Hamburguesas Yurirenses - 185

One of the things that the kids used to always like about traveling to their Dad's hometown in Mexico was the opportunity to eat better hamburgers than they could eat in the U.S. I have to concur...those hamburguesas in Yuriria (Javier's hometown in the state of Guanajuato) were very good. They were sold off a cart on the corner of a street in the central area of Yuriria, a town at that time of about 15,000 people. Someone told me recently that they guys (they're twins) who run this cart have occupied this same corner for over 30 years.

First I'll tell you about the HAMBURGUESAS YURIRENSES in their classical, Mexican preparation and then I'll tell you about the adjustments we've made to make them fit into our new way of eating. On the cart, the vendor has a freezer compartment where he keeps the hamburger patties. They are wafer thin and separated by small sheets of waxed paper. As people order these - and there is usually a crowd around the cart - he throws them down on the grill with a sizzling pat of butter and starts asking what everyone wants on their burger. The secret isn't just the thin patty sizzling on butter, but the toppings which have all been finely diced. You can have tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, shredded lettuce, catsup, mayonnaise, and mustard all piled on to the bun (which has been toasted on the grill in another pat of butter). Another one of their specialties is roasting a weiner on the grill, finely dicing it, and adding it to the pile between the buns. These HAMBURGUESAS YURIRENSES are big, but due to the amount of toppings piled on the thin-grilled-in-butter patty, which has all but disappeared in the toasted, buttery bun.

For our dinner last night, we first started with lean turkey, and seasoned it well before shaping it into patties. We grilled it on our griddle that had been lightly greased with olive oil. (I would have loved butter). We found some thin, whole grain buns at COSTCO last week, which after toasting on the grill without butter, we covered with the finely diced items mentioned above, but only used minimal amounts of catsup, mustard, and mayo. They were very good, although I have to admit that nothing beats the original combined with the experience of standing on the street corner in Yuriria and wolfing down burgers with about 10-15 other people!