We decided to take a road trip up to Meriden, CT to experience Ted's Steamed Cheeseburgers. We've seen it featured on various foodie shows like Man vs. Food, the Travel Channel -100 Best Things to Eat, Food Network and even saw little blurbs of write ups in the local paper. What the heck, we were finally getting some beautiful weather and nothing better than a road trip to find our next meal.
Ted's is a place that was established in 1959 and steamed cheeseburgers are a local specialty. The burgers and cheese are cooked in a metal tray that is placed into a metal steamer box. The meat cooks in its owned juices and the cheese gets all gooey. It comes out and is placed on a roll with your choice of condiments. Unlike the Soup Nazi, we were able to order any combination that we wanted. Matthew and I ordered our standard, lettuce, tomato with a slab of raw onion. Tony skipped the lettuce, tomato and raw onion and ordered it with sautéed onions and mushrooms.
Last summer, we took a ride up to Louis' Lunch in New Haven, CT, the birthplace of the original hamburger. Louis' has a more dictatorial style. You can only get it one way and that is absolutely no ketchup and just lettuce, tomato with onion and cheese. Nothing else is offered. You can't even get french fries with that. You will get potato salad. No negotiations.
We liked both and we'll probably have to do this road trip again....just to do another tasting so we can make up our minds.
