Junk Food

Junk food defined from the Wikipedia Encyclopedia is a common term used for any food that is perceived to be unhealthy and has low or poor nutritional value. Examples of Junk food are hamburgers, hot dogs, candy, pies and chocolate. Of course we can’t eat these foods all the time but we dip into a few now and then and we all have our favorites. Listed are some treats and their tasty tales.

The hamburger is ranked third among favorites and it was served at Delmonico’s Restaurant in New York in 1834 as the “Hamburg Steak”. As far as the originator of the hamburger or cheeseburger sandwich that’s another matter to contend with.

Frank and Charles Menches are often credited. The brothers lived in Ohio; they were traveling concessionaires, selling ground pork sandwiches at the county fair. One day in 1885, they went to a butcher for pork, but he ran out so they purchased ground beef and found their customers liked the product.

Charlie Nagreen claims to have served the first hamburger in 1885. He was 15 at the time. His hamburger was described as a flattened meatball and butter-fried ground beef stuck between slices of bread.

There are also claims by Fletcher “Old Dave” of Athens, Texas. It’s said he sold hamburgers at his lunch counter in the late 1880’s. He also sold his hamburgers at the1904 St. Louis World’s Fair where he attracted press attention. The birth of the hamburger is often associated with this event.

Lionel C. Sterberger is believed to have invented the cheeseburger in the 1920’s but tales differ to an earlier or later date. There is also a local restaurateur from Pasadena in the early 1920’s who tossed a slice of cheese on a burger bringing the cheeseburger to life.

Whatever the case, John E. Harmon, professor of geography at Central Connecticut State University points out that whoever plunked a burger on a bun, not between slices of bread is the real inventor but destined to remain unknown.

The hot dog had its modern beginnings in Germany. It estimated that Americans eat about Seven thousand million of these during a summer.