Pickles on a Hamburger?

[Outdated]

I can’t stand them. Many Aussies can’t. There’s a few “American” food places opening up in Australia now but they never seem to last long, they’re over priced, their chips are skinny like bits of string and they put pickles on everything.

A classic Aussie hamburger has a thick meat patty, cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, bacon, egg, and tomato sauce. The old fashioned shops put a slice of beetroot in there too.

So what passes for a good hamburger where you live?

 

[Billthecat]

Maybe this, I need to taste first

 

[Outdated]

Maybe this, I need to taste first

Chicken Schnitzel Sandwich, also popular in Australia. Usually comes with lettuce, cheese and mayonaise.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I don't find anything offensive in a burger. Load it all up.

Ed

 

[Progster]

Not a fan of hamburgers, would much prefer a veggie burger, and it's not because I'm vegetarian. It's because hamburgers usually contain little bits of gristle, fat or cartilage that have a different texture - they are chewy and that makes me want to gag. Gross. At least with a veggie burger, I'm not going to get those. Or I make them myself and carefully cut away all those grisley bits - something that they don't do at a fast food restaurant.

I don't like anything with vinegar, and that includes pickles. Vinegar kills the taste of anything it comes into contact with and anything vinegar-based just tastes of... vinegar. Here, they have a tendency to smother everything in ketchup or mayonaise or both - and that's a no-no as far as I'm concerned.

American-style fast food restaurants are popular here - at least, in the big cities, but there are local versions too. These are franchised based on the McDonald's or Subway model, and are very similar. Fast food here is very bland and boring, I don't like it. The same things everywhere, very little experimentation or creativity.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I do enjoy a good mushroom Swiss burger topped with fried 'shrooms and swiss cheese. Add caramelized onions and I am in heaven.

I have a lot of favorites, but for a full sensory whallop of fast food goodness, it is a Chicago hot dog dragged through the garden with hot peppers.

 

[Misery]

I think I'm likely the odd one out here.

As a kid my mom had to fight me tooth and nail (and by that I mean nag a lot) to get me to eat a hamburger (yes, really). I'm really weird about food.

But if you waved a pickle (dill, specifically) at me I'd do a trick like some sort of trained poodle. Not like, a backflip or anything, the "trick" was me complaining until I got the pickle.

I was good at that trick.

 

[Suzanne]

Do you mean: gerkins? Because the first time I tasted, I nearly threw up, in honesty. The taste was just vile. However, no worries now, because I won't even eat that kind of fast food anymore.

 

[Magna]

I can’t stand them. Many Aussies can’t. There’s a few “American” food places opening up in Australia now but they never seem to last long, they’re over priced, their chips are skinny like bits of string and they put pickles on everything.

A classic Aussie hamburger has a thick meat patty, cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, bacon, egg, and tomato sauce. The old fashioned shops put a slice of beetroot in there too.

So what passes for a good hamburger where you live?

When you say "tomato sauce", I wonder if that's what Americans refer to as ketchup? Or do you mean tomato sauce as in pasta sauce? I'm not a ketchup fan on burgers at all, but the idea of putting pasta sauce on a hamburger would be equally wretch to me.

I don't mind pickles on a burger but I wouldn't order one that way. I like mustard, raw onion and a bit of mayo.

 

[Outdated]

@Progster I don't like vinegar either. If people pour it all over their fish and chips I have to leave the room, the smell makes me gag. For some strange reason I like pickled onions though. I've never found a grissly bit in a burger, occasionally in a pie but never a burger.

@Gerald Wilgus I do like different burgers. There used to be a little taiwanese woman running her own takeaway many years ago, mostly asian foods but she also did Hamburger with A Lot. And that's exactly what she meant, whatever she was cooking out the back at the time went in to your burger, capsicum, cucumber, whatever she had close at hand. Great burgers.

@Suzanne Yes, pickled gherkins. Just like peas and pineapple, things that start with Puh!

@Magna Tomato Sauce is pretty much what the Americans call Ketchup.

McDonalds is also colloquially known as McChucks here. Once again the pickles on every thing. My eldest neice when she was about 7 years old asked her father why it was called McChucks and he told her it was because the clown was called McChuckles.

Naturally she believed him, until she was about 10 and all the other kids laughed at her, it took years for her to forgive him.

 

[velociraptor]

So what passes for a good hamburger where you live?

Bun, meat patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, onions, pickles, maybe bacon. Other toppings are optional. No one would consider adding beetroot to a burger here, that would be the kiss of death for a burger chain.

I'm Canadian.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Well then. I learned to enjoy malt vinegar on fries in Canada, and then there is Poutine, the best thing to happen to chips, though here they never cover them in enough gravy.

(added) I think Canada was a holdout in using tallow rather than vegetable oil in preparing fries. They are far tastier that way. Fries are an occassional treat, not a health food.

 

[Judge]

Sweet pickles on my burger, absolutely. Along with a lean 90%+ patty (good luck finding it in fast food circumstances) tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, onion, jalapeno, mayonnaise or miracle whip and absolutely never, ever any ketchup. That belongs on my fries- not my burger. Sesame seeds on a lightly grilled bun are fine, but no third bun ever! (Said like Joan Crawford. Can't stand McDonald's burgers.)

I must say thought I've always enjoyed a slice of bacon or some pastrami on a burger as well.

Seriously, the one major thing I like about a good burger is to be able to taste several things at once.

 

[Outdated]

and then there is Poutine

I only heard of this a couple of years ago, but the old Chips and Gravy has been popular here for decades.

 

[Mary Terry]

According to my parents, my first word was "pickles" which I pronounced as "bopples". I love them, sweet, sour, hot and spicy, or any other way. I often make my own pickled cucumbers, jalapenos, onions, watermelon rind, cabbage (sauerkraut) etc. Then I can them in my canning pressure cooker for long term storage. You can pickle just about anything. There's a great Polish tradition of pickling green tomatoes. It's just a way to preserve food. None of us might be alive today if some ancestor had not figured out how to use vinegar to preserve food for winter consumption!

 

[Outdated]

I knew some Polish people once, they also liked pickled fish and pickled chillies. I liked the chillies.

 

[Mary Terry]

I knew some Polish people once, they also liked pickled fish and pickled chillies. I liked the chillies.

Pickled meat is pretty common in the south, especially pickled pork. I'd taste pickled fish to see what it's like. I'd probably like it!

 

[Outdated]

I'd taste pickled fish to see what it's like.

When we were kids Mum always made us taste everything, and retaste it again a few years later to see if our tastes had changed. I'll try anything at least once. The pickled fish wasn't too bad, I'm not really a fish eater but I still ate plenty of it.

 

[AutistAcolyte]

i love pickles on a burger! i dont mind any toppings really, but if i'm getting a burger here in california, i prefer just a simple cheese, mustard and pickles. theres something weird about the way californians do their burgers...

 

[Mary Terry]

When we were kids Mum always made us taste everything, and retaste it again a few years later to see if our tastes had changed. I'll try anything at least once. The pickled fish wasn't too bad, I'm not really a fish eater but I still ate plenty of it.

My dumb self just remembered that I love pickled herring in cream sauce with dark rye bread. So, yeah, I like pickled fish.