I had a salchi-burger at Brisa Cocina Mexicana on San Felipe yesterday. What a lovely example of restaurant fare inspired by street food. The hamburger was topped with a thin slice of ham, jalapeño sausage slices, and melted cheese, and served on a toasted bun spread with refried beans and spicy mayo. Condiments included tomato, sliced onion, lettuce and avocado.
It was sort of a cross between a hamburguesa estilo Monterrey and one of those wacky Los Angeles combo burgers John T. Edge wrote about in the chapter titled "Going for Baroque in Los Angeles" in his book Hamburgers and Fries. Hamburgers are topped with chorizo, pastrami, chili con carne and much more in L.A. Edge described one "double puck" hockey burger topped with crossed "hot dog hockey sticks."
Among L.A.'s sausage-topped burgers is Pink's Poli-Bacon Chili Cheeseburger, a cheeseburger topped with grilled Polish sausage that can be ordered with an extra burger patty. Pink's hot dogs in Los Angeles started out as pushcart selling hot dogs and tamales. This year Pink's celebrated its 70th anniversary.
