A Burger Model Value Understanding: La Smashburguesa

Whether or not it’s topped with American cheese, dijonnaise or oxtail marmalade, your hamburger is yours to do with what you please, and also you’re free to place something you need on it.

Within the metropolis of Torreon in northern Mexico, the burgers come topped with slices of seared pork as a substitute of bacon or another number of meat. Fermin Nunez, the chef behind award-winning Austin restaurant Suerte, grew up consuming these ham-topped burgers, and when he was tasked with developing with the delicacies for a brand new watering gap impressed by the bar cultures of Spain, France and Mexico, he knew an homage to the hamburgers of his youth wanted to be on the menu.

“In northern Mexico, the quick meals burger shouldn’t be as prevalent as it’s within the States. The burger is definitely extra of a luxurious than a commodity, however that doesn’t imply there’s a scarcity of nice burgers,” Nunez who moved to Austin in 2009 and was named Eater Austin’s Chef of the 12 months in 2018, tells InsideHook. “Numerous the burgers I grew up consuming in Torreon have been from stands that popped up in household garages. All of these burgers at all times had some kind of seared ham in them. Recreating this reminiscence was a no brainer for me.”

Christened La Smashburguesa, the hamburger at Bar Toti, the primary one which Nunez has ever placed on one among his menus, is served on a sesame bun and comes topped with white American cheese, chipotle burger sauce, escabeche relish and, in fact, seared ham.

“For no matter cause, Mexicans are inclined to put ham on cheeseburgers. I don’t know the place that got here from however possibly one thing was misplaced in translation.” Nunez says. “After I had the chance to have a burger on a menu that had my identify on it, I considered including ham to make it Mexican. So far as the escabeche unfold, I’ve by no means been an enormous fan of pickles on cheeseburgers as a result of they’re candy however I really like the acid you get from pickled meals. So to me, it was pure to unfold it excessive. Sometimes you’ll have the escabeche on the aspect and also you’d take a chunk of the burger after which have a chunk of the pepper and the cauliflower and the carrot. I put it on prime as a result of that’s how I might eat it.”

Although Nunez loved a model of La Smashburguesa, which he likens to a muffuletta, as a child, he’s discovered a special cause to take pleasure in his adaptation of the specialty burger as an grownup. “Rising up, it was a deal with to go have a burger on a Wednesday evening. Then once I was in my 20s, it was a deal with to have a burger with ham on it after an evening of ingesting,” he says. “I believe as you become old, that’s positively once you eat it most. In the event you’re at a bar having some drinks and also you need one thing greasy that’s going to make you happier than earlier than you bought it. That’s at all times the purpose when folks eat this cheeseburger.”

And Bar Toti’s clients have been consuming La Smashburguesa.

“Individuals love burgers they usually go loopy for it. It blows their thoughts that they’ve by no means seen a burger with ham on it,” Nunez says. “It adjustments folks’s views. As a chef, you’re consistently doing the identical factor time and again in repetition food-wise. I’ve eaten this burger so many instances now and I’ve by no means gotten uninterested in it. consuming it. I’m at all times excited, identical to the primary time I attempted to eat it. I really like this burger.”

Right here’s Chef Nunez’s recipe together with a primer on the way to smash your burger correctly earlier than including ham.