Two of many bad burgers you can find in Taipei. Photographs by Liao Yusheng.
Blogger and photographer Liao Yusheng gathers his awful burger-eating experiences in Taipei in his Flickr set, "The Goddamned Awful Burgers of Taipei." "The terriburgers of Taipei needs to be as widely publicly flogged as possible," he said to me.
Don't be fooled by Yusheng's good photography—the burgers look better than they taste. Some quotes from his reviews:
[T]here was next to no charring on the patty, which not only resulted in an unappealing light brown, but more importantly meant that the stupid meatball-tasting patty had no chance at all in having any beefy essence brought out by proper searing. It had no more flavor than if they had just boiled the damn meatball patty.
I don't know what kind of crappy beef they use, but it is almost completely devoid of taste or aroma. It's a good thing they slather it with their bbq sauce because otherwise it would have been extremely bland.
This may possibly be the absolute worst burger I've had anywhere. [...] [T]his burger-like thing tastes like potato bread with a wad of warm black pepper inside.
If a good burger does exist in Taipei, please let Yusheng know before he subjects himself to any more terriburgers.
I think its asking a bit much to expect American style burgers outside of North America. Every country is going to tailor their burgers to their particular tastes and preferences. When I'm traveling outside of the U.S. and order a burger its usually out of curiosity. It's interesting to see how they've adopted it and made it their own. I'm not expecting charbroiled beefy goodness.
I haven't been to Mary's since I left in '94, but for about 10 years before that I ate there all the time. Maybe back then it was better, so I hope it's stayed the same and that maybe Liao's bad experience was just an anomaly.
I recently had a delicious burger in Mesa, AZ, which reminded me of a Mary's hamburger. Man, I miss my hometown.... :-[
@slightlychubby and subsequent visitors: I took down comments by a reader who vocalized his disagreement by use of name calling and physical threats towards Yusheng and other commenters. Disagreeing is fine, but that's not the way to do it and we obviously don't find it acceptable. If you can't dissagree in a civil manner, don't be surprised if we take your comment down.
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5 Comments:
I think its asking a bit much to expect American style burgers outside of North America. Every country is going to tailor their burgers to their particular tastes and preferences. When I'm traveling outside of the U.S. and order a burger its usually out of curiosity. It's interesting to see how they've adopted it and made it their own. I'm not expecting charbroiled beefy goodness.
robbiedigital at 10:13AM on 03/20/09
I haven't been to Mary's since I left in '94, but for about 10 years before that I ate there all the time. Maybe back then it was better, so I hope it's stayed the same and that maybe Liao's bad experience was just an anomaly.
I recently had a delicious burger in Mesa, AZ, which reminded me of a Mary's hamburger. Man, I miss my hometown.... :-[
mmmmurger at 7:26PM on 03/20/09
I dont think it is right to take comments down that do not agree with the article.
slightlychubby at 10:23AM on 03/23/09
@slightlychubby and subsequent visitors: I took down comments by a reader who vocalized his disagreement by use of name calling and physical threats towards Yusheng and other commenters. Disagreeing is fine, but that's not the way to do it and we obviously don't find it acceptable. If you can't dissagree in a civil manner, don't be surprised if we take your comment down.
Robyn Lee at 10:39AM on 03/23/09
'At a girl,Robyn!
annien at 3:42PM on 03/23/09