Budapest Burgerwar: The Inter-Continental Corso Burger
As I recently explained, our desire to bring the now almost year-old Budapest Burgerwar™ to its long-overdue conclusion has meant putting aside all the "lizard meat" burgers and other burgers of indeterminate animal origin now widely available in Budapest in favor of a few additional, bona fide local examples of the American classic. Meanwhile, it is only logical that at the top of this list of remaining must-rate burgers would be those offered by the city's handful of high-end hotels which are either American or have the sort of clienteles that would seem to demand a serious contender. So on a beautiful day early last week I made my way over to the riverside terrace restaurant of the Hotel InterContinental Budapest to sample their "Corso Burger" and see if maybe at long last I had finally found our winner.
Aside from the splendid setting in which I consumed my Corso Burger - which is named after the restaurant which is in turn named after the korzó (promenade) that runs along the Danube - I was gratified to see that, at Ft 3,300, it was significantly less expensive than the seemingly comparable Gresham Beef Burger (Ft 4,200) and Kempinski Beef Burger (Ft 4,250). Still, at today's exchange rate, Ft 3,300 buys you €14.25 - and, for American burger fans, a shocking $22.40 - and the drinks are far from cheap, with your basic beer going for Ft 1,200, and cokes Ft 800 a pop. So I knew before I ordered that it would have to be a damn good burger for me to leave feeling upbeat.
Unfortunately, the problems started even before I ordered, as it quickly became clear that my waiter hadn't been properly programmed to act like a cheerful American service droid, which, at these prices, seems only fair. Not only that, but he didn't bother asking me or my companion how we wanted our burgers cooked, and then either didn't relay our preferences to the kitchen, or did so to a cook who didn't understand that when someone orders a burger medium-rare the damn thing better come out medium-rare, especially if it costs as much as a decent steak in Kansas City. And even though I further stressed to said waiter that the burgers should be left rózsaszín ("pink") both came out a particularly unappetizing shade of asphalt gray.
More fortunate was the bun, which was firm and beefy, though a bit too big for the burger. But it unfortunately brought additional disillusionment in the form of several thin slices of cucumber embedded in a slathering of mayonnaise, both of which drew attention from the crispy bacon and Swiss cheese that are among the few extras offered along with the Corso. (You can also get bleu cheese and a spoogy mushroom sauce that I would recommend you avoid as well.)
As for the "farm fries," they were nicely crispy and, despite the name, petite and pleasantly spiced. (Note to whomever is doing the menu: for the American-types who normally order hotel burgers, the word "farm" usually implies big and bland rather than petit and piquant.) But the "texicana dip" that came with them was both out of place and not very agreeable, being more acidic than tangy, and I quickly ditched it in favor of plain old American "farm" catsup. And I would have gladly traded the enjoyable selection of fresh bread and spreads (bottom pic) that came with my meal for a properly-sized order of fries, which for a burger like this should have been twice again as large.
So all in all, I'm sorry to report that one of the few remaining Budapest burgers out there which seemed to have had a shot at everlasting glory will instead be remembered as just another Burgerwar casualty. But like they say, war is hell.
How They Stack Up:
Meat: (7/10)
Bun: (8/10)
Trimmings: (6/10)
Service/Setting: (7/10)
Affordability: (2/10)
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Total Score: 6.2/10
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Can't _one_ restaurant in this country figure out how to slap a nicely-cooked slab of ground beef and some traditional condiments between two halves of a similarly-sized toasted bun that won't fall apart, and charge something less than $20 for it? Why is this so freakin' hard to do?
_
I think, Erik, that what we've witnessed through the long, hard, slog of the Budapest Burgerwar is everyday Hungarian provincialism at work. Or maybe it's chauvinism, or some combination of the two. Namely: there's a Hungarian way to do something, and that's it. Who cares if said something was invented and perfected elsewhere? No matter what, a hamburger in this country will always consist of a thin piece of shitty overcooked ground beef, an untoasted, oversized, crumbly bun, and way, way too many condiments, including many things that have no business being in a burger, such as raw cucumbers and csalamade.
_
As Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." I get the sinking feeling that our pursuit of a decent burger in this 'burg uncannily fits that description.
_
Or maybe I'm wrong. I hear there's a new mobile food stand outside the Szechenyi baths, on the Circusz side, that's cranking out edible burgers at very low cost. I'm not getting my hopes up but it's worth investigating...
Thanks God for Cassa Retro burgers! BTW, Ballet Shoes on Hajos utca have acceptable restaurant burgs.
@Sean: ChaChaCha Bodega burgers and Clock Café burgers are not half bad and neither of them are too expensive! I do agree with the rest of your statement about the Hungarian National attitude.
@Killer: It's Ballet Shoe! or even better: Balletcipő! ;)
@Killer - Cassa Retro? What/where is that?
@Erik: It's my flat...in other words, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
Iguana has a killer cheeseburger. The best I've had outside of the USA.
maybe the problem is that beside USA no other country is so keen on something like burgers... there might be lot of things perfected in US that can be considered contribution to civilisation in general, but i doubt that burger is seen anything more than american style fast food, not something to be fussy or proud of... rightly or wrongly...
incidentally to be proud of your national cusine is very typical of all european countries (italy, spain, france etc etc), partially because we do have ones to be proud of...
it is pretty though to get proper pizza or tagliata outside Italy (although it is possible), good tapas out of spain, properly prepared raw salmon outside scandinavia - and most people would consider those actually as _good_ food...
Killer -- I did the review for the Balettcipo burger, I think. It was fair to middling, if I remember, which made it a frontrunner in the Budapest Burgerwar.
As for the ChaChaCha Bodega burger, try it when you're not hammered. It's really not all that great. And you have to beg and plead with them to not include csalamade, and half the time they look at you like you have two heads and slop it on there anyway.
I'm interested in this Clock Cafe burger. Where that at?
Anonymous: while it may take some effort to find really good renditions of national cuisines outside of their host countries, it's generally not impossible. Stuck in L.A. with a hankering for French food? You can find it, sure. Looking for decent sushi in Stockholm? Probably not that hard to do. Looking for a burger that knocks your socks off in Hungary? You're S.O.L. We've proven here that it's utterly impossible to get a properly made hamburger & fries at any price here in Budapest (save for the Four Seasons). This latest review is especially depressing because the Intercontinental is a *British* chain. Even they can't stamp out the local burgermaking habits! Somehow you just know that chef at the Intercontinental wishes he could churn out burgers his way, something like this:
http://www.chew.hu/budapest_burgerwar_the_netburg.html
Yo. On a totally different subject. I had the best spaghetti alle vongole EVER (and I grew up in Italy). No kidding. At Fausto's.
Actually that's kind of the same subject! I've had extremely good food here too -- French, Italian, you name it. The Hungos just seem hellbent on fucking up the lowly hamburger.
"Iguana has a killer cheeseburger. The best I've had outside of the USA."
I was there last monday and got the burger. The kitchen staff peppered, black not the veggie, the entire rim of the plate. Each time I went in for a nibble all I could do was smell black pepper, btw not a fan. Got some funny/confused looks when I asked them to put it on another plate.
Good burger for Hungary though, asked for it med-rare came almost med-rare.
@Sean - The ChaChaCha Bodega Burger when I'm not hammered? That is VERY unlikely to happen....:D
As for the Time Cafe burger, its currently heading up the burgerwar: http://www.chew.hu/budapest_burgerwar_the_clock_m.html (and I have tried it sober and I think it's very good for Budapest).
Please tell me what Csalamade is and why you all hate it.Thanks.
http://www.chew.hu/csalamade.html
I don't hate it, but on a burger it's pretty nasty...
@sean
Well, I think the Hungarian attempt at making a burger is probably more authentic than the American attempt at making a goulash. I mean, it's a soup not a casserole dish for starters. As you said, why is that sooo freakin' hard to do?
In defense of Sean - take a trip over the border to Slovakia and you will see that bastardization of gulyas is hardly an American phenomenon. Hence, the transliterated name - gulash. Plus I think any Hungarian chef would take issue with your assertion that making one is 'easy'. But, you have been all over America sampling gulash, so you know best.
And, yeah, a good burger is really feakin easy to make, and just as easy to mess up.
Bitter Pill,
Clearly you failed to understand the point I was making. Moreover, if you read my post I used the word "probably". So I object to your rather sarcastic remark about how far and wide I've travelled and what I've eaten whilst doing so. And did I assert that making goulash was easy? Nope. However, lowering myself to your train of thought for a moment, I do congratulate you for being able to speak on behalf of the entire Hungarian culinary community. Doubtless you've conversed with many Hungarian chefs during your time here about technical aspects of the local cuisine.
More importantly though, I'd like Sean to give a little more detail on just where the hamburger has been perfected? Does he mean the United States? And does his brand of burger perfection include those oh so tasty examples served up by McDonalds and Burger King? Or is that branch of perfection conveniently excluded?
What Trixy is pushing is just petty, veiled anti-Americanism. There are better venues for it than a food blog, don't you think?
Huh Cummin?
On the contrary, I've been to the States on many occasions and there's much to admire about both the country and its people. However, in denegrating the efforts of Hungarian chefs trying to make burgers here, he mentions that their cooking has been perfected elsewhere. I merely pointed out that, if he's referring to the United States, then hamburger connoisseurs would unlikely include the likes of McDonalds and Burger King under the banner of perfection. How is that Anti-American? It's called OPINION. And I'm entitled to mine on here, just as much as your entitled to yours.
In fact, Hungarians would have more reason to complain about posts here Sean talks of Hungarian provincialism, chauvinism and later on, refers to "Hungos". WTF are they? To me, that comes across as a derogatory term, along the lines of "Drongos" in Australia. At the very least, his posts adopt an air of superiority, though they strike me as having more of a negative colonial attitude towards Hungary. And yet, no one pulled him up on these things. Instead, I'm ANTI-AMERICAN! Laughable.
And my comments re. goulash still stand. If everyone on here is keen to get Hungarians cooking burgers exactly as they would find in a good American restaurant, maybe Hungarians should also demand that American/British cooks and restaurants stop serving goulash as a meaty casserole dish over rice!
My view exactly. I think the comment, "Erik, that what we've witnessed through the long, hard, slog of the Budapest Burgerwar is everyday Hungarian provincialism at work. Or maybe it's chauvinism, or some combination of the two. Namely: there's a Hungarian way to do something, and that's it. Who cares if said something was invented and perfected elsewhere?" is not very constructive and indeed not even very accurate.
I doubt that quality of american burget (as tasted by american - and for surely can be rightly complained about!!) is THE proof of the attitude of hungarian chefs or hungarian society in general. You can get decent national cuisine in Hungary, although might not be the case for burgers.
Maybe the reason could be that indeed for italian, french etc cuisine you can get proper training etc as they are considered kind of "haute cuisine" but for american cuisine that might not be the case. However, i think that attitude applies even more so for a lot of other european countries... ;-)
My guess is that, like most cuisines absorbed into the so-called, but basically non-existent American cuisine, Gulash was not appropriated by natural-born citizens, but brought by immigrants, be they Hungarian or other Eastern European countries that offer gulash. Like the Chinese modified their food to fit local tastes in Budapest, so did those immigrants. Or perhaps they did so by financial necessity, or due to the lack of proper ingredients.
Either way, it begs the question: is 'proper' Hungarian gulash even worth replicating abroad? I actually prefer the type you get in Prague, with bread dumplings.
@CuminfromtheCold: "[S]o-called, but basically non-existent American cuisine…"? What the hell does that mean? America has *loads* of dishes that are as genuinely, er, indigenous as any other country's, if not the sort of stuff that sissy-pants Europeans would eat in their big castles stuffed with old paintings and stuffed deer heads. Gumbo! Texas chili! Chicken-fried steak! Lobster roll! Corndogs! And not to mention a 100% beef burger that doesn't cost as much as a steak, and is cooked the way you order it without having to know someone...
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. To begin: "Hungo" is an affectionate neologism for a Hungarian national. It's been thrown around this and other Pestiside-affiliated sites for a while now, so don't read anything into that. I won't address your peevish assumptions about what I think of McDonald's and Burger King, however. Puh-leeze.
Anonymous, you claim that what I say "is not very constructive and indeed not even very accurate." Whether or not this is constructive is neither here nor there, but can you make a serious counterargument that Hungary's food scene is neither provincial nor chauvinistic? Which of the following statements could you argue with?
-Global food trends are slow to arrive in Hungary
-A large proportion of Hungarians are, on balance, loathe to try foods that are alien to them, i.e. sushi
-Most Hungarians happily put ketchup on pizza
Anyway. This isn't some sort of anti-Magyar screed. Far from it. I'm just saying that some things get lost in translation when they enter the Carpathian basin, it's funny that the unpretentious hamburger is the most glaring example, and Hungarian hard-headedness is the most likely culprit.
P.S. Erik, you forgot cherry cheesecake.
The only place you could find all those dishes under one roof is a Epcot Center. Nobody is saying there are not regional specialties, but as to a pan-American cuisine? (Try asking for a lobster roll in Wyoming or a gumbo in Maine). Even chili is defined regionally: tex-mex. And many of the foods you mention are only loosely indigenous, gumbo in particular (the word itself is Ghanan). And cheesecake? Pre-dates America. American cuisine is like a British accent: it exists in theory.
C-
The US is a country of 300 million people. The country in the world with the most similar population is Indonesia. Which cuisine, out of the 6000 separate islands there, would you describe as "pan-Indonesian?" The EU has a population on the same order of magnitude as the US, around 490 million. Which non-Epcot restaurant is going to represent "European" food?
Creole cooking is shared with some islands but is just as indigenous to parts of the US. Southern American cuisine is every bit as coherent as, say, Alsatian (and what is French cuisine, anyway?)
A pan-US cuisine would probably start with the same paramaters as pan-US culture. That is, we are a melting pot from across the globe where different traditions can meet, mingle, and become something new. So now you have a prevalence of fusion type restaurants that might serve a blue cheese, bacon, avocado, and fried plantains salad--which certainly isn't anything other than American.
Tom
"Well, I think the Hungarian attempt at making a burger is probably more authentic than the American attempt at making a goulash"
That, my friends, is perfect 10 rating for how you threadjack. Congrats to Trixy for successfully changing the topic from 'why can't something so simple be recreated in Hungary' to whatever the hell you were pointing out about America and McDonalds.
You know what else they have in the US? Big, frosty 16oz cans of STFU, why don't you go grab one from the fridge.
@Wilbur,
I bet the long winter evenings must just fly by in your house. Glad to see the US is exporting its brightest and best to Hungary. Keep up the good work!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/dining/16paris.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
“A hamburger is the architecture of taste par excellence,” she explained. “The meat needs to be a mix of fatty and lean. Not raw, not rare. It must be medium rare. At the same time the bread needs to be smooth, tepid, toasted on the sesame side. I like to brush the soft side with butter. There needs to be a crispy chiffonade of iceberg lettuce. Everything plays a role.”
Man oh man. Now there's one Frenchman who gets it!