Posted by Robyn Lee, September 30, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Photograph taken by Harald Gottschalk
If you live Paris and want to get in on some Presidential election-inspired foods, head to the Hotel Concord La Fayette in Paris for Obama and McCain burgers. Chef Laurent Belijar modeled Obama's "O-Burger" after Obama's birth state of Hawaii by making a curried patty topped with pineapple carpaccio and a mix of coriander-flavored shrimp. McCain's "Elephant Burger" is southwest-themed, made of a tomato-flavored patty mixed with grilled lamb and guacamole and served with tomato salsa and nachos.
L'Hippo's burger looks better than it tastes. Photograph taken by David Lebovitz
When Paris-based chef and blogger David Lebovitzhad a burger craving in the land of cheese and baguettes, where burgers tend to be "wildly overpriced and nothing more than a glorified, microwaved sandwich," he looked towards French chain restaurant Hippoppotamus. Despite the promising appearance and approval from a Parisian neighbor, the burger wasn't all that.
My friend and I rated the burger at l'Hippo a tepid 6 out of 10. Even though we ordered the same basic burger, her patty was a good bit...okay...a lot larger than mine [...] and the bun was stale, not fresh and toasty-brown..
But David doesn't mean to complain that much; "Because sometimes, a guy's just gotta have a burger." Besides, he seems to have accepted his fate of not being able to easily find a great burger in Paris.
It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant (in Paris, France). “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.
So quoteth the New York Times in an interesting, and to us purists, somewhat alarming piece on the rise of the hamburger as a culinary fad in Paris. We can either thank or blame French expatriates and New York chefs Daniel Boulud and Laurent Tourondel for popularizing the burger in their homeland. Their respective takes on the hamburger at Cafe Boulud and BLT Burger in New York City have inspired their fellow countrymen. “I think it’s shocking," Mr. Boulud said in the Times, "but at the same time the French are realizing that a burger is real food, it’s good."
Honestly, people, the whole pictures-on-toast thing has been done to death. But here's a new variation on the images-on-bread theme that I can get behind. Stuff printed on hamburger buns.
This No. 3 burger appears on the French burger blog MyBurger.fr, and I have no idea what it's saying, but it certainly utilizes some handsome lettering. It appears to be emblazoned on some sort of prepackaged frozen burger or some such a burger from the Belgian chain Quick, which has matching 3-shaped fries. The "3" refers to its three patties and three layers of cheese. You will also need three bypasses after you eat it.
Says AHT reader Dave, in the comments of the previous post: "I actually had one of these last week during a vacation in Paris. It's pretty good for a fast food novelty item. It is definitely fromage-d out. For some reason the Coca-Cola in France is tastier as well."
Dave also passed along the link to a photo of L'Spider Homme Burger. Check it out! Its bun has a web pattern (above). Kinda reminds me of the buns made to look like soccer balls last year around World Cup time.
Mon dieu! Friend of AHT Graham Holliday sends us a tip on this Spider Man special going on in France's Quick burger chain. "You getting Spider Man burgers in NYC?" he asks.