Food Critic

The other night I went out to dinner with my tandem partner, Andrea. The first time we met we made comparisons between the US and Italy. He spent last summer in Cambridge doing research at Harvard on something that was way to complicated for me to understand (He's probably the most down to earth aspiring brain surgeon I've ever met). For dinner, he wanted to take me to a restaurant where they serve (in his opinion) the best hamburger in all of Parma to see what I think. Now... During orientation in Parma, our program coordinator was talking about restaurants, food, etc. and she gave only one warning "All the food here is wonderful but don't eat the hamburgers". So naturally I expected the worst going into this meal. Andrea was friend's with the owner so he told him all about how I was an American and was here to try the hamburger. Sure enough, the owner comes out with two double cheeseburgers for us to eat...

Several critiques (Most of them Andrea warned me about before we ate)

1. The burgers were very thin. Unlike the US, none of the burgers are thick pieces of meat.
2. All burgers are cooked through. Not sure if it's a law but there is no option to get a burger cooked rare, medium rare, etc. As I explained to him they completely eliminate the juices of the burger.
3. On a positive note, the bread they served it on was far superior to your average hamburger bun.

Overall rating... I'd definitely put their burgers above a fast food chain, probably at the lower end of the spectrum of a Chili's, TGI Fridays type of restaurant with the difference being the burger itself is inferior but the condiments and bread brought the overall taste up.

I'll shutup and go back to eating Italian food now...