By: A Southern Girls Northern Guy
I started cooking Burgers Around the World when my oldest son was old enough to sit up, but not old enough to crawl away. The Southern Girl was still in real estate, and working weekends, so Saturdays became a day when the men in the house could do whatever they wanted. But what would make a perfect daddy day? It should be a day that he would tell all his friends about, when he learned to talk that is. It should have learning, playing, singing and field trips….and grilling, ya it should definitely have grilling. “How does that sound to you son?”
I started cooking Burgers Around the World when my oldest son was old enough to sit up, but not old enough to crawl away. The Southern Girl was still in real estate, and working weekends, so Saturdays became a day when the men in the house could do whatever they wanted. But what would make a perfect daddy day? It should be a day that he would tell all his friends about, when he learned to talk that is. It should have learning, playing, singing and field trips….and grilling, ya it should definitely have grilling. “How does that sound to you son?”
Okay, I think he likes the idea
I can grill meat, but am by no means a chef and my 8 month old couldn’t name one state capital and if you asked him where Italy was on a map, he would point to an ocean and giggle. I realized that if each week we took on the challenge of creating a hamburger that embodied the traditional flavors and cooking styles of a country or region, we could both learn a thing or two and have a blast doing it. Here is how our Saturdays went. When the house was ours and the diapers were clean, we would get online to research the country the Southern Girl had challenged us with and plan a menu. I would also find some interesting facts about the country, their customs and language as well as download some music to listen to while we cooked and then he would go down for a nap. When he woke up we would go on a field trip to get our ingredients, but never to a chain grocery store. We would go wherever the best ingredients were, most of the time it was a little market in a strip mall that I would never have thought to go in. The owners would typically look at us funny when we first walked in because we were not their usual clientele, but they were all so friendly and eager to help after I explained what we were doing. We had a blast walking around, smelling smells we had never smelled before and feeling textures on foods we had never scene before. Most of the stores had languages other then English on the labels, so neither my son nor I could understand what we were buying, we would just take the owners word for it.
After another nap, it was cooking time. Sometimes he would help me cook, and other times he would sit in his highchair and giggle as I told him everything I knew about the country while some random mariachi band or famous Russian techno dj played on the computer.
I’m looking forward to sharing some of our adventures preparing the meal as well as stories of sharing the meals with some of our closest friends who were willing to taste test some never before cooked recipes. Oh ya, I guess I’ll post the recipes to, except for the Irish Burger. Trust me, you don’t want the recipe for the Irish Burger.
