Beyond The Mango Juice

This is one of my favourite pictures from the thousands I have taken in Thailand. Strange and rather ordinary you may think but let me explain. I love cheeseburgers so that’s a good start and the photograph was taken in Nong Khai which is a favourite place of mine to visit. I also think the burger in the forefront and the slightly out of focus scene behind it make a good mix. It’s also the perfect photograph to bring me to the topic of this post.

Do You Prefer Bar Burgers or Homemade Ones?

The photographs above and right were taken at the Thasadej Bar in Nong Khai which sits right on the edge of the city’s famous Indo-China Tha Sadet Market. The market’s that close you could take the top half of the burger bun, throw it, and hit it. The bar is my favourite one in Nong Khai and is worth visiting just to sample the cheeseburger in the pictures. They’re absolutely delicious and the bar is a welcome relief from the hustle, bustle and intense heat of the market. That’s my excuse anyhow. The beer’s pretty cheap there too.

I think I’m right in saying most western people enjoy eating burgers from time to time. Not everyone, but in general a lot of us like a burger in a bap filled with any combination of fried onions, cheese, relish, tomato sauce and salad. If the burger joint we buy from is to our liking then we’ll invariably go back time and time again when the mood takes us. But are bar/restaurant and snack stall burgers (i.e. Denmark burgers) as good as homemade ones? And as much as I hate to include them, McDonald’s and Burger King have their fans too, but can they match a burger fresh off the garden barbecue grill.

When I say homemade burgers I mean buying everything, burgers included, from a supermarket or wherever and also buying ground beef and making your own. I’ve tried the latter, but like batter they are a bit beyond my basic culinary skills.

The two cheeseburgers in the photo above were cooked on an electric barbecue grill and despite my love of a good bar burger, homemade ones are streets ahead for me. I’d rate Denmark style stall burgers third with McDonald’s and Burger King a very distant fourth.

The beauty of a home cooked burger is that you can grill or fry it exactly how you want. If the Buddhist belief of rebirth is right then one of my previous lives must have ended in the Great Fire of London in 1666 because I like a lot of my food burnt. A slightly blackened burger with a thick layer of melted cheese and crisp black onions between a soft bread roll make a perfect burger for me. Ronald McDonald would become a clown with a frown if you asked for that combination.

So what are your own burger preferences? Here’s a poll to find out.

Thank you for voting.

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