Word: bun
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...sense, but it's still a great loss. I, for one, am sad to see the Average Diner go. I related to him; he took me out of myself; I measured my appetites against his. Sometimes I gloried in my conformity, as when writing hosannas to the universal white-bun hamburger of old. At other times, the Average Diner allowed me to celebrate my bold heterodoxy: he didn't like rare hamburgers or dark chocolate...
...which isn't to say there is nothing holding together all the different sectors of the eating public. Whether in the form of bizarre, genius fast food like KFC's Double Down, a fried-chicken, bacon and cheese sandwich in which two breasts serve as the bun, or the latest high-end fondues, foams and organ fritters, we all have an "open desire for more stimulation." We're at least American enough to all have that in common, anyway...
They're all right. The orthodox cheeseburger, with its pillowy, enriched white bun, Pythagorean square of tangerine-colored American cheese and blissfully unadulterated (and unspiced) beef, is an invention that cannot really be improved upon. Like sashimi or peaches and cream, it's a gastronomic end point. But this is America. We're about competition and reinvention - not just at the Burger Bash, but also in the omnipotent market, where fortunes rise and fall over the narrowest bits of brand differentiation. (Take away Ronald and the King, and only an expert can tell the basic McDonald's and Burger King...
...question that kept haunting me, as I got fuller and fatter as the evening wore on, was the old Peggy Lee refrain: Is that all there is? Everyone was putting their heart into it - father-and-son restaurant moguls Jeffrey and Zach Chodorow created a fine potato-bun burger out of pure love of the game, without even a restaurant to promote, and they looked almost stricken when they didn't win. But winning is hard, with everyone bashing their head on the ceiling of burger perfection. (See a video of Americans competing in the Bocuse d'Or food contest...
...seat meat cathedral in New York City's Rockefeller Center, and the Shake Shack is next opening up in Miami, Dubai and, word has it, London. But each restaurant's primary burger would be easily recognizable to Warren G. Harding. One has a potato roll, the other a sesame bun, and both have custom grinds from meat guru Pat LaFrieda, but really, they're examples of perfection rather than creation. (To be fair, both have great specialty products - the Shack a remarkable breaded portobello burger, and Bill's a double-patty onion-and-butter Fat Cat on an English muffin...