Ted's
Meriden, CT
I didn't believe it when Jim made his
suggestion for lunch last Friday. You
see, Jim has been my guide to lunch spots
near the office. Over the last
few months, we have hit every hot dog stand of
repute in the central valley
(including Sahadi's Hotties, the Liberty Cafe
(home of the bacon cheese-dog),
Saints, Blackie's, The Capitol Deli, and
Pudgies: Home of the Two Foot Long
Hotdog) as well as a number of local
sandwich shops and diner-type places...
and his recommendations have always been
on the mark. But when he told me
about Ted's, I thought he had completely lost
his mind.
Ted's, he explained, is known for Steamed
Cheeseburgers.
Steamed cheeseburgers? I've had
grilled, fried, baked, sauteed and
broiled cheeseburgers but never steamed. I
mean, wouldn't the burgers fall
apart when they're cooked? "No," Jim
assured me, "and they're
great". Ok, so I guess I would be having
steamed cheeseburgers for lunch.
Ted's is this little burger shack on Broad
Street in Meriden (off of 691
for any of you locals hankering to try one for
yourself). They have a simple
menu: Steamed Cheeseburgers. Sure,
they also offer steamed hamburgers
and double-cheese sandwiches, but their
specialty was the
aforementioned steamed
cheeseburgers. Since everyone else in the
joint
was ordering the steamed cheeseburgers, I
decided to put my preconcieved
notions behind me and ordered up a steamed
cheeseburger myself. The only
question asked was "do you want onions
on that" to which Jim advised
me to say yes.
It was at that time I saw the most interesting
cooking technique of my entire
life. On top of a boiling pot of water was one
foot by one foot steel box
with a door on the front. The chef at the
counter opened up the door revealing
four or five rows of little meat-loaf pans (about
1.5 inches by 3 inches).
He slid in a spatula and took two out. One was
filled with a rectangular
1/4 pound (I'm guessing) burger, while the
other was filled with melted American
cheese. The chef opened up a seeded kaiser
roll, dropped the pattie on, flattened
it out with the spatula, poured on the cheese,
threw on an onion and closed
the top. That was it: a steamed cheeseburger.
The server passed it to me. I took a sip of coke
and picked it up... it
smelled... well, it smelled fantastic. It
reminded me of the steamed meatballs
that you can sometimes get at a Chinese Dim
Sum restaurant. I bit into the
burger and was treated to one of the best
damn cheeseburgers of my entire
life.
Jim later explained to me that Ted's had been
there for a little over 40
years, and that aside from offering more than
coffee to drink, it had essentially
not changed since it first opened. The recipe
was simple: pure ground beef
(no seasoning) and american cheese... and
the place went through more than
a 40 pound block of cheese every week! It
seems that steamed cheeseburgers
are a local phenomenon, with six or seven
steamed burger joints still operating
on the strip between Meriden and
Southington. It's a cooking style that seems
to be indigenous to central Connecticut, and is
a local delicacy.
Steamed cheeseburgers. Who would have
guessed that they would be so damn
good?
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