It was 4 July and therefore it was the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by the rebel British colonials in North America. On a recently issued postage stamp, the United States Post Office identified the burger as a modern American icon. This seems reasonable enough.
Therefore I thought I really should eat a good quality hamburger, as we used to call them, on the occasion of this notable anniversary. I’m not a fan of the burger. You can pay a lot of money for some of them and leave the table feeling very disappointed. After all they’re just meat pressed together on a bun and jazzed up with various ingredients and glamourised by the people who are prepared to pay to eat them - middle-aged hipsters who think they know a lot about food and think street food is cool. It isn’t - cool - it’s overpriced, served in horrible containers with useless wooden utensils in uncomfortable, often cold locations.
That said, I was determined to have a hamburger on this special date and living near Longbridge, it did seem likely that I would get a very edible burger at Herbert’s Yard (which has gradually been improved since it first opened) without too much travelling being involved. Every time I have visited there, there has been a stall or a wagon selling hamburgers so I was somewhat surprised, and mildly irritated, when I arrived there, on 4 July in particular, to find there were indeed no purveyors of burgers on site. Herbert’s Yard on Independence Day was definitely not selling burgers. Harrumph!
I have a sense of occasion and my mind raced to try to think of an alternative source of quality hamburger. I could call a Uber and head for the Wildmoor Oak Inn not too far away. There was bound to be a good burger there but I was lacking the drive to do so. Then I resolved to have my burger and eat it by buying and sampling Marks and Spencer’s burgers - they should be good and the shop and food hall was just a short distance away, across the car park.
And that is how I found myself sitting in my garden on the terrace eating an excellently cooked, very nicely tasting M & S burger, with a subtly flavoured coronation coleslaw (M &S) and caramelised onions (rather good even if I say so myself), all on an appealingly sweet and fresh brioche bun (M & S again), served with a very well cooked, pleasingly sweet and large corn on the cob, generously buttered. Oh! AI added the tiny US flag flying from a cocktail stick.
The dog sat close by enjoying the tidbits which she managed to scrounge and a glass of Pimms No 1 rounded off a fine meal wherein I discovered that I could enjoy a hamburger after all, if it was done just right and on the right occasion. And for dessert, a slice of M & S citrus cheesecake with cream cheese- the lemon in it was as refreshing and full of zing as one could hope for. No doubt about it, some of these M & S products really are very good.
Home cooked 4 July .
Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞 (well, I cooked it didn’t I?)
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