The Juggernaut Burger

A burger is basically a sandwich consisting of a meat (pork or b–f or lamb) patty either fried or grilled and served inside a sliced bun or a bread roll. It is a cheeseburger when served with cheese on top.

Historically some claim its origin from Charlie Nagreen in 1885 when it was served in Seymour Fair — now called Outagamie County Fair — as meatball made from Hamburg beef served with two slices of bread.

When the German immigrants arrived in America, they opened small food outlets in Chicago and New York. They served a modified version of meatball and steak which was chopped along with garlic, onion, salt and pepper and served grilled or fried with bread. Among them was New York’s Delmonico, 1837 and Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition, 1876.

In 1921, Billy Ingram and Walter Anderson opened the first fast food hamburger establishment, White Castle, in Wichita, Kansas. Their main offering was a small 5-cent hamburger. Their hamburger meat was ground in plain sight, ensuring patrons that they were paying for a quality meal.

Around the same time hamburgers became a popular menu item at roadside diners and soda shops, where they were often served alongside French fries and milkshakes. When the McDonald brothers opened their Burger Bar Drive-In in San Bernardino, California in the 1940s, the hamburger made its official debut in the suburbs. Today, they sell over 75 hamburgers per second.

Over time the concept has evolved, and meat patties are decorated with an endless variety of creative, tasty toppings. The meat patties themselves have been replaced with healthier options, including black bean, turkey and salmon burgers (though one might argue that these do not really qualify as burgers in the traditional sense). With time, hamburgers have endeared themselves to a variety of food lovers. One can find burgers in tiny hole-in-the-wall diners and on the menus of Michelin-starred restaurants. In 2005, Las Vegas restaurant Fleur de Lys outdid itself by creating a $5,000 hamburger served with champagne.

Burgers In India

The burger story of India, which predates the entry of McDonald’s (1996) and other international chains, started with Cosy Nook in the early ’40s, though it has shut shop now, It was a pavement kiosk in Allahabad run by a retired colonel who served hot dogs and burgers,

By the ’40s, the burger had entered Delhi, started by United Coffee House that served devilled eggs, sandwiches, hot dogs and burgers. A decade later in the same neighbourhood, DePaul’s in Janpath, put the chicken and the veg burgers on the plate. DePaul’s with its famous cold coffee served a burger – bread and patty which were fried; its chicken burger was juicy and flavoured with Indian masalas; its vegetarian patty was ‘aloo tikki’.

In the ’70s, Lalit and Deepak Nirula, introduced the burger in their Hotshoppe, Snackbar. They were selling 4,000 burgers a day; they included dill pickle and mustard laced Mayo. Hot Stuff came up in a typical Tier-2 city of Allahabad. Scoop opened in Kolkata. Through the ’80s and the ’90s, the burger was a fast food success story that opened up the Indian palate to a different treatment of meat.

Gay Time Grill (the restaurant does not exist any longer) in Connaught Place sold deep fried small buns with deep fried kebab like patty with a slice of tomato and onion rings. Coffee houses in Connaught Place and Delhi University dished out cheap burgers, deep-fried again. The five star eateries in the mid ’60s and ’70s started serving burgers.

Mumbai had beef burgers till the ’90s, at Café Sundance. The café closed in early 2000. Bangalore and Delhi has a growing population of young call-centre professionals who work late nights or return home to stay up late. This has led to a completely new lifestyle and a new way of eating. What turpentine is to cleaning an oil-painting brush, burgers are now to late-night cravings. With choices of duck, pork, tenderloin and tuna as stuffing if you are a non-vegetarian and tofu, mushroom and aubergine combinations if you are a vegetarian. One burger really makes a meal.

By the mid-1980s, every young Indian had tasted the real hamburgers (burgers) somewhere or the other. Even the kiosk or pushcart wallah was serving Bun Tikki as ‘desi burger’. School canteens and railway platforms catered to burgers. By the time McDonald’s came to India, the Indian burger palate was more or less made. This is what they and all others had to cope with.

The international players had to transform themselves. The beef patty had to make way for lamb and healthier chicken and fish fillet which was experimented with ingredients which were poached. One must admit they popularised the Cole Slaw, mustard and tomato sauce also. When McDonald’s came to India there was much hype about standardisation and uncompromising quality of ingredients, the cheese slices or potatoes used for French fries. But everything was sourced locally. Combo meals were introduced but some relied more on catchy advertisements to announce their arrival but failed to create ripples.

In Odisha’s Own Backyard

During the infamous Staines murder case, I was in Odisha for a photo shoot assignment. While strolling in Bhubaneswar, I chanced on having a burger in Cream and Spices, Bapuji Nagar. Though the outlet was run by a trained chef from Oberoi Bhubaneswar, the burger did not stand out in any aspect as a burger. Burgers then in Bhubaneswar had no culinary presence. Though now we have Burger King, KFC, Dominos and branded bakeries serving them. Still the burger taste varies and there is no consistency in patties, cheese and toppings.

But one Burger which is standing out in the crowd and making waves – Biggies “THE BURGER ON GRILL”. This brand which started as a start up by Biraja Prasad Rout has been spreading its wings slowly across western and southern India and now targeting Odisha in a big way. He is a technocrat but a foodie by heart. This led him to curate a low fat; low carb and less gluten bite a meal. While working out the matrix the outcome was ‘BURGER’. One of the first healthier versions he dished out was the Beamer Burger which had the steamed lean meat with other toppings. Today on his menu he has around twenty four variants of burger, where in the hot selling is the “ORIGINAL BURGER” – the burger has quite a fat topping of meat patties which is grilled, generous slices of cheese and off course the secret recipe of the bun which gives a different taste the palate. What stands out among the lot is the vegetarian meat options, the patties has the earthy taste of country chicken, the caramelised onion takes it to a different level – mind you this is 100 per cent vegetarian.

In all, they have around 38 outlets across the country and including four in Odisha. Biraja along with his partner Sunil is now planning to have a premium segment of burger which will be paired with brews and other beverages. His USP will be on flavours which are quite new in the culinary world.

But still watch your calories and get your nutrients fact sheet before you gorge into a Burger.