2011 National Hamburger Festival

It's National Hamburger Festival time again!  The 6th Annual and I think I've only missed one.  Last year it was insanely hot and this year it was only slightly better.  But we prevail for the love of the burger.  As always we go in with a plan to walk the whole festival, scope out who is there and what they are offering and then make our decisions.  It was very noticeably smaller this year.  Less participants.  But the ones that were there were looking good.  I'm good for 3 half burgers, no more.  And that's pushing it.  These aren't little namby pamby burgers that are offered.  They are usually pretty hearty with lots of stuff on them.  So we bought our food tickets, scoped and oddly, Nick and I came to the same decision about our first burger.  We rarely get the same one so we can taste as many as possible.  But Inferno in Medina called to us both, probably for different reasons.  I was interested in the burger, I can't speak for the man, but the Inferno booth did have lots of cleavage.

The Wisconsin Burger was 100% Angus beef topped with Tillamook cheddar, mozzarella and provolone cheeses plus applewood smoked bacon on a pretzel roll.  Oh yes, a pretzel roll!!!  I love a pretzel roll.   And honestly, I didn't even realize the burger was on one.  They had me with the cheeses.

This was a tasty burger.  I would definitely visit Inferno to try others.  And perhaps wear a low cut top so I could fit in.  After this one, we walked around a bit.  I had been eying the Nosh Box truck as my next burger.

I admit, it was mainly for the spectacle of it.  Can you guess which one I was eying?

 

Yes, it was the burger with mac and cheese on Texas toast. Interesting thing about Nosh Box, they were the best prices of the day.   For 4 tickets ($4) I did get a whole burger.  I thought it would be a half and was pretty surprised when a pretty big whole burger was handed to me.  

 

The burger was moist but on a whole I wouldn't call this a favorite.  The Texas toast didn't hold up very well and ended up fall apart.  And the mac and cheese was kind of bland and a bit on the mushy side.  It wasn't bad, just not a fave.  

Nick also had been eying a Nosh Box burger.  He opted for one that isn't listed here, it was a Parmesan burger on a ciabatta roll.  

The ciabatta definitely held up better and the burger had a nice crust of the Parmesan.  But now that I've had a burger and a half (my usual limit) I was full and I hadn't even gotten to try Hodge Podge yet!  You may have heard of Cleveland's Hodge Podge truck because they are competing right now in Food Network's Great Food Truck Race.

But first, Nick had his eye on the deep fried cheeseburger.  I saw people walking by with it, and while it was intriguing, after the mac and cheese burger I just couldn't do it.  But Nick, oh yes he wanted it.   So we headed over to Metro Burger of Akron so he could get one.

 

He really liked it.  I had a taste of it and wasn't crazy about it myself.  The batter that it was fried in was sweetened, not by much, but enough to be off putting to me.  Looks pretty great though!

And so we head back to Hodge Podge.   The Hawaiian burger was in my sights, so I went for it.

And seriously, feast your eyes on this thing of beauty!

Mixed greens, bacon, cheddar and pineapple salsa!   And OMG was this a juicy burger.  I tried to capture a photo of just how juicy it was, but I'm not sure you can really tell...

Unfortunately for me I was too full to have more than one bite... OK maybe two and then Nick had to finish it.  I'm sure he was really broken up about that.   

And that was pretty much our Saturday at the Hamburger Festival.   But wait, Sunday is upon us and my friend Tom over at Exploring Food My Way has two extra tickets and wondered if I could use them.  Well, truth is, Tom had two extra tickets for Saturday that I used and now hell yes!  I'll use them for Sunday too!   Nick wasn't into going again, but I was interested in seeing the Amateur Burger Making contest since Tom was a judge.  So I got my friend Denise and we headed to Burger nirvana!  

This time I was going to take it easy, only one half burgers and maybe a side or a dessert.  Denise's first burger was that Wisconsin from Inferno.  Then we went to watch the amateurs and oddly enough, out of four people who were chosen to compete, only two showed up.  That sucks.  And being as it was such a small turnout, I was able to give the winning burger a try and it was pretty yum. 

As we walked around I noticed that the Hodge Podge Truck had several awards from the day before.  

 

And so I had to do it, I had to try their duck burger.   Ground duck with mixed greens, goat cheese and a cherry compote.  One bite and I was launched into a flavor spectrum that was simply out of this world!  By far my winner of the two day burger extravaganza.  It was simply delicious.  Tom also had the duck burger and Denise tried the gouda burger.  We all loved our burgers. 

Now I'm thinking dessert.  There was your usual things you find in these kind of festivals... funnel cakes and a whole bevvy of fried stuff.  Stuff like Twinkies, Oreos, Snickers and Buckeyes.  And quite frankly, none of that strikes my fancy.   In fact, I find it kind of gross.  And so gelato was my clear and easy choice!

 

I'm sure if you know me at all you know I did not get orange!  Hazelnut it is!  And it was yummy.

And so we come to the closing of another Hamburger Festival weekend.  Good bye Barney Fife, it's nice to see you every year (this was Faux FauxBarney.  Definitely not the same one that's been there previous years).

Good bye Goodyear blimp.   What Akron festivities would be complete without you flying overhead?

But wait, not so fast!   The Peanut Shoppe is open!   Being as Denise is not an Akron gal and I don't ever pass up and opportunity to go to the Peanut Shoppe, we went in.  It's probably one of my favorite places in Akron.

When you walk into the Peanut Shoppe, you are literally walking back in time.  It's an old school peanut and candy shop, where everything is measured on actual weighted scales and the candy and nuts all just taste better because they are bought there.   The place is full of Mr. Peanut memorabilia.  It makes you smile just walking in.

If you ever find yourself in Akron, don't miss it.

5th Annual National Hamburger Festival!!!

It wouldn't be July in Akron, Ohio without the National Hamburger Festival.  And this July was business as usual.  Nick and had been looking forward to this day for months and no damn 90+ degree heat was going to keep us from going!   Oh yes, it was a scorcher of a day.  Neither of us are any good in this kind of heat.  But we went.  And as you can see, so did many many others.

We go with a plan, walk the festival a few times and see who has what and what sounds good.   This does not sound good to me...

Nick tells me quite often that I would eat anything as long as it were fried.  That's just not true.  I won't eat a deep fried Twinkies.  No way, no how.   The other stuff, I'm kind of on the fence about but given the opportunity, I think I'd say no to them all.   I also have no desire to try deep fried pickles and I certainly don't want to try deep fried butter.  That's just crazy talk.

So back to the festival.  We scouting out what we thought we might want and then, since it was still kind of early and weren't ready to eat just yet, we found a spot in the shade and hunkered down for awhile.  We got to spend about an hour and a half listening to the Carlos Santana cover band.  Now no offense to Santana fans, but that is so not my gig.  It was welcome relief when they ended and the Burger eating contest began!

From where we were sitting, we couldn't really see the mayhem of the burger eating contest but we did hear that "The Lion" won the contest.  I think just about everyone who completed had a nickname, but I would expect someone named "The Lion" to win a meat eating contest.

The heat was a running theme and a big factor all day.  I just didn't think I could handle eating and walking and sweating so we decided, since we live very close to downtown Akron, to buy our burgers and make our way home to our central air and eat in cool comfort.  Oh yes, that's the plan.  So off we went to make our burger purchases.  My first one that I knew I had to have was from Cleveland food truck phenom, Dim and Den Sum.  Reading over their menu, they had me.  They hooked me in and I was not going to be deterred from trying the Hawaiian Burger.

Seriously... homemade sesame brioche bun, grass fed beef, cheddar fondue, pineapple relish and bacon.  I dare you not to try that one!

That's the half size, which is what I was going for with all my choices.  This burger was insane and by far my favorite of the day.  The beef was incredibly juicy and full of flavor.  The cheese, the pineapple, the bacon!  OMG,  I have died and gone to burger heaven!

But even though this was my favorite of the day, the others I had did not disappoint.  Nick's first half was from Metro Burger, an Akron area favorite.

It was, as the sign says, an American Classic.

A cheeseburger with the works, tomato, lettuce and onion.  Nick loved it!

From there we decided, in the interest of time and getting our burgers home still relatively warm, to buy two whole burgers and split them.  Our first choice was from the Steel Trolley Diner in Lisbon, Ohio.

Last year, Nick got a burger from Metro and from Steel Trolley.  What can we say, when we find something good, we stick with it!  The description this year had me right from the get go.  The Tuscan Holiday burger.

Since I dream of an actual Tuscan holiday, it sounded like a burger we should try.  On top the burger was homemade bruschetta topping (tomatoes, herbs and other yummies), shredded provolone and pesto mayo.  Nick is not a mayo guy, but the pesto made it appealing to him.  Like I said, none of the burgers disappointed!  

Last up was the Barley House, located practically within the festival itself.

This was the Stuffed Deep Fried Greek burger.  Olives, feta, salami... burger, oh yeah, sign me up!

How can you go wrong here?     Please!   It's fan-freakin-tastic!

Yummy Lamb Burgers

I got a hankering for a burger.  OK who am I kidding, I'd eat a burger any day of the week and twice on Sunday!  I love them.   I usually make turkey burgers, but while at the grocery store, the ground lamb caught my eye.  I went for it!  It's definitely more pricey than ground turkey but the occasional splurge doesn't hurt too bad.  As I was driving home, I started to plot out my burger.  I definitely had to use some of the fresh herbs from my garden.  I decided to go with thyme.  It's kind of an obvious choice, but not as obvious as mint.

To that I added salt and pepper, of course.   And then, a generous amount of crumbled feta cheese.  Oh yes... I went there.

And then, just to make sure the burgers held together, I added an egg white.  I then formed them into pretty big patties. 

And headed for the grill!  They cooked for about 8-10 minutes on each side. 

Now.... the dilemma of what to serve on them.  For me, the usual ketchup, mustard and pickles wasn't going to cut it.  Neither was the same old bun.   I didn't have any plain yogurt in the house to make a yogurt sauce either, so I opted to make a sauce from Dijon mustard and mayonnaise.  And as luck would have it, I just happen to have sandwich size Ciabatta rolls in my freezer.  And that was a tasty burger!

I'll be having more tasty burgers this weekend at the National Hamburger Festival!!  I hope I find some gems like I did last year!  I still dream of that Muffaletta burger.

The 4th Annual National Hamburger Festival!

Nick and I look forward to Hamburger Festival weekend all summer. And not just for the Barney Fife impersonator. Seriously, they have a guy who impersonates Barney Fife there every year. I didn't get my picture taken with him this year, but I have in the past. Here's the proof. This was the 1st Hamburger Festival back in August of 2006:



So anyway, no I didn't hang out with Barney this year. Instead Nick and I met up with my new friend and fellow Akron area food blogger, Tom from Exploring Food My Way. Armed with black shirts, red hair (his very real, mine not so much) and cell phones, we found each other quite easily in the big crowd and very quickly started to scope out what we wanted to sample first. We had a little time before the Best Amateur Burger contest was to start, so Tom decided to try Midway Oh Boy Burger from Elyria, Ohio. As sweet as can be, he opted for 3 small sliders so we could each try one. Well Nick took one look at it and declined. I tried it though, as did Tom. The burger was all mayonnaise. Really, it was dripping in it and I actually like my mayo. But it was too much. It overpowered anything else that was on the burger. In fact, other than a very thin, oddly textured burger patty, I have no idea what else was even on the burger other than the mayo.

My first purchase was Metro Burger.




I've heard good, I've heard neutral about Metro Burger. It's so close to where we live and we've yet to try it, which is just plain wrong. So I knew going in that I was definitely going to try them. I decided on the half a cheeseburger.



In the words of Jules Winnfield of the great movie Pulp Fiction, that is a tasty burger! The meat was moist and flavorful, the toppings were fresh, the pickles were crisp. I added the ketchup and mustard myself. I was very happy with this burger, which only drove home the fact that we need to make a trip to the actual restaurant very soon!

Nick wasn't quite ready to delve into burgerness just yet so he opted to get some of Metro Burger's freshly made potato chips.


Delish! There is just something about a freshly made potato chip that cannot be beat. They are never overly salty and rarely ever too greasy. At least not the ones I've had. Maybe I'm just lucky, but those two facts send me to freshly made potato chip stands like a beacon!

So with a nice little taste of a burger and chips, we headed to the tents to watch the competition. Basically the competitors had been cooking already and they were just to present their creations to the four judges. There were two categories, traditional (meaning beef) and non-traditional (meaning anything but beef). Brad from Canal Fulton, Ohio won the beef burger category with a burger that had a combination of jalapenos, hot sauce and was topped with fontina cheese. Victoria of Silver Lake won the non beef category with a salmon and shrimp burger that drew on Asian flavors and was topped with guacamole.

Now, it's time to get back down to business... eating more burgers! Once I saw the menu for Crave, I knew I was getting a burger there. I had to, it said Muffaletta Burger! There was no way I was passing that up.



The burger was whole, not half, but it was a smaller version. Basically you buy tickets at $1 each and then you pay vendors with tickets. Half burgers were 3 tickets, whole were between 5 and 6 tickets. This burger was 3 tickets. I think Tom got his second burger there too, but I can't remember which one. What can I say about the Muffaletta Burger other than YUM! I loved this burger. The meat itself was juicy and delicious, on top of the burger was a chopped olive salad and then the smoked mozzarella was melted over it to keep it in place and then a slice of grilled salami was put on top of the cheese, with Italian mayo (whatever that might be) on the top of the bun.


It was, in a word, incredible and you can bet your ass I'm going to try and recreate it! The people at Crave really paid attention to details and it showed. The salami didn't overpower. In fact, nothing overpowered. It was a perfect marriage of flavors coming together. I honestly can't say enough about it. It was amazing!

It was here we parted company with Tom. Check his blog out, his Hamburger Festival review is coming soon! Nick was still undecided but finally settled on the Steel Trolley Diner from Lisbon, Ohio. Truth be told, he saw someone walking by with a great looking burger, asked them where it was and made a beeline to the stand.



I don't remember exactly what the burger was called, but it had barbecue sauce on it, grilled onions and shredded cheddar cheese. Nick opted for the whole burger since he didn't partake in any before we sent to watch the competition.



Your eyes are not deceiving you. This burger was HUGE. And extremely messy. It was served with a plastic knife sticking out of the top. Good thing too, this burger was begging to be cut in half.



I gave it a try, after pushing the onions off to the side. It's not that I don't like onions. In fact, I like them very much. They just don't like me unless they are thoroughly cooked. These were definitely only partially cooked. I try keep my distance if they aren't completely cooked. But sometimes I just have to take one for the team too... like when I'm at Hoggy's and can't resist their insanely good onion rings. But I digress. So, other than the slop factor, Nick liked this burger a lot.

We decided that we would get some dessert with our remaining tickets and weren't exactly sure what we wanted. They had gelato, chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick, funnel cakes, waffle ice cream sandwiches as well as other yummy treats. Of all things we decided on a cheesecake funnel cake with blueberry topping. It's your basic funnel cake but then it has a cheesecake topping on it and on top of that, blueberry fruit topping.



We weren't disappointed! We were covered in powdered sugar by the end of it though. That's just how it is when you eat a funnel cake. It looks like it just snowed all over you. And it was a festival, so funnel cakes are mandatory.

So that's another year at the National Hamburger Festival in Akron, Ohio. I'm already looking forward to next year!