I Hate Hamburgers

I love my steak. But I refrain from eating hamburgers. I can no longer hold one, or even cut one for my kids to share. If they want a burger, they count on their dad.

Once upon a time, and surprisingly, I had my first Mc Donald's in Hong Kong. I was 8 and had never been to the United States or Europe. Perhaps I had a cheeseburger or two by the pool at the Hilton Hotel in Dubai, when the plates arrived covered in the hotel restaurant steel tops and were such a treat. But unwrapping the small burger in the happy meal in Hong Kong was a milestone experience. We didn't have fast food in Dubai in the seventies and in the eighties, we first had Dairy Queen with its poor marketing.

I believe the best burger to date have been the ones we indulged in at Huston's in Washington D.C. It came with its artichoke dip and its chilli and was a whole restaurant experience. Nice days!

I always ate hamburgers. In Geneva, during Agassi tennis games on tv, I often took-away Mc Donald's burgers. When I studied in Boston, I upgraded my burgers to gourmet and used to frequent the Four Seasons to order a burger. The In and Out burger in California were the last delicious burgers I ate.

Something went wrong one night, two years ago, my husband ordered a very large burger from Johnny Rockets in Dubai. He left it for me to eat on the kitchen table and departed to some business obligation. I sat with LeMonde spread in front of me, and read as I bit into the gigantic burger. I finished it, distracted by my reading. I didn't sleep that night, incapable of digesting the heavy burger. I have never eaten a burger since.