Food Porn Friday: Game time = burger time

Scott Gold’s “bahn mi burger”

Editor’s note: With Super Bowl XLVIII just around the corner, we decided to take a look back at a previous Food Porn Friday column, in which Scott Gold detailed the “Vietnamese bahn mi burger” planned for his game day food lineup. Since last year’s Super Bowl, NOLA’s restaurant scene has experienced impressive growth — adding to its eateries more: burgers (Charcoal’s, District Donuts Sliders Brew), Vietnamese cuisine (Namese, Ba Chi Canteen), and Vietnamese burgers (Mint Modern, Pho Bistreaux ). Game changers in the Gold grub plan? Perhaps. What will you be noshing on for the Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl.

Ah, yes, that glorious Sunday when we get together with our friends and family, watch indefensibly expensive advertising and, my favorite part, eat fatty, salty, grilled and deep-fried foods as though the hoofbeats of the Apocalypse’s four horsemen could be heard just down Canal Street. Essentially: AMERICA.

Yes, I watch the game — I love football — and I also enjoy getting caught up in the ads. But for me, as for so many Americans, what I love most about game day is the food. Specifically, burgers. I would walk to the far corners of the Earth to find a great hamburger (the Earth has corners, right? Sorry, I napped a lot in geography class), and my travels have brought me all over this fine country of ours, and even a number of other countries that also have hamburgers. It’s mostly been worth it.

But I also love to cook burgers; it’s always a fun experiment, toying around with fat-to-lean ratios and spices in your patty recipe, employing various cheeses, meats, even a fried egg, in the glorious Australian tradition (though I’ll take a pass on that pineapple ring, thank you very much).

One of my favorites of late has been my “Vietnamese bahn mi burger”: a combination of chuck and sirloin, ground fresh, grilled and served with cucumber slices, pickled daikon and carrots, and cilantro on a toasted bun slathered with Shriracha mayonnaise.

Hence, for the Super Bowl, burgers it is again for me. And maybe some chicken wings. And Chili Cheese Fritos. Is that smoked sausage? Yeah, that, too. Hell, just shove it in all my face, already.

You know why? BECAUSE I’M AN AMERICAN, AND IT’S THE SUPER BOWL, DAMMIT. USA!!! USA!!!

What’s going on your game day grill?

Native New Orleans food writer Scott Gold, author of The Shameless Carnivore and a blog by the same name, has written for Gourmet, Edible Brooklyn, The Faster Times, and other publications. His Food Porn Friday column for NolaVie offers a weekly mouth-watering photo designed to start culinary conversations in the Big Easy. Catch his weekly food column for The Advocate here.