MONTREAL – It’s a vote fraught with politics and personal bias.
No not the Quebec elections, but the vote for the city’s best hamburger.
Between Saturday and Sept. 7, more than 30 Montreal restaurants – from fancy downtown eateries to neighbourhood joints and old-fashioned diners – will serve their best-dressed burgers in hopes of being crowned The People’s Best Burger as part of Montreal Burger Week.
Throughout the week, Montreal burger lovers will have the chance to try these burgers at special prices ($5, $10 or $15) and then vote online for their favourites. Among the participants are Café Souvenir in Outremont, which will serve a “breakfast burger” with pulled pork, and Comptoir 21, offering a crispy deep-fried fish burger. Taverne Gaspare promises a more conventional barbecue bourbon bacon burger and Suite 701 a high-end foie gras burger.
Na’eem Adam, the 29-year-old local food blogger and marketing consultant who brought Burger Week to Montreal, says the competition is not meant to be taken too seriously.
“It’s about having fun and getting people to try different burgers and maybe discover a few new toppings,” said Adam, whose blog Le Méchant Mangeur seeks out the best places in town to eat and watch hockey.
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Adam says people tend to get stuck in their burger habits. If you live in the east end, Dic Anne’s is probably your go-to hamburger joint. In Ville Émard, it will probably be Dilallo and in Montreal West Burger de Ville.
But Adam says Montreal has a lively burger scene, as do most major cities across North America these days. And burgers aren’t just lowly fast food anymore. Burgers are gourmet food. They are served in fancy restaurants, on artisanal buns, with grass-fed beef, truffles, Comté cheese and heirloom tomatoes.
The competition will feature everything from classic American burgers to New Age bulgogi burgers and vegetarian burgers.
“Restaurants really try to differentiate themselves with their own special toppings,” he said. “You could have 20 different guys on a street making burgers and they’d all be different.”
But you can still get a $3 all-dressed burger, hold the ketchup, at a local greasy spoon if that’s the kind of delicious that you’re after.
Just what is it about hamburgers that so captures people’s imaginations, and appetites? Adam, a veteran burger eater, says it’s the symphony of textures and flavours wedged between the bun.
“A hamburger is just so mmmmmmm. There’s a bunch of flavours in just one bite,” he says. “Eat a steak and every bite is going to taste pretty much the same. But bite into a burger and, wow, there are so many things going on – from the meat to the sauce to the toppings and the bun.
And if all that burger-binging sounds like too much, Burger Weeks organizers are planning a run on Mount Royal on Sept 6.
For details about the competition and participating restaurants, and to register votes go to http://www.burgerweekmtl.com. Proceeds from the event go to the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation.
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