Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I have been eating lemon ices from court st. pastry for 48 years and while it's nice for them to get the fame they deserve. It bothers me cause the window that I used to walk up to is now a five to ten minute wait. BTW Spumoni Gardens isn't called SPUMONI GARDENS for nothing. It's lemon ice is good but the Spumoni is among the best in the world.

Hey! Such great places you have looked! But you forgot Cange's Homemade Italian Ice in Staten Island! This tiny homemade italian ice stand cannot be overlook as simply a stand!
It has the most amazing flavors: creamlotta, spumoni, strawberry-banana swirl and an array of other flavors. They are located on: 118 Parkinson Ave., Staten Island, NY
You must visit!!

The best is Enrico's on Morris Park Ave. in the Bronx

Uncle Louie G's other options are big winners. Don't overlook the Cannoli!

I suspect Eroca (who commented above) means Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx -- there isn't a Morris Plains Boulevard in the borough. Maybe you mean Enrico's? There's certainly some fine Italian Ice to be had in the borough, including the ice at DeLillo Pastry Shop on East 187th Street in the Belmont neighborhood (commonly referred to as the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx). Great stuff.

Sigh. All crust, no chew. Helpfully, the greedy drunks next to us offered to polish them off :).

I prefer my Hamburger med to Med well but my steak rare to med rare, the mushyness of the burger is distasteful, where as the butteryness of the steak is delightful.

Unless you know your food source, safety calls for medium to medium well.

And I love medium rare....... *sad sniffles*

As a kid, my dad and I ate first at BBQ's because we loved our burgers bloody rare. But you could DO THAT at the time (sigh).

At present, I don't cook a burger past medium. Cooked through but still juicy. Make burgers large and flat for even cooking but they won't shrink into nothing. At least 8 oz. of beef.

Turkey burgers - a smidge past medium. Cooked through but still juicy - can't cook something to death if my life depended on it.

The sad truth is that unless you're grinding your own meat, it's not advisable to cook a burger rare or medium rare. Insert an instant read thermometer in the side of the burger till you reach the center of the patty and when it reads 160, it's done.

Don't blame Sysco. Did you ever think that more people get sick from Commercial burgers because it is publicized and you hear about it? How may of these illnesses are because of cross contamination and poorly trained kitchen help. I know several people who went to very reputable restaurants and were extremely ill from Carpaccio, and steak tartare, no one knew because they didn't pursue the problem with the board of health. They got a staph intoxication poisoning so the symptoms cleared in a day.

The real issue with E coli and Listeria is the fact that meat plants are too clean. Thirty years ago, fresh meat spoiled in a week. This was due to the fact that the sanitation standards were lower than then now. Current meat plants are like clean rooms in a hospital, you can't get in in street clothes, your shoes go through sanitizing baths before you can enter, and work surfaces are sanitized with antibacterial solutions. there is very little harmless spoilage bacteria available, so the meat is vacuum packaged, heavily chilled and gets a minimum 28 days shelf life. The downside is there is no competition should you have a single cell of E coli or listeria bacteria, the meat that would have been harmless to eat, can become dangerous, regardless of whether it comes from a big processor or small. That is why USDA standards require preventative treatments and lot testing to enable recalls if needed.

Where and how it is raised is irrelevant, it goes to a processor for slaughter and that is the make or break part. There is one step that makes the real difference, when the bung is cut and sealed, if this is done poorly or improperly, then you have the fecal material splashed onto the carcass, this mistake can happen in any plant, regardless of size and line speed.

Most of the recalls on beef are preventative, there may be a problem very few result in public health problems. the huge ones where 30 million pounds were recalled stemmed from one lot needing to be recalled, and then the government requiring the following products made in the plant to be recalled because the plants couldn't confirm, that meat from the recalled lot wasn't reworked into following lots of ground meat or patties.

Oh wow - the "how should a burger really be cooked" debate. That's like asking who's kid is cuter - mine or yours. I think it all comes down to preference and what goes on the burger. The bun observation is spot on, though. It can really ruin a good burger, no matter how cooked or what's on top of the paddie. Personally, how I have it cooked all depends on where I'm eating. Some places cook a mean well-done burger while others get the medium-rare to a perfection. Now, if you asked how a steak should be cooked, I'd argue medium-rare no matter where you go.

It may be the "gourmet" way to go, but no thank you on the raw hamburger meat! If it's even a little pink I send it back. I've had food poisoning from under cooked hamburger meat and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!

Similar to what's been said above, I like my steaks raw or rare (cold in the center), but my burgers medium -- slightly pink on the inside.

I once had a burger that was seared on the outside and cold in the center at a regional chain restaurant similar to TGI Friday's but tack on ~$5-7/plate. I ordered their burger a couple of times previously w/o this rare of a burger.

I couldn't return it because I was with my father. He HATES people who make a fuss so I painfully ate the dark red, cold, mushy raw meat.

Since that experience, I will never purposefully order a rare burger.

I typically don't have a problem with the bun disintegrating because halfway through my burger, I usually toss the buns and eat the filling only. I may eat the buns if they taste good and/or fresh-baked.