10 September 2008

Hamburger à la Angola

Sometimes after a day of work and dealing with Luanda traffic on the way home the last thing you want to do is cook a meal. There aren’t that many quick meal places in our neighborhood, but the one we do have sort of makes up for the lack of options. I’m talking about the burger stand right across the street that has become something of a household addiction, and for good reason. It’s time, dear blog readers, to tell the story of the Angolan hamburger.

For starters, there is actually a layer of “ham” on the hamburger. Right on top of the familiar ground beef patty. What could be more logical? Or endearing? Or tasty!

And that’s not all!

On top of the ham layer comes a fried egg, because you really want to get as much protein as you can in one bite. The egg is topped with whatever condiments you want, but if you want to impress the locals you need to ask for “gindungu” which is a type of spicy diced pepper topping. Otherwise ketchup will do (or mayo or cheese).

But wait, there’s more!

The over-the-top secret ingredient to the local version of the American classic is a layer of crumbled up potato chips underneath the ground beef patty. Whoa.

Did I mention the hamburger patty is cooked with beer? And you thought the story couldn’t get any better. Salvador cooked up a mean version tonight; at 350 kwanzas a pop ($4.67) I’m sure we’ll be back for many more…

Salvador in the process of creating a masterpiece:

1 comment:

Panda!!!! said...

That, my friend, sounds amazing.