A burger a day in May keeps the craving at bay

Ten years ago this month, I celebrated National Hamburger Month by eating a hamburger every day for 31 days and writing about it in your Favorite Daily Newspaper.

Well, it’s May and that means it’s National Hamburger Month again. I’m not tempted to try to relive that gastronomic experience (ever), but I do plan to visit several favorite burger spots during the month.

In fact, my wife and I started the month Monday by enjoying a burger at the Dixie Little League ballpark, which has become something of an annual ritual for us.

Before the week was out, we picked up burgers at Larry’s on North Treadaway – still, no doubt, the best burger bargain in town – and stopped in at the cafeteria at Hendrick Medical Cener, where they turn out a mighty fine burger.

(We’re always a little reluctant to eat at the hospital because we’re afraid we’ll run into someone we know and they’ll ask who we’re visiting – a relative or a friend? – and we’ll have to admit that, no, we’re just there for a burger. Kinda weird.)

Abilene is blessed with an abundance of good burger places, old and new.

We tend to favor the old ones such as Gloria’s, and Rick and Carolyn’s and Bill’s, but several newer ones rank up there as well – Grump’s, for example, and Mooyah are two that we like. Other notable newbies – well, maybe not all that new now – include Heff’s, Lucy’s, Blue Sky, Red Robin, RockinRollerz, Mr. Burger and Twisted Root.

For a true sit-down gourmet burger dining experience, there’s Perini’s.

Or The Beehive.

Or Cypress Street Station.

Or Copper Creek.

Or you might try the burger at Catfish Corner, Joe Allen’s, The Dixie Pig, The Taphouse, Lytle Land and Cattle, Galveston Seafood Company or, for sure, Chelsea Street.

But, hey, I’ll take a double meat green chile Whataburger any day, and if I’m in a hurry I can drive through McDonald’s, order a couple of McDoubles, and quench my burger craving. I like the smoky flavor of the Whopper at Burger King, and Sonic makes a pretty good cheeseburger, too.

Of course, it’s hard to beat burgers grilled in the backyard, and I plan to enjoy that treat more than once this month -- and every warm month after that. I cook them almost slider size and top them with a slice of tomato and red onion on a toasted bun. My wife likes a little Perini BBQ sauce on hers and nothing else.

If you’re counting, that brings us to 31 burgers, but I have to add one more – from out of town, in my opinion the best hamburger in the world -- Kincaid’s in Fort Worth.

I’ve been eating burgers there for nearly 50 years and even wrote a whole book about it. Before the month is out, I plan to be there.

Whatever your flavor, whatever your favorite, however you take your burger, I hope you enjoy one or more – but probably not 31 – during National Hamburger Month.

Glenn Dromgoole is an author and a former editor of the Abilene Reporter-News. He and his wife Carol operate Texas Star Trading Company in downtown Abilene.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: A burger a day in May keeps the craving at bay