A hamburger is a hunk of ground beef served between two pieces of bun-configured bread. They will sometimes have cheese, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, or other fresh toppings, and are occasionally served with BBQ sauce or mayo - but most commonly ketchup. Hamburgers are awesome.
History of the Hamburger
There are many claims to the creator of the first hamburger. One claim is that the first hamburger was made by Charlie Nagreen of Seymour, Wisconsin when he decided to flatten a meatball and serve it between two slices of bread at the Seymour Fair in 1885. Another is that Menches brothers of Hamburg, New York who ran out of pork for their sausage patty they were serving at the 1885 Erie country fair and were forced to use beef meat instead. They found it bland so added coffee, Brown sugar and other ingredients and created what they called the "Hamburg Sandwich" named after their hometown. One more claim is that Louis Lassen invented it in 1895 in his lunch wagon named "Louis' Lunch"Another claim to be the first inventor of the hamburger is Fletcher Davis. In 1974 the New York Times ran an article claiming he was the inventor of the much loved foodstuff. The claim is based on the McDonald's claim that the inventor was an unknown vendor from the St. Lois World fair 1904. Newspaper columnist and historian Frank X Tolbert found that this vendor was Fletcher Davis, who invented it in the late 1880's in his cafe in Athens, Texas, when he sold an unnamed ground beef sandwich at his lunch counter.
In 1955, the biggest thing happened in burger History. McDonald's opened their doors and now McDonald's have sold over a billion burgers. They introduced The Big Mac which changed Burgers forever with its secret Mayonnaise and Ketchup mixture of a sauce and with their Double Cheeseburgers.Other fast food resturaunt chains have opened up in succession since then. Burger King introduced their Whopper and cheeseburgers. White Castle introduced bite sized small burgers topped with cheese, onions, and pickles. Wendy's also came around with their square shaped Burgers. Even though Burger King, White Castle, and Wendy's are all fairly sizable, McDonald's is still the top hamburger consumer hotspot worldwide.
On the Side
While everyone loves the Burger, it cannot be complete without a side order. These side orders are usually soda and the almighty fries. Sometimes it could be quite different. At BBQs, you get the side order of chicken wings, salad, or steak. But out of all else, the fries and coke will be the dominator.French Fries
French fries (by US American English), or chips (by British English,) are slices of a potato that have been deep-fried to juicy perfection. They're usually dipped with ketchup or covered with it. A dip combination that very few people use is mayonnaise and ketchup. While unhealthy, it's quite a tasty combination.Many US citizens consider the fry to be a creation from the French. The French consider the fry to be a creation from Belgium. The first statement is quite wrong. The second is an absolute yes... sort of. For you see, the Spanish Netherlands already started baking fries during the 1680s, in the area of the Meuse valley between Dinant and Liège, Belgium. The inhabitants of that region had their lakes frozen, ridding the ability of gaining fish to cook. So they instead cut potatoes and baked them oil until the Lakes became unfrozen.
The French, soon later, annexed with Belgium. They took control over the place until the Congress of Vienna of 1815 brought it under Dutch control. So before french fries got into the cook books, Belgium found the french fry since the beginning. That is until France took all the credit once they took control over Belgium, giving someone the idea to put "French" before the name "fry".
