It’s been a very busy two weeks and only now am I getting around to writing about the National Hamburger Festival that was held in downtown Akron a couple of weekends ago.
The atmosphere at the event this year was very festive. The crowd seemed larger than past and people were walking around happily munching away on their snacks and imbibing their beverages.
The number of vendors participating this time around seemed fewer and I was missing a particular food truck from Cleveland called “Krav” which served a memorable Korean Burger. Nevertheless, I was determined to try more than one kind of sandwich this year before my stomach ran out of room.
While most of the food tents offered “half” burgers, I decided to order from a food truck called “The Green Machine”. They had a sampler which consisted of 4 sliders (miniature burgers) – 1) Tartar Burger with caramelized onions, bacon and cheese 2) Southern Chow Chow Burger with tomato, red peppers, relish and bacon 3) Traditional Burger with chipotle mayo, lettuce, tomato and cheese 4) Chile Conqueso Burger with pickled onions. All four are pictured above.
The best thing I tasted in those four sliders were the pickled onions and it added a deep dimension to the flavor profile of the burger. Unfortunately, I found that the meat three of the four burgers were under-cooked. I like my meat medium but those were definitely rare to medium rare that afternoon. Perhaps they were pressed for time, as I did have to wait approximately 15 minutes for my order to be ready.
The organizers estimated approximately 22,000 people attended the two day event which is by any means, a successful weekend. The winners of juried burger contests were : Sammie’s of Tallmadge for Best Traditional Burger, Eat N Park for Best Southern Burger, Martini Brothers of Youngstown for Best Creative Burger, Smoke The Burger Joint for Best Creative Toppings, and Max and Erma’s for Best Healthy Burger.
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