Thursday, June 19. 2008Why Is a Hamburger Called a Hamburger if it is Made of Beef?
Yesterday I was riding to school and attempting not to get run over by yet another insane driver …. or biker …. or pedestrian who thinks traffic lights are for decoration and this is some bizarre game of frogger. Anyhow, as I was going through the morning chaos, it suddenly hit me:
Why is a hamburger called a hamburger if it is made out of beef?
Consulting my good and all knowing friend wikipedia and my fool-proof intuition, I came up with the following three possible explanations:
- At a fair, some guy serving meatballs got the idea to flatten them for better portability. Since they were made of pork, they got the name “hamburger”. The only problem with this explanation, is why is it now made of beef?
- At a different fair (what is up with all the fairs anyway? I guess that’s where the smartest chefs go to work, lol), a guy was serving sausage patties. They ran out of pork and decided to use a cow instead. They found the beef to be rather bland so they put lots of gunk on top and voilà the hamburger was born. The name of place place? Hamburg, New York.
- This is simply a mystery of life, to be contemplated while riding through Beijing traffic … kind of like the buttered cat paradox. But I’ll think about that on a different bike ride.
What is your take on this?
Yesterday I was riding to school and attempting not to get run over by yet another insane driver …. or biker …. or pedestrian who thinks traffic lights are for decoration and this is some bizarre game of frogger. Anyhow, as I was going through the morning chaos, it suddenly hit me:
Why is a hamburger called a hamburger if it is made out of beef?
Consulting my good and all knowing friend wikipedia and my fool-proof intuition, I came up with the following three possible explanations:
- At a fair, some guy serving meatballs got the idea to flatten them for better portability. Since they were made of pork, they got the name “hamburger”. The only problem with this explanation, is why is it now made of beef?
- At a different fair (what is up with all the fairs anyway? I guess that’s where the smartest chefs go to work, lol), a guy was serving sausage patties. They ran out of pork and decided to use a cow instead. They found the beef to be rather bland so they put lots of gunk on top and voilà the hamburger was born. The name of place place? Hamburg, New York.
- This is simply a mystery of life, to be contemplated while riding through Beijing traffic … kind of like the buttered cat paradox. But I’ll think about that on a different bike ride.
What is your take on this?
