6 replies to this topic

[Fat Guy]

Fun story on Time.com about American expat Lucille Crook and her American-style greasy spoon, Lucille's, in Cairo.

Six kitchen butchers double-grind ultra-lean round and rump steaks, mixing in a secret ratio of "clean" fat, and then double-press the patties in a mold to ensure cooking consistency. The lettuce, tomato and onions are grown in the Nile River basin's year-round sunshine, requiring no preservatives. "It really boils down to the fact that it's all homemade," Lucille tells me. "We've gone back to basics. I don't throw anything in the grinder that doesn't belong there."

[Nicolai]

Interesting article.

Few holes in there which makes the mind wonder.

Where do I start?

1- Foul Medames
Foul Medames is the Levant/Lebanese/Syrian version of the original Egyptian Foul in the sense that the original Egyptian dish does not contain any garlic whatsoever.
This goes back to the 80's with the influx of Lebanese gentry who requested their Egyptian Foul to include mashed garlic.

You could not and would not possibly get Foul with garlic pre the 80's in Cairo.

The statement at the begining of the article makes the writer credibility put in question.

It might be that this was the best burger the writer ever ate but does it make it the best burger in the world?

2- Does it really need six kitchen butchers to prepare an average of 200 burgers a day???!@?@?@? Hummm that's like 33.33 burgers per butcher per day. This means on a normal 8 hours per day, each butcher manages 4.16 burgers an hour.
Something does not add up in this article.

3- Double grinding lean meat?
In my dictionary, you will end up with a very fine meat mince akin the one made for the Kofta and very smooth which is not what the meat of a real burger should be. But I suppose this is a controversial statement as to which smoothness the meat of a burger should be?

4- The locally sourced ingredients being organic or not is a bit of a red herring in case they use some for the marinade (big schukle).
Suffice to say that there is no beef in Egypt but what is locally called a "Kandussa" which is buffalo something.
Beef and lamb is imported and not locally sourced. Easily checked in the Egypt stat on imports.

Having aired my views, I remain in no doubt that the writer did like the Lucille burgers and they might be as good as claimed in the article.
But "Best in the World" ..... get me another Bud!@$!@%$

[docsconz]

Still, I have to admit that when it's lunchtime, I usually head for Lucille's, a humble American-style greasy spoon in the Maadi district of Cairo that may serve the tastiest burger in the world. Don't let me distract you from your Fourth of July barbecue; but yes, a family restaurant in Egypt dishes up the best burger I've ever eaten, and I'm not the only one who thinks that way. One of owner Lucille Crooks's thrills came the day she witnessed a young American backpacker talking and smiling to his burger as he alternately beheld it and munched on it. "That tickled me, he was enjoying it so much," Lucille recalls. "He wasn't expecting to find a real hamburger in Egypt, and not one that good."

In fairness to the writer, he does not make the unsubtantiable claim that Lucille's burger is "the best in the world." He considers that it may be the best in the world.

[Baggy]

It may be unfair to question the authenticity of the article based on the observation of six chefs producing only 200 burgers a day. My own experience of running a business in Cairo was, with unemployment running conservatively at 20% and with hidden unemployment (like all the 35- year old university students, not to mention all the government jobs), more likely to be double this figure. So when you employ an individual you actually end up employing his brothers, cousins and neighbours…

Six chefs doesn’t sound so bad to me.

[docsconz]

It may be unfair to question the authenticity of the article based on the observation of six chefs producing only 200 burgers a day.  My own experience of running a business in Cairo was, with unemployment running conservatively at 20% and with hidden unemployment (like all the 35- year old university students, not to mention all the government jobs), more likely to be double this figure.  So when you employ an individual you actually end up employing his brothers, cousins and neighbours…

Six chefs doesn’t sound so bad to me.

In addition, the burgers are not the only items on the menu and the butchers are likely doing more than just making 200 hamburgers per day.

[zora]

I was just in Cairo, and I can tell you that every single American expat I talked to _raved_ about Lucille's. Not just for the burger, but for stuff like free soda refills. (Ah, what would be more authentically American than that?) It's a full-on craze.

But I myself did not get down to Ma'adi for a meal. I ate a damn fine burger at Crave, in Zamalek, but now I'm wondering if I made a mistake by writing off Ma'adi entirely.

I did like in the article that they specified that they added fat to the mix--which I'm sure would constitute a "secret ingredient" in the US because no one would admit to that kind of thing. And my guess as to one of their actual secret ingredients: fish sauce. Betcha anything. In fact, next time I make a burger at home, I'll brush a little on it while it's cooking.

On the down side, I actually ate a terrible, mealy tomato this time in Egypt--first time ever. I heard from a friend in Cairo that the current Minister of Agriculture started all kinds of greenhouse programs and a lot more industrialized/chemicalized/nastyized farming. Thanks for nothing. Now apparently the only place to get reliably good produce is at small markets in poorer neighborhoods, because that stuff comes from little farms right in Cairo, on the islands around Ma'adi... Hmmm--perhaps Lucille's has a connection.

[sazji]

On the down side, I actually ate a terrible, mealy tomato this time in Egypt--first time ever. I heard from a friend in Cairo that the current Minister of Agriculture started all kinds of greenhouse programs and a lot more industrialized/chemicalized/nastyized farming.  Thanks for nothing.  Now apparently the only place to get reliably good produce is at small markets in poorer neighborhoods, because that stuff comes from little farms right in Cairo, on the islands around Ma'adi... Hmmm--perhaps Lucille's has a connection.

Tomatoes seem to be the first thing to go bad wherever agriculture gets "modernized." Especially when they start growing them in greenhouses so they will be available year-round, with hormones to make them fruit..you get these mealy, pale, hard things with seedless, tasteless jelly inside. I hated tomatoes growing up and learned to like them for the first time in Greece back in the 70s. Just recently I was back there and watching Vefa Alexiadou's cooking program, and she said "...of course we can't get good vine-ripened tomatoes any more, so we have to make do with what we can get..." and I wanted to cry! (To be fair, you can still find decent tomatoes in the street markets.)

The commonplace Turkish version of a "hamburger" is so disgusting that I won't subject y'all to it...I think an American-style "real hamburger" place here would be a wonderful idea, if for no other reason than to let people know that McDonalds is not the be-all-end-all of American food...