Hamburger America

The classic guide to America's greatest hamburger eateries returns in a completely updated third edition--featuring 200 establishments where you can find the perfect regional burger and reclaim a precious slice of Americana. America's foremost hamburger expert George Motz has been back on the road to completely update and expand his classic book, spotlighting the nation's best roadside stands, nostalgic diners, mom-n-pop shops, and college town favorites --capturing their rich histories and one-of-a-kind taste experiences. Whether you're an armchair traveler, a serious connoisseur, or a curious adventurer, Hamburger America will inspire you to get on the road and get back to food that's even more American than apple pie. "A wonderful book. When you travel across the United States, take this guide along with you." -- Martha Stewart "A fine overview of the best practitioners of the burger sciences." -- Anthony Bourdain "Just looking at this book makes me hungry, and reading George's stories will take you on the ultimate American road trip."-- Michael Bloomberg "George Motz is the Indiana Jones of hamburger archeology."--David Page, creator of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

America's hamburger expert George Motz returns with a completely updated edition of Hamburger America, now with 150 establishments where readers can find the best burgers in the country. George Motz has made it his personal mission to preserve America's hamburger heritage, and his travelogue spotlights the nation's best roadside stands, nostalgic diners, mom-n-pop shops, and college town favorites--all with George's photographs and commentary throughout. Whether you're an armchair traveler, a serious connoisseur, or curious adventurer, Hamburger America is an essential resource for reclaiming this precious slice of Americana.

This fast-paced and entertaining book unfolds the immense significance of the hamburger as an American icon. Josh Ozersky shows how the history of the burger is entwined with American business and culture and how the burger's story is in many ways the story of the country that invented (and reinvented) it.--publisher description.

New York, the city. New York, the magazine. A celebration. The great story of New York City in the past half-century has been its near collapse and miraculous rebirth. A battered town left for dead, one that almost a million people abandoned and where those who remained had to live behind triple deadbolt locks, was reinvigorated by the twinned energies of starving artists and financial white knights. Over the next generation, the city was utterly transformed. It again became the capital of wealth and innovation, an engine of cultural vibrancy, a magnet for immigrants, and a city of endless possibility. It was the place to be—if you could afford it. Since its founding in 1968, New York Magazine has told the story of that city’s constant morphing, week after week. Covering culture high and low, the drama and scandal of politics and finance, through jubilant moments and immense tragedies, the magazine has hit readers where they live, with a sensibility as fast and funny and urbane as New York itself. From its early days publishing writers like Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, and Gloria Steinem to its modern incarnation as a laboratory of inventive magazine-making, New York has had an extraordinary knack for catching the Zeitgeist and getting it on the page. It was among the originators of the New Journalism, publishing legendary stories whose authors infiltrated a Black Panther party in Leonard Bernstein’s apartment, introduced us to the mother-daughter hermits living in the dilapidated estate known as Grey Gardens, launched Ms. Magazine, branded a group of up-and-coming teen stars “the Brat Pack,” and effectively ended the career of Roger Ailes. Again and again, it introduced new words into the conversation—from “foodie” to “normcore”—and spotted fresh talent before just about anyone. Along the way, those writers and their colleagues revealed what was most interesting at the forward edge of American culture—from the old Brooklyn of Saturday Night Fever to the new Brooklyn of artisanal food trucks, from the Wall Street crashes to the hedge-fund spoils, from The Godfather to Girls—in ways that were knowing, witty, sometimes weird, occasionally vulgar, and often unforgettable. On “The Approval Matrix,” the magazine’s beloved back-page feature, New York itself would fall at the crossroads of highbrow and lowbrow, and more brilliant than despicable. (Most of the time.) Marking the magazine’s fiftieth birthday, Highbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: 50 Years of New York draws from all that coverage to present an enormous, sweeping, idiosyncratic picture of a half-century at the center of the world. Through stories and images of power and money, movies and food, crises and family life, it constitutes an unparalleled history of that city’s transformation, and of a New York City institution as well. It is packed with behind-the-scenes stories from New York’s writers, editors, designers, and journalistic subjects—and frequently overflows its own pages onto spectacular foldouts. It’s a big book for a big town.

From its designation in 1926 to the rise of the interstates nearly sixty years later, Route 66 was, in John Steinbeck’s words, America’s Mother Road, carrying countless travelers the 2,400 miles between Chicago and Los Angeles. Whoever they were—adventurous motorists or Dustbowl migrants, troops on military transports or passengers on buses, vacationing families or a new breed of tourists—these travelers had to eat. The story of where they stopped and what they found, and of how these roadside offerings changed over time, reveals twentieth-century America on the move, transforming the nation’s cuisine, culture, and landscape along the way. Author T. Lindsay Baker, a glutton for authenticity, drove the historic route—or at least the 85 percent that remains intact—in a four-cylinder 1930 Ford station wagon. Sparing us the dust and bumps, he takes us for a spin along Route 66, stopping to sample the fare at diners, supper clubs, and roadside stands and to describe how such venues came and went—even offering kitchen-tested recipes from historic eateries en route. Start-ups that became such American fast-food icons as McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Steak ’n Shake, and Taco Bell feature alongside mom-and-pop diners with flocks of chickens out back and sit-down restaurants with heirloom menus. Food-and-drink establishments from speakeasies to drive-ins share the right-of-way with other attractions, accommodations, and challenges, from the Whoopee Auto Coaster in Lyons, Illinois, to the piles of “chat” (mining waste) in the Tri-State District of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, to the perils of driving old automobiles over the Jericho Gap in the Texas Panhandle or Sitgreaves Pass in western Arizona. Describing options for the wealthy and the not-so-well-heeled, from hotel dining rooms to ice cream stands, Baker also notes the particular travails African Americans faced at every turn, traveling Route 66 across the decades of segregation, legal and illegal. So grab your hat and your wallet (you’ll probably need cash) and come along for an enlightening trip down America’s memory lane—a westward tour through the nation’s heartland and history, with all the trimmings, via Route 66.

This fascinating and revealing work examines the incredible power of junk food and fast food—how nostalgic we are about them, the influence of the companies that manufacture or sell them, and their alarming effect on our country's state of health. In the last half century, junk food and fast food have come to play an extremely important role in American economic, historical, cultural, and social life. Today, they have a major influence on what Americans eat—and how healthy we are (or aren't). Fast Food and Junk Food: An Encyclopedia of What We Love to Eat tells the intriguing, fun, and incredible stories behind the successes of these commercial food products and documents the numerous health-related, environmental, cultural, and politico-economic issues associated with them. With more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries, this two-volume encyclopedia contains enough listings to allow readers to research a wide range of fascinating topics. The author treats the massive amount of subject material within this reference title in a fair and balanced manner. A secondary focus of this encyclopedia is to chart the spread of some American fast food chains and commercially produced junk foods internationally.

Delve into the history of the American burger and discover various new cooking methods and recipes to bring regional flavors into your home. The Great American Burger Book is the first book to showcase a wide range of regional hamburger styles and cooking methods. Author and burger expert George Motz covers traditional grilling techniques as well as how to smoke, steam, poach, and deep-fry burgers based on signature recipes from around the country. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific regional burger, from the tortilla burger of New Mexico to the classic New York–style pub burger, and from the fried onion burger of Oklahoma to Hawaii’s Loco Moco. Motz provides expert instruction, tantalizing recipes, and vibrant color photography to help you create unique variations on America’s favorite dish in your own home. Recipes feature regional burgers from: California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. Praise for The Great American Burger Book “For true burger obsessives, there is no other cookbook.” ―Paula Forbes, Epicurious.com “What a way to travel through America! George Motz takes us one burger at a time. I’ll be locked on the Green Chile Cheeseburger page for my lesson from New Mexico.” ―Bobby Flay “In the land of the hamburger, George Motz is king, an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and passionate king who brings us not only the meat but heart and soul.”―Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

Acclaimed food writer and cultural historian John T. Edge continues his sumptuous feast of a series on iconic American foods-with recipes included. With Fried Chicken and Apple Pie, John T. Edge launched a series of short books that celebrate American culture through the lore of our favorite foods. Now, with Hamburgers & Fries, Edge continues his quest to discover the very essence of America through the dishes we love and cherish. Across the nation, from backyard barbecues to Big Macs, Edge follows the evolution of the burger from frugal repast to deluxe treat, but always with a celebration of American brawn and freedom. He revisits Depression-era days, when most hamburgers were extended with bread crumbs, and goes on to trace the arc of the American experience that leads us to the haute burgers of today, with foie gras at their centers and selling for $50 apiece. Best of all, the acclaimed food writer gives us fifteen recipes for the best burger we've ever sunk our teeth into.