Burgers

Summer screams for burgers. The plate a chef puts together in reply to that most primal of bellows often says more about their priorities and values than anything else on the menu.

These days, the burger, by definition, eludes definition. It slops juicily across usually rigorous borders of formality, price, portion size and ingredients. Burgers can be griddled, steamed, baked, fried, made from lentils and quinoa, Kobe beef from Japan, ground-up lamb from the field over yonder, yet still be totally authentic. No matter what it’s made of, the burger remains an essential hallmark of American cuisine: democratic, catholic, esoteric, all-inclusive.

There has, arguably, never been a better time to eat burgers in America than right now, as meat and veggie burgers settle in as sepa- rate, but equally important, genres in the farm-to-table renaissance. Even home cooks have strong opinions about the best way to build a classic beef burger: the ratio of fat-to-lean meat, which cuts of meat to grind up, the size of grind necessary for superior texture, cooking method, what sort of bun suits, appropriate condiments. Basic burger joints and home cookouts are ubiquitous. So with fluency in the classic burger on the rise, it’s especially delicious to see two Capital District outposts offer alternative spins on the burger, both of which have become favorites in Edible’s ever-humming burger test kitchen.

Slidin’ Dirty, a food-truck-turned-restaurant in Troy, serves a sea- sonal selection of burger sliders; this one has a permanent slot on the menu. Four Seasons Natural Food in Saratoga Springs, a natural foods grocery store and café, offers their unusually flavorful take on the veg- gie burger substantial enough to stand up to a knife and fork. It’s not even in the same category as the frozen veggie burgers so widely avail- able in stores and on menus elsewhere.