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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Oklahoma
Thin beef hamburger pressed on the griddle over a heap of very thinly sliced onion that caramelizes and clings to the meat. It was born in El Reno, on Route 66, during the years of the Great Depression, and it’s Oklahoma’s hamburger.
Traditional dish from Oklahoma
Also known as: Oklahoma onion burger, onion fried burger, onion burger
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Fried onion burger — Oklahoma, the United States
The fried onion burger is cooked on the griddle, in view of the customer. A ball of ground beef is placed on a mound of very thinly sliced onion and pressed with the spatula until it becomes a thin patty. The onion sticks to the meat, caramelizes and forms a dark, lacy edge. After being flipped, the burger gets cheese if the customer wants it, and goes onto the bun, which often warms above the meat in the onion steam.
The origin is told in El Reno, a town west of Oklahoma City, at the junction of Route 66 and the old Chisholm cattle trail. According to local tradition, during the years of the Great Depression a cook in town began mixing onion with the meat to make the hamburger stretch, because onion cost much less. The recipe stuck and spread across the state.
Several old onion burger diners are located near Route 66 in El Reno, and a historic marker recognizes the town as the birthplace of the dish. On the first Saturday in May the town holds the Fried Onion Burger Day Festival, with music and a giant burger prepared on the street.
Sides are the usual diner condiments: mustard, pickles and French fries.
Ground beef, white onion thinly sliced, salt, hamburger bun, sometimes American cheese, mustard and pickles.
By hand, with mustard and pickles, and French fries on the side.
All year round; in El Reno the burger festival is on the first Saturday in May.
Your questions
It’s a thin beef hamburger pressed on the griddle over very thinly sliced onion that caramelizes and clings to the meat.
According to tradition, in El Reno, Oklahoma, beside Route 66 during the years of the Great Depression.
The Fried Onion Burger Day Festival usually takes place on the first Saturday in May. Confirm the date before you go.
Flavors of the United States
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Pastrami sandwich: cured, seasoned and smoked beef, hot-sliced on rye bread with mustard. It’s the sandwich of New York’s Jewish delicatessens.
Buttery New Mexico cookie, traditionally made with lard, scented with anise and rolled in sugar and cinnamon. It has been the state cookie since 1989, the first official state cookie in the United States.
Hamburger topped with melted cheese and roasted, chopped New Mexico green chile. The state’s official tourism promotes a trail of restaurants that serve it, and several towns claim to have created it.
Hot rye bread sandwich with slices of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing, grilled on a griddle until the cheese melts. Omaha claims its creation at a city hotel in the 1920s.
Buttery pastry filled with marionberries, a dark blackberry developed in Oregon with a sweet-tart flavor. It is the state’s official pie and a Willamette Valley summer classic.
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Cold milk mixed with a sweet coffee syrup. It has been Rhode Island’s official drink since 1993.
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Carne asada burrito with French fries inside, cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole. San Diego’s tourism authority presents it as a creation of the city from the 1980s.
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Low St. Louis cake with a dense, buttery base and a moist, sticky topping of butter, sugar and eggs, dusted with powdered sugar. Local tradition attributes it to a baker’s mistake in the 1930s.
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Cuban sandwich made with Cuban bread, roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, pressed on a griddle. In Tampa it also includes salami. The City Council declared it the city’s signature sandwich in 2012.
Whiskey made in Tennessee with at least 51% corn, filtered through sugar maple charcoal before aging in new toasted oak barrels. A 2013 state law defines what may use that name.
Texas barbecue centers on smoked beef brisket as its main dish: seasoned only with salt and black pepper, cooked for many hours in wood smoke and sliced, served on butcher paper with bread, pickles and onion.
Sausage wrapped in bacon and grilled, served in a soft bolillo-style roll with beans, tomato, onion, mayonnaise, mustard and hot sauce. It came from the Mexican state of Sonora and became a symbol of Tucson.
Potato gratin made with grated or cubed potatoes, cheese, cream and butter, topped with cornflake crumbs or crunchy breadcrumbs. It’s the oven dish most associated with Utah, brought to meals after funerals and to all kinds of gatherings.
Soft-serve ice cream, creamy and dense, made with milk and maple syrup, served in a cone. It combines the two products most associated with Vermont — milk and maple syrup — and is the state’s summer sweet treat.
Thick stew of chicken, lima beans, corn and tomato, cooked for hours in iron pots. The Virginia General Assembly points to Brunswick County as the place of origin, in a long-standing dispute with Georgia.
Soft roll baked with slices or sticks of pepperoni inside, which release fat and season the dough. It originated among coal miners of Italian descent in West Virginia.
A sausage thicker and spicier than the hot dog, smoked and grilled, served in bread with chili, onion and mustard. Washington’s tourism agency calls it the city’s signature dish.
Oval puff pastry, made of very thin layers, filled with fruit, nuts, or cream and topped with icing. Brought by Danish immigrants, it is Wisconsin’s official dessert.
