tonight; just the two of us! The instructions make it sound as though the only thing the new kit adds is an electric fan once the charcoal is alight by traditional means. However the MalsouresBurger will soon become legendary always presented with pawpaw with passion fruit as dessert, not ice cream cones, and accompanied by coleslaw, potato salad and a little lettuce from one's allotment/ garden veggie box. She's been chumping in the garage, gathered together as pictured the desirable necessities to cook with panache! The new BBQ-er is shown with smoke and flames and beautifully cooked burgers and sausages; we are imbibing Avril's newly discovered Binary Beer that tastes like wine at 0.5 and 4.0%; and as I am seated to dine, behind me the palindromic fence in which I have taken so much pride across to the chestnuts and The Dip. [Truth to tell, we both agreed it was our best endeavour at a BBQ in many a year since we first had a shot in Tulsa Oklahoma with a plumbed in gas BBQ with Olivia Newton-John streaming - 1976!




Excitement in Scotland .. battlefield gets a worthy mention! The national government sets up nationwide planning target areas each decade and East Lothian Council is hopeful that the area that encompasses the battlefield and runs as far east as Macmerry can be so designated- and in its ask it has sensibly resolved to mention that it includes the battlefield itself. An 8 week Consultation starts on June 1st [during lockdown!] so we've alerted John Home-Robertson, our former MP and indeed MSP for many years and now a Trustee along with Herbert Coutts to take the programme forward. Policy Paper 15 v.4 summarises what we've been about and what we hope for next ….
Last hurrah for the NHS? Not the last but the originator of the Thursday 8pm moment of tin can rattling et al has suggested we give the last one this Thursday. Outside my window as I write in the Dovecote is Elliot of Dolphinstoun, Yr of Lochnaw, hooting the car horn - he seems to have misplaced his vuvuvuela … but we compare notes and agree that a BBQ with grandparents and the return of the Ghibli can't be far away after the latest announcements from Boris today. 'Yes, tomorrow will be a good day Captain Sir Tom!'.