What Makes a Good Burger?

Recently on our Teachers Federal Credit Union Facebook page (Like us https://www.facebook.com/TeachersFCU! We're excellent Facebook friends!), we posed this question to our membership- Where can you get the best burgers on Long Island?

The answers provided stretched from Montauk to Massapequa, Port Jefferson to Patchogue- and the types of places varied too... fast food joints to fancy artisan burger shops. The answers can give anybody a very busy few weeks hunting down all of the places suggested. It made us think...what makes a burger stand out from the crowd?

A good burger is the summation of its parts. A good variant of ground beef is definitely the place to start. Long Island is flush with supermarkets, but purists visit their local butchers in the downtown areas. Do you go with the 80/20 mix, 90/10? That's up to you- but fresh ground beef that is hand-made into patties is the way to go.

From there, the sky is limit- we have an endless supply of bun options, cheeses and toppings. Long Island’s Farmers Markets are stocked with an endless array of locally grown options to put on top your burger (As you may have heard, TFCU hosts a market every Thursday at 102 Motor Parkway, our Hauppauge headquarters, from 7:30am to 2 pm http://hauppauge.patch.com/groups/thoughts-from-tfcu/p/food-deserts-and-the-importance-of-farmers-markets ). Did you ever try a burger with Gouda and bacon? How about fried onions and tangy BBQ sauce? Why not stuff a big ball of Feta cheese in the middle before you cook it and see what happens?

While some places have fancy mixed burgers with brie and apples, most tend to stick with the basics- a grilled burger with a sprinkle of salt and dash of pepper, a toasted bun, and if you want to up the ante...a slice of American Cheese. Condiment of choice? Ketchup. In our very informal poll, it seems that the classic variants were the most recommended.  Sometimes, if something  isn’t broken, don’t bother fixing it.

Where do you get the best burgers on Long Island?

PS- Everybody on Long Island deserves the right to make a great meal- burgers included. Be sure to support your local Food Pantries and Food Banks! Visit www.LIcares.org for ways you can help fight hunger on Long Island!